S1: Hey there , San Diego , it's time for KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria delivered his annual state of the city speech on Thursday. What we learned about the city's priorities as budget challenges remain.
S2: We are building , we are leading , and we are a city in transformation.
S1: What the mayor had to say about the city's financial picture , its effort to add more housing and more. Then a former Navy sailor is sentenced for selling military secrets to China in San Diego this week. Plus , we check in on San Diego sports and get the latest news on San Diego soccer. That's ahead on KPBS roundtable. A city in transformation. That's what Mayor Todd Gloria called San Diego in his sixth state of the city speech on Thursday. The mayor also taught it , touted his progress on what he says the city has made on issues like homelessness , housing and public safety. But he also warned more financial challenges for the city lie ahead. I'm joined now by a pair of reporters who covered the speech. Mariana martinez Barba is a reporter with Voice of San Diego , where she covers City Hall. And Andrew Bowen is here. He's the Metro reporter here at KPBS. I want to welcome you both to roundtable and just kick things off. Just in a word or two , you know , how would you characterize the speech ? Andrew ? Uh.
S3: Oh , gosh. One word or two. You can. It was , I would say , standard , uh , not a whole lot that surprised me. Uh , but , you know , um , about what I expected , I guess.
S1: And you've covered a lot of these. Mariana , this was your first state. So same question to you.
S4: That's correct. So I've been out voice for about six months now , and I came to the role as well coming out of the last budget cycle. So those really consequential votes to determine what the budget would look like. I actually highlighted a quote that the mayor said in his speech. It's longer than 2 or 3 words. Go for it. He said , the truth is that we cannot build a stronger San Diego on a fragile foundation , and that take away a fragile foundation really stood out to me because I've been following the budget deficit so closely. Again , a lot of these really consequential votes in council , and there does seem to be a fragile foundation. So I would agree with Andrew as well. Like I watched the 2025 address in preparation for yesterday was very similar and a lot of the things that he said. But I can see that there's still a lot of challenges ahead for the city.
S1: So , Andrew , yeah , referencing the state of the state of the city speech last year , I think austerity was kind of the name of the game. Then , you know , what can you tell us about the possibility of more cuts or the financial picture in what you took from the speech this year ? Yeah.
S3: You know , I think the , the , the that phrase Fragile Foundation stood out to me as well. And it's something that I think not a lot of people really understand or fully grasp just how bad a financial situation the city is in and how long this has been building. A lot of it has to do with our infrastructure and just how , you know , you have to build and fully reconstruct a road about every 50 years. So if you think back 50 years ago , what the city , what the city's governance was like , it was a very sort of like low tax Republican dominated. You know , the argument was we can , uh , you know , provide great quality services and this sort of low density , suburban style lifestyle. And we can do it , you know , better than San Francisco and LA because we're just better at doing things. And I think we've reached the point now where that has been proven to be a fallacy. There really isn't anything special about San Diego that that makes it , you know , especially adept at providing high quality services for a better price than any other big city. You know , the city has to compete on the same labor markets that all the other cities do when trying to attract the engineers and the electricians and all of the people who keep all of that infrastructure running. And so , you know , I think that the mayor is he really wants the public to understand what the fiscal situation is and and to understand that it has been building for many years and decades , even. And , you know , if when you know those things , I think he looks like less of the culprit when it comes to , you know , seeing the prices rise or , you know , proposals for higher taxes or the new parking fees of Balboa Park , those things are you're less likely to blame , Todd Gloria as an individual when you understand the wider context , I think. Interesting.
S1: Interesting. Yeah. I mean , I think kind of moving on to housing , this is like another , you know , big part of his speech. Um , you know , and he kind of made reference to San Diego as being a leading city in some of these housing reforms compared to other cities in the states , like in the state.
S3: And , you know , some of that is thanks to programs and policies that were passed by his predecessor , but some of which he also voted for as a city council member , and also continuing the sort of trend of updating community plans , rezoning neighborhoods for higher density. Um , you know , that's something that he has continued and , and , you know , things around the margins , I would say , I don't know if Todd Gloria quite has his signature housing policy , but overall I would say , you know , his his boasting of , you know , building more homes and and increasing home building and everything I think are are real. That's that's a real thing that the city of San Diego can be proud of.
