LAFC (a common abbreviation for Los Angeles Football Club), also known as Los Angeles FC, is an American professional men's soccer team based in Los Angeles, California. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The club was established on October 30, 2014 and began play during the 2018 season as an expansion team. The club plays their home matches at BMO Stadium, a soccer-specific stadium located in Exposition Park.

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Los Angeles FC

Full name	Los Angeles Football Club
Nickname(s)	The Black and Gold The Falcons The 3252
Founded	October 30, 2014; 9 years ago (October 30, 2014)
Stadium	BMO Stadium Los Angeles, California
Capacity	22,000
Managing owners	Bennett Rosenthal Brandon Beck Larry Berg[1][2]
Executive Chairman	Peter Guber[1]
President	Larry Freedman John Thorrington
Coach	Steve Cherundolo
League	Major League Soccer
2023	Western Conference: 3rd Overall: 8th Playoffs: Runners-up
Website	Club website
Home colors Away colors
Current season

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The managing owners of the club are Brandon Beck, Larry Berg, and Bennett Rosenthal. Los Angeles FC also has a variety of other part-owners, such as Will Ferrell. The club's inaugural head coach was Bob Bradley, who served from 2017 to 2021. During their second season in 2019, Los Angeles FC won the Supporters' Shield with club captain Carlos Vela earning the MVP Award. The club won their first MLS Cup in 2022, which completed a league double with their second Supporters' Shield. In 2020 and 2023, Los Angeles FC were also the runners-up in the CONCACAF Champions League.

Since they started playing, Los Angeles FC have had a fierce rivalry with the LA Galaxy, the older of the two Los Angeles–based MLS teams. The rivalry between the two clubs has been dubbed El Tráfico by the supporters of both clubs, a humorous play on El Clasico.

On October 30, 2014, following the dissolution of Chivas USA, Major League Soccer awarded a new expansion team to Los Angeles.^[3] On September 15, 2015, the club announced that Los Angeles Football Club, which had previously been used as a placeholder name for the club, would be the official team name.^[4] Henry Nguyen, Los Angeles FC's principal owner at the time, hinted at this possibility shortly after the club was announced in describing the name as "timeless".^[5]

LAFC announced Bob Bradley as its head coach in July 2017,^[6] joining general director John Thorrington in a search for players.^[7] Mexican forward Carlos Vela was signed as the club's first designated player on August 11, 2017.^[8]

On March 4, 2018, LAFC played its first MLS game, a 1–0 win against Seattle Sounders FC at CenturyLink Field in Seattle. LAFC designated player Diego Rossi scored the club's first-ever competitive goal in the 11th minute, assisted by Vela.^[9]

On March 31, 2018, LAFC suffered its first MLS loss, giving up a 3–0 lead to lose 4–3 to LA Galaxy in the MLS debut of Zlatan Ibrahimović.^[10][11] LAFC was the second team ever to lose an MLS game after leading 3–0 during the match.^[12] Despite the loss, LAFC won 4 of the 6 games on their road trip to start the season, becoming the first team to earn 12 points from a season opening road trip of 6 games or more.^[13] They finished the season with 7 road wins which is the most for an expansion team in the post-shootout era.^[14]

LAFC accomplished the best regular season for an MLS expansion team, earning 57 points. The total surpassed the 56 picked up the 1998 Chicago Fire, also coached by Bob Bradley, as well as the post-shootout era record of 55 set in 2017 by Atlanta United FC.^[15] LAFC's seven road wins also tied for the most ever by an expansion team in the pre or post shootout-era with the '98 Fire who had two road wins come via the shootout. They finished second all-time in goals scored by an expansion team in a season, with 68, just behind Atlanta's 70.^[15]

On October 6, 2018, LAFC clinched its first playoff spot after a 3–0 victory against the Colorado Rapids^[16] finishing third in the West, but were knocked out at home in the first round in a 3–2 loss to sixth-place Real Salt Lake.^[17]

The club's colors and logo were unveiled on January 7, 2016, at Union Station.^[22][23] The club's primary colors are black and gold, with red and gray used as accent colors. The Art Deco-inspired logo incorporates a shield outline referencing the city seal, with a winged "LA" monogram and the words "Los Angeles" and "Football Club" in Neutraface. The crest was designed by Matthew Wolff.^[24]

On May 17, 2015, the team chose the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena site to build a 22,000-seat stadium for MLS in Exposition Park, estimated to cost $250 million. The site was under a sublease from the University of Southern California which managed and operated the Sports Arena and adjacent L.A. Memorial Coliseum.^[38] The environmental impact report, arena demolition, and stadium construction were expected to take three years and delay the team's debut to 2018. On May 6, 2016, the Los Angeles City Council approved the stadium, clearing a way for the construction of the stadium.