S1: And in our conversations that we've had on this show , Andrew , often it turns to just , you know , historically how the single family home has dominated the the housing picture in San Diego. And it's something he touched on in his speech. Here's a little bit what he had to say.
S2: For some , homeownership is seen to exist only as a single family home , when for many it can look like so much more. It can be row homes , townhomes , condos , homes that fit families and budgets and fit into existing neighborhoods. That's why this past year , I introduced my Neighborhood Homes for All of Us initiative , designed to create more kinds of housing for working in middle class San Diegans.
S1:
S3: He plans on doing workshops and having working groups and public forums and things like that to figure out how do we build more , smaller scale homeownership opportunities ? Things like you mentioned row homes or townhomes in single family neighborhoods. How do they , you know , how can we make sure they fit in with the character of the neighborhood ? And and so , you know , that he hopes to have something put together by the end of this year. And , you know , maybe at the next city state of the city address will be hearing him talking about how proud he is of that accomplishment. But we really don't know what that program is going to look like. And so , you know , but it very well could be his. You know , when we look back on his two terms in office , you know , the thing that is the signature Todd Gloria housing policy. Well , we'll have to see.
S1: Mariana , I want to bring you in here to talk about another signature issue that he talked about is homelessness. What did he have to say on that issue ? What stood out to you ? Yeah.
S4: So he said that the Regional Task Force on Homelessness reported a nearly 14% reduction in unsheltered homelessness in the city of San Diego. So that was a data point that he really wanted to drive home and really share with folks in the audience that we're seeing progress on that front. However , since I've come to San Diego and started to cover homelessness , there were a couple things that stood out to me where we're not getting the full picture of what has been going on because he really touted , for example , an agreement he came to with Caltrans that would allow city workers to go onto state territory freeway areas where a lot of unhoused folks are camping. Um , this is something that Senator Katherine Blake Speer spearheaded and she was also in the audience. And he talked about , you know , all the progress that they had made , that they had cleaned up this amount of trash they had connected , I want to say , over 90 folks to services. However , a lot of the reporting I've been doing on the ground and speaking to people that are living on freeways have really described to me they don't have anywhere to go. Now , the city of San Diego does have a hot team , the Homelessness Outreach Task Force , that is going out there trying to connect them with services. But it's really about having a shelter bed available. And something I was taking a look at as well was his state of the city address last year , where he was talking about doubling shelter options. However , there were some pretty significant closures this year of some shelter options. Uh , one of those being Golden Hell , which is now going to be converted into something.
S1: Came up in this speech.
S4: Right ? Yeah. Which we'll get into. Um , and there was the opening of places like barracks , which is a safe parking lot. So one thing I would really want to follow up on is that bed availability. How does it really line up with that promise and that statement that he had made last year ? Um , but with this freeway ban in particular , I've seen that it's really just been shuffling people around. And again , the city is doing what they can to connect them to services. But if there is not a bed available , they have nowhere to go. Um , and I was also taking a look at some of the recent stats from the Housing Commission , and both for October and November , they had , you know , somewhere around over 2000 requests for shelter , and only somewhere between 7 to 8% of those referrals were placed into shelters. So while it has the value in making our freeways look clean and again , clearing up trash and showing San Diegans the visual reduction of homelessness. I'm really interested to see how he will tackle the goal of getting people housed and getting people into shelters , or connecting them with housing options. So that was one of the takeaways that I had with covering homelessness so far in my time here , and with some of the statements that he had to make during his speech.
S1: Andrew Mariana mentioned Golden Hall , and that did come up in this speech and talk more about the city's plan for using city land for housing projects. Yeah.
S3: Yeah. So a couple things in the background that have been happening. One of them is an initiative by the Probus Foundation to reimagine the civic core of San Diego. So this is a couple blocks in the center of downtown that includes the Civic Center. The city administration building is technically what it's called the Civic Theater. So all these city owned properties , um , a lot of them are pretty old and falling apart and a lot of deferred maintenance needs. And so Golden Hall is this large event space they've had , you know , big swearing ins of for for new citizens. They as Mario mentioned , it was a temporary homeless shelter. And so , Gloria , I would say probably the only bit of news that that we got from the speech was something that we didn't know before. Is he plans to collaborate with the San Diego Community College District to redevelop Golden Hall , and San Diego Community College District has money to build affordable housing. There was a ballot measure a couple of years ago that allowed , you know , it was an increase to property taxes that allows the district to borrow money to build affordable housing. And so they have all of these funds available. Funds is what the city doesn't have , but the city does have land. And so , you know , this could be a really interesting collaboration between these two public agencies to see , you know , what can what can a new development there look like , how much housing can it provide , at what affordable affordability levels ? What is the city getting out of it ? Is it getting revenue from the district , or is it just getting the housing ? And can there be a sort of catalyst effect where this is the first property that gets redeveloped and that's followed ? You know , it's followed by a new city hall and other buildings in this area that that might also , you know , have the potential to be redeveloped.
S1: So some new news there from that speech , right ? Yeah. Um , you know , one thing you touched on , you started kind of saying it was like a standard speech. It was pretty familiar to you , but I wanted to to get your take. One thing that that jumped out to me was , you know , during the speech , there were several interruptions , you know , in , in , in the , in City Hall there. I don't know how common that was , but it did kind of jump out to to people watching and to listening. I think I'm just curious what you take from those disruptions and what jumped out to you about that. I mean , was that kind of par for the course in today's , you know , kind of political climate we're in ? Yeah.
S3: So legally speaking , the state of the city address is a city council meeting because it has all the city council members in the same room , and that means that the public has to be allowed to attend and to give comments. So they did have public comment two hours before the speech started. And , uh , you know , the , um , the venue of , of City Hall is much smaller than where the speech used to take place at the Balboa Theatre. So in some ways it makes it , um , you know , easier to control the number of people and who is allowed inside. Uh , it is not the first time that I've seen a heckler at a state of the city address have to be removed from the building. That has happened many times before. I don't recall five in the past. And there were five. Uh , so so that is a little bit different , I guess , in terms of scale. And I think that , you know , we there's there's not really an opportunity in a situation like this to hear , you know , to have a substantive discussion about what it is these hecklers are asking for or what they're unhappy with. But I do think that , um , you know , in the background , there is a lot of dissatisfaction with Gloria's , uh , tenure in governance from the left. Uh , Gloria called himself a progressive at one point. I think it would probably still call himself a progressive. But a lot of people on the left , you know , had high hopes for him as mayor that he would , you know , do something about police accountability. Uh , we just saw a deadly shooting of a teenager and settled for the largest amount of money ever that we've seen in a police killing of a civilian. Uh , we , you know , haven't seen a lot from Gloria around climate action or sustainable transportation. He's been largely absent from Sandag , which is the countywide government agency that plans and builds public transportation. He hasn't been , you know , present at the at the Metropolitan Transit System Board where they're dealing with their own deficit and , you know , talking about fare increases and service cuts. So I do think that , well , you know , hecklers aren't necessarily a news story. There is something happening here where a lot of progressives are really unhappy with the mayor. And because , you know , they had high hopes for him and and they feel that he hasn't really delivered on on what he had promised as a candidate. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. Marianna , I'm curious , you know , what have you noticed about the reaction to his speech so far ? Yeah.
S4: So a lot of what I observed and actually reported on this morning is the relationship between the mayor and the city council as well , and really seeing that tension point play out during the state of the city address.
S1: And it should be noted. They're both they're all Democrat.
S4: They're all Democrats.
S1: Everybody we're talking. Right.