A groundbreaking ceremony took place on August 23, 2016. At the event attended by owners and construction crews, LAFC announced a 15-year, $100 million naming rights deal for the stadium with the Banc of California.^[39][40][41] Demolition of the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena began shortly after the groundbreaking and was completed by October 2016.^[42][43]

The first public event at the stadium was an open practice and dedication ceremony held on April 18, 2018.^[44] The club's first home match was played on April 29, 2018, against Seattle Sounders FC, with the home side winning 1–0.^[45][46] The lone goal was scored by Laurent Ciman in stoppage time in front of a capacity crowd of 22,000.^[46] The stadium was renamed to BMO Stadium on January 19, 2023.^[47]

Los Angeles FC's training facility is on the California State University, Los Angeles campus as part of a partnership with the university that began in 2017. The LAFC Performance Center includes 4,000 square feet (370 m²) of indoor space and a training field with the same grass as the team's home stadium.^[48]

After the launch, supporters were consulted on many of the club's early decisions including the team colors, the look of the crest and the design of BMO Stadium, built on land previously held by the LA Sports Arena.^[49] Much of the marketing focus was to millennials, which led to the decision to play near downtown Los Angeles.^[50] LAFC took a grassroots approach to building the club by founding the LAFC academy and signing younger prospects including Americans Walker Zimmerman and Tristan Blackmon, Portuguese draft pick João Moutinho,^[51] and Uruguayan prospect Diego Rossi.

In 2016, three local investors—Brandon Beck, Larry Berg and Bennett Rosenthal—took over as managing owners of the club with Berg serving as lead managing owner.^[70][71] As of 2017, chairman and CEO of Mandalay Entertainment Group and entrepreneur Peter Guber is executive chairman, and venture capitalist Henry Nguyen is vice-chairman.^[72] The ownership group in 2019 also included businessman Ruben Gnanalingam.^[5] Other part-owners and investors include Will Ferrell, Natalie Mariduena, Nomar Garciaparra, Mia Hamm-Garciaparra, Chad Hurley, Magic Johnson, Joseph Tsai,^[73] Tucker Kain, Kirk Lacob, Mitch Lasky, Mark Leschly, Mike Mahan, Irwin Raij, Tony Robbins, Lon Rosen, Paul Schaeffer, Brandon Schneider, Allen Shapiro, Mark Shapiro, Jason Sugarman, Harry Tsao, and Rick Welts.^{[5][72][74][75]}

In February 2020, LAFC owners began the process of buying out a 20 percent ownership stake held by Malaysian businessman Vincent Tan. The buyout resulted in a $700 million valuation for the club, the largest on record for a Major League Soccer team at the time.^[76]

From 2023, every LAFC match is available via MLS Season Pass on the Apple TV app, in addition to select matches simulcast linearly on Fox or FS1. Prior to this all-streaming deal, LAFC aired matches on a few stations and one other streaming platform.

In 2021 and 2022, all locally broadcast LAFC matches were televised in English by KCOP. Max Bretos served as the team's lead play-by-play announcer^[77]

YouTube TV carried live games for the team from 2018 to 2020. It marked the first time that a major U.S. professional sports team sold their regional broadcast rights to an online streaming service rather than a traditional television broadcaster or regional sports network.^[25][26][78]

Prior to Apple, locally broadcast LAFC matches were televised in Spanish on Estrella TV station KRCA, with Francisco X. Rivera as the lead play-by-play announcer.^[79] Regular local radio coverage of LAFC matches is provided in English by KSPN (ESPNLA 710), with Dave Denholm serving as the radio play-by-play announcer. Spanish radio broadcasts are provided by KFWB (980), with Armando Aguayo as the play-by-play announcer.^[80] The club also partners with KIRN (670) as part of the station's weekly sports report.^[81]