S4: Right. And that was one observation I've had since I started in this role , that they haven't been able to get on the same page for. Again , a lot of consequential votes like Balboa Park , paid parking , like the trash fee and , you know , sort of having this large miscommunication between the council members and the mayor. But yesterday , we had noticed the folks at voice that the front row of the council chambers was empty , and it remained empty. The entire state of the city address. And we wondered why that was. And as it turns out , I spoke with Council Member Vivian Moreno on the phone on the record , and she had told me that they learned that there was only 15 seats reserved for the public , and she really felt that the public needed to be there. They needed to participate. Uh , so she decided to sit up on the dais because she said , this is a council meeting. I should be in my seat in. The other council members followed suit. And they did that to allow for more public to come in , but then more public was not allowed into the meeting. Um , so a movement like that , I think a dynamic like that really speaks to the relationship between the council members and the in the mayor. And the one question I have is where do we go from here ? Or how will they get on the same page about big decisions ? Because I've been following the budget deficit really closely this past year. And to see , for example , you know , these new revenue streams that they're implementing or wanting to implement , such as Balboa Park , paid parking , it took them quite some time to vote on that. There were adjustments with rates. Some council members wanted one thing while the mayor wanted another. And now we're looking at a budget shortfall of $8.8 million. Uh , so these dynamics are affecting policy and it's affecting San Diegans. So I'm curious to see how those things will continue to play out. But that was an observation that I made yesterday.
S3: That's that's such interesting news about the council members sitting in their seats , because I did actually overhear a member of the mayor's press team approach some TV reporters , and we were standing or sitting on the floor in the back , you know , no seats for us , which is fine. But um , he he asked , uh , you know , this press representative asked. Some of the reporters , would you like to sit in the front row ? And they all said , no thanks. And so , you know , those were empty seats , I guess. And that could have been occupied by somebody. But if they had been occupied by the first people waiting to get into the room , I'm pretty sure that they would have been hecklers and that there would have been more disruptions to the speech. So from that perspective , I guess I can understand that the mayor wanted to kind of just have the opportunity to say his piece without being interrupted.
S1: You know , we've talked a lot about what was in the speech and your reaction to it. We have just a little over a minute here , but I wanted to get each of your thoughts.
S3: Also , the water rates , you know , which he asked for four years of rate increases. The council approved two and nothing has changed. And they're probably going to have to vote for those extra two years of of water rate increases , you know , before too long. And , you know , he spoke about these things in generalities , but not really offering a full throated defense that , you know , this is a good policy. This is going to better manage our parking supply in Balboa Park. And it's , you know , for the first time ever , Balboa Park has a dedicated revenue source. I think that's something that , you know , if you're concerned about Balboa Park and its maintenance needs , you know , he could be proud of that if he wanted to. But it's also a very politically toxic issue. So I think it's , you know , probably why he didn't bring it up.
S1: Mariana briefly. Yeah.
S4: Yeah. Andrew. Again , generalities. I also drew that same conclusion. And again , there was no mention of any new revenue source ideas. I thought that was a big thing because that was something that he really wanted to drill down on. In his last state of the city address is finding ways to get creative and right size the ship. I didn't hear any new ideas , and I've been speaking with council members , and no one has offered me any idea of how they're going to be generating revenue going into this year. So that's something I'm going to be following.
S1: More to follow there. We're going to have to leave it there for now. I've been speaking with Marianna martinez. Barbara. She covers City Hall for Voice of San Diego , along with KPBS Metro reporter Andrew Bowen. Thanks to you both.
S3: Thank you Andrew.
S4: Thank you.
S1: When we come back , a former Navy sailor is sentenced for espionage in San Diego. You're listening to KPBS roundtable. Welcome back to KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken , a former San Diego sailor has been convicted for espionage after selling secrets to China. A federal judge sentenced Jin Chow Wei to nearly 17 years in prison. It's a story. Getting national headlines in our very own. Andrew Dyer has been covering it right here in the KPBS newsroom. And Andrew joins me now. He covers military and veterans affairs for us here at KPBS. Hey , Andrew. Hello.
S5: It's a big amphibious , uh , similar to the bottom Richard , that burned down a few years ago. And he worked in the main space. He was , you know , in the pit , you know , and he had access to the machinery in the in the core of the ship. Um , he had a secret level security clearance , which a lot of sailors have , actually. But , um , you know , he had access to some sensitive information.
S1:
S5: Uh , and he said he could provide it , and , uh , he even , uh , text messages , uh , in court , you know , he texted his friend saying , you know , this is obviously espionage.
S1: He knew what it was. Yeah.
S5: Yeah.
S1:
S5: Uh , so there's different levels of classification in the military. You know , you have top secret compartmentalized , which you have to really high clearance to get. You have top secret. You have secret. These are higher levels of classification. And this is not what he shared. It was not even classified material. It was sensitive military information. But it wasn't like it was. These weren't necessarily , uh , technically national security secrets , but they were sensitive. And , um , he sold these thousands of pages of technical pubs to , to China and , um , you know , he offered advice to the agents of potential ways , weak spots on the ship. And he gave them a roster of the ship's crew. And where on the ship they all slept.
S1: So there was some kind of valuable information , though it may not have been , you know , high level national security is kind of what you're saying here.
S5: Right ? And there's something there because , you know , China is building up its navy right now. And one thing that we have that China doesn't have is , you know , decades and decades of institutional knowledge and doctrine. So like our Navy , the way our Navy operates is trial and error over , over decades of operating around the globe. Um , we know how to run an amphibious ship. We know how to run subs. We know how to run operations. We know how to organize. Like , we just know all of this stuff that maybe doesn't. You can't just buy a ship and effectively operate it. You have to train your officers. You have to train your crew. So , um , there's a lot of that sort of elements that , um , China can learn from us by the type of material that he turned over.
S1:
S5: Uh , he was under surveillance , so maybe. And his defense attorneys brought this up at sentencing. Like , you know , if this was such a big security threat , You know , why did they wait so long to arrest him ? They watched him and gathered evidence and all that. Um , but , yeah , he was , um , they , you know , surveilled him , followed him , and , uh , whenever they were ready to make their arrest. They they got him.
S1:
S6: 12,800.
S5: 12,800. Some dollars , um , almost $13,000 , but not quite.
S1: And then , you know , do we have any. I don't know.
S5: You know , the judge and the attorneys. This was a big question in the trial as well. You know his motivations. You know , his defense attorneys. He got up there and said , you know , he has no love of , you know , Communist China or hatred or animus toward the United States. So this , uh , way he , He was , you know , born in China. Um , his father wasn't in the picture. His mother , uh , early on went to work in Africa. He was raised by his grandparents for a little while , and he ended up in , like , a boarding school. He came to the States for high school and joined the Navy right out of high school. And he did very well in high school. According to the , uh , the attorneys. Um , and he was a good sailor. Had really high , um , evaluation scores. He was , uh , you know , on the surface , you know , everything you would want. But , um , yeah. So it was it was kind of a mystery to to all involved , like why he would do this and for such a little amount of , of payoff. And one thing that , um , his attorneys kind of put out there was like , he just wanted to feel valuable and special , and he felt like his talents and intellect and abilities were not being utilized in the best way in the Navy. And here was an outside agent , you know , telling him you're important , you're valuable. You're doing something , you know , important for for me. So , um , that was their kind of hypothesis , just kind of approval , which , you know , if you've for people who've been in the military , um , it can feel like that when you are a low ranking person and you feel like you are intelligent and you have more to offer than just cleaning toilets and mopping the floor , um , you might feel like your talents are being wasted. Um , there were times that I certainly did. I never sold any , uh , publications to anybody , but , uh , I do , I can't empathize. Yeah.
S1: I mean , are there other cases like this that you can point to in recent years or. Sure.
S5: Sure. So , um , this , uh , Chinese intelligent agent that was handling way he had another sailor in his pocket. Um , somebody up in , uh , in the , uh , oh Point Mugu , uh , naval naval base up there. Um , He was arrested on the same day as we actually , and they announced their arrest in like , the same kind of press release. Um , he was also a second class petty officer , Wenchang Zhao. Um , another Chinese national. So , uh , he was giving them information , but not on the level as as way. So , um , there was that one. Now , the Justice Department , you know , they said this was the first , like , espionage case to to be prosecuted down here. It is pretty rare. Now , the Navy also prosecuted a one of their a chief petty officer named Bryce Pettine. Um , he was stationed in Japan. And when he was over there , he was also contacted by some nebulous foreign agent. They never said who , but , um , he was also selling classified information. Um , and his trial was in San Diego , and we covered that at the time , but , um , yeah , he was another one. So you know they are watching and they're looking out for it. But it is , you know , exceedingly rare. And I think that's I think they'd like to keep it that way. And that's why you see some of these longer sentences. Mhm.
S1: Mhm. Interesting. I mean so yeah. Talk to me what happens to away from here.
S5: So he's been in custody for for more than two years now. Um he was sentenced to to 200 months which works out to 16 years and eight months. So he subtract a couple of years. You know , he's looking at , you know , another 14 years in a federal prison. He's also a naturalized U.S. citizen. So , um , it's possible that , um , they could try to strip him of his citizenship and naturalize him. Now , that's a completely different legal process than than the criminal trial. So that wasn't really a something to be litigated in court. When I when I was there. But , I mean , it was something that came up and it's something of a possibility that he could be after serving his sentence , deported back to China.
S1: I've been speaking with Andrew Dyer. He covers military and veterans affairs for KPBS. Andrew , thanks so much as always.
S5: Hey , thanks for having me.
S1: Coming up , we got an update on some San Diego sports as San Diego FC make some moves before its next season kicks off. Round tables back after the break. You're listening to KPBS roundtable , I'm Andrew Bracken. We turn now from city politics and espionage to sports. The landscape of San Diego sports has changed a lot in recent years. One recent example of that is the addition of San Diego FC to the scene. San Diego's Major League Soccer team had a historic first season nearly reaching the league championship. Well , its short off season is actually quickly nearing its end in a little over two weeks. San Diego FC will return to the field , and we wanted to check in on what's changed with the team. I'm joined now by Ryan Finley. He's a sports editor with the San Diego Union-Tribune. Hey , Ryan , welcome back to roundtable.
S7: Hi , Andrew. So great to be here. Great to talk to you.
S1: Great to have you back. So remind us what the story of San Diego FC's first season was.
S7: Sure it was marked by sort of reasonable expectations that were then completely blown out of the water. This was a team that came together about a month before its first ever match , brought players from all over the world together to play for a coach in Mikey Vargas , who , you know , was an assistant with the US men's National team. Um , I think that the expectations reasonably heading into the season were , you know , be competitive and win over some new fans. And they blew all of that completely out of the water thanks to the play of Anders Dreier , who , um , he's , uh , from Denmark , came to San Diego FC from Europe. And right away , um , sort of introduced himself as their go to player. He scored the first two goals in club history in an upset of the LA Galaxy in their season opener , and went on to become a finalist for Major League Soccer's MVP award , an award that went to a guy by the name of Lionel Messi. The outside of Messi ? Uh , no player meant more to his team last year than Andrés Dryer did. And , uh , really sort of introduced himself as a San Diego's newest sports superstar.
S1: That's some pretty esteemed company to be associated with Lionel Messi. Um. Tell us more. You know , there was some news with Anders Dreyer this week , right ? Yes.
S7: There was. And that's sort of where we're at as we head into the 2026 season. You know , San Diego FC made the major league , Major League Soccer's Western Conference final in their first year. Um , it's nearly as far as any expansion team has ever gone in the Major League Soccer playoffs. Uh , they were sort of one bad ten minute stretch away from playing Inter Miami for the MLS Cup championship and for an expansion team that's just not done. Um , it just really incredible performance by them. And then , you know , during the off season , which was about six and a half weeks long. San Diego F.C. went to work. They announced earlier this week that Anders Dreyer had been signed to a new contract. They tacked , I believe , two years on to his existing three year deal. Um , that last year is a club option of theirs. Um , that will ensure that he stays with them. You know , barring him getting bought by a major club in Europe or something. Um , he will be with them for the next 4 or 5 years. They extended coach Mickey Varas for all that he did in his first year. He really became sort of the voice of their franchise , um , and really had to navigate some sort of ugly , ugly things in his first year here. Um , the night of their home opener , some fans , uh , chanted a homophobic slur in Spanish at the opposing team , and Mickey Varas had to , after the game , address it and say , hey , that's not what we do here. That's not what San Diego FC is all about. And then near the end of the season , and this is really a turning point. Irving Chucky Lozano is the highest paid player on the team. He makes more than San Diego FC's other ten starters combined. Okay , a Mexican star comes to the team was expected to be sort of the face of the franchise. Uh , there is some sort of a locker room disagreement. Uh , late in the season , um , Lozano is benched and then essentially , uh , kept home while SFC goes on the road to play. He comes off the bench down the stretch and in the playoffs actually scores a goal in their final playoff loss. Um , but really is on the outs with the club. And it was a conflict with the coach and with others in the organization , including some teammates.
S1: I want to talk more about Irving , Chucky Lozano and and his season.
S7: Coming here , you know , he was making $7 million a year , which in Major League Soccer is a ton of money. Um , he was brought in , you know , to be sort of the face of this franchise. Many fans at Snapdragon Stadium showed up , at least for their first handful of home games because of Chuckie Lozano. Uh , he was the big name on their team , and then Anders Dreyer essentially overtook him as the focus of their offense. He led the team in goals and assists. Um , Dreyer became sort of the face of this team. He was a major League Soccer all star , again , a finalist for the MVP award. So I think that there's that sort of bubbling in the background. And then he responded poorly to being benched. Chucky Lozano did. And you know , that led to some sort of a locker room incident that led to him being not suspended necessarily , but left home and , you know , was not really a part of of their plans. They then traded for a player named Amal Pellegrino , who plays Zeno's position , who was amazing down the stretch and great in the playoffs. And they resigned Pellegrino for the 2026 season , signaling that Lozano was not in their plans and sort of the inevitable came to pass just this last week when they announced that they were planning on moving on from Chucky Lozano. He is still coming to the facility every day. He is still working out , but he's working out sort of on a backfield. Um , and San Diego FC is pursuing a trade or a loan to a team that will give Chucky Lozano the minutes he needs. Um , and this is huge because the World Cup is coming up this summer. And if Chucky Lozano hopes to make Mexico's national team for the World Cup , he's going to need to play and he's going to need to score some goals. And that's not going to happen with San Diego FC. The plan now is to trade Chucky Lozano , likely to a Mexican League team team in Liga matches and give him an opportunity to build up and try to make that World Cup roster and then rid themselves of of a contract , frankly , and of a player who , you know , just was not a good fit for this club from the very beginning.
S1: So San Diego FC then is , you know , committed to Anders Dreyer. And Chucky Lozano is no longer going to be part of its future.
S7: Those are guys who are allowed to make more money than your standard Major League Soccer player , according to a rule in Major League Soccer. By getting rid of Chucky Lozano , it would allow San Diego FC to go pursue another Designated Player who they would be able to go get , you know , probably from a European team. Probably in season it looks like. And so that's what's really important here is , you know , right now they have their highest paid player and probably their best known player internationally working out by himself on a backfield because they have decided that he is no longer in their plans. It is in San Diego's best interest to get rid of Chucky Lozano , so they can go sign another designated player to help out Anders Dreier , and it is in Chucky Lozano , his best interest to get traded someplace where he can play because he wants to make the Mexican World Cup team this summer , and he's not going to make the Mexican World Cup team this summer by training by himself on a back field and singing hills.
S1: So some more to come there , some kind of like wait and see as far as San Diego FC and the potential to add more talent.
S7:
S1: So I want to turn to San Diego Wave FC. I mean , there's their new season doesn't start for a couple more months. Right. But they've also had some some comings and goings in the last couple of weeks. What can you tell us there ? Sure.
S7: The San Diego Wave this week announced that they had acquired Ludmilla. She is a one named Brazilian soccer star. As so many of them are. Um , she was with the Chicago Stars , uh , another team in Major League Soccer and was really one of their breakout stars two years ago. Um , she is somebody who they hope at least , um , compared with Doudna , who's another Brazilian forward that the Wave have and try to deliver some goals here in their 2026 season , which starts in mid-March. Uh , this is a little bit of a new look San Diego Wave roster. You know , if we go back a couple of years , they had Alex Morgan , you know , the most recognizable women's soccer player in the world. The wave had Naomi Girma the best defender in the world. And they had Jaden Shaw , uh , an up and coming U.S. women's national team player. All of those players are now gone. Um , they have overhauled their roster. It's a very international roster. Um , a handful of players are from France. Um , now they have two forwards from Brazil. Um , they're taking on kind of a new look and a new system under their coach. And , uh , just a complete 180 , um , from what they were about in their first couple of years. You know , it's so interesting to see , you know , The wave were founded. They played their first season in 2022. Um , since then , they have changed ownership. General manager and coach about three times. And so this is a new look for them. Um , I thought that they really overachieved last year. They made the playoffs loss to the Portland Thorns in the first round of the playoffs. Uh , really overcame some offensive struggles in the middle of the season. Um , to , I think , really exceed sort of the moderate expectations for this team by acquiring Ludmilla and a couple of other players , including a defender. Uh , I think that the wave will be better this year. Will they be good enough to topple the Kansas City Current ? Will they be good enough to topple New York ? New Jersey ? Um , Gotham FC ? Uh , who is the defending NWSL champions ? I don't know , but I think that this is a fascinating season for them , just based on their roster construction , very international. Um , going to see a lot of goals , going to see a lot of flair. It's going to be fun.
S1: Well , some new stars for fans to get to know as we approach these new seasons for these two teams. Before I let you go. I wanted to , you know , touch back. Earlier on the show , we've been talking about Mayor Todd Gloria's State of the city speech. He covered a lot of city business that I imagine , you know , doesn't really make it to your sports desk. But he did touch on , you know , sports events and their importance here in our region. He referenced a recent WWE event , World Wrestling Entertainment event that happened at Petco Park. Uh , mentioned an upcoming NASCAR race on the streets of San Diego. I'm just wondering if you close out by. You know , telling us how you see sporting events playing a role in our culture here in San Diego.
S7: You know , the NFL has such a stranglehold on American sports. And when San Diego's NFL team left for LA , you know , it really did leave a massive hole here just in terms of , you know , what things to do in sort of a just sort of a national footprint for San Diego when it comes to sports. And I think the city has done a pretty good job filling in that hole with soccer teams. Right. You've got San Diego FC of MLS , you've got the San Diego Wave of the National Women's Soccer League. Both of those have come since the Chargers left. Oceanside is the new home to the G League Clippers , Los Angeles Clippers top minor league affiliate. We're seeing more and more of these things , you know. Yeah. WWE. It's now at um , Petco Park. And now this new NASCAR race , which is going to be in Coronado on Father's Day weekend. That's a big deal in many sports circles. And , you know , I think that they've done a nice job. There's room for more. There's still lots to do in San Diego. San Diego is a really attractive place , you know , not to get too into sort of the city politics weeds here. But if the sports arena part of Midway Rising comes to fruition , I could see San Diego one day , maybe getting an NBA team or an NHL team. But in sort of the interim , you know , I think that they've done a really good job of filling that hole with as many sort of diverse and interesting sporting events as they can. And , you know , again , the soccer we've talked a lot about soccer today. The soccer I think has been such a big deal in San Diego in the last couple of years , and you can only see that growing. Um , especially if San Diego FC and San Diego Wave can continue to win.
S1: I've been speaking with Ryan Finley. He's the sports editor at the San Diego Union Tribune. Ryan , thanks so much for being here today.
S7: Thank you.
S1: That'll do it for Round Table this week. Thanks so much for listening. If you missed any of today's show , you can always listen to the show as a podcast , and if you want to support us there , you can leave us a review. KPBS roundtable airs on KPBS FM at noon on Fridays again Sundays at 6 a.m.. If you have any thoughts on today's show , you can always email us at roundtable at KPBS or leave us a message. That number is (619) 452-0228. Roundtables technical producer is Brandon Truffaut. The show was produced by Ashley Rush. Brooke Ruth is roundtable senior producer , and I'm your host , Andrew Bracken. Have a great weekend.
