The California Victory was a

USL First Division The USL First Division (USL-1) was a professional men's soccer league in the second tier of the United States league system. It was organized by the United Soccer League as its premier league for men from 1996 to 2010, above the USL Second ...

professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

team based in

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. It was an expansion team for the 2007 season, but ceased operation in September of that year after parent club

Deportivo Alavés Deportivo Alavés, S.A.D. (; ''Sporting Alavés''), usually known as Alavés, is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club based in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Álava, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of the Basque ...

withdrew its support.

History

On October 12, 2006, USL President Francisco Marcos announced Dmitry Piterman, a

Ukrainian American Ukrainian Americans are Americans who are of full or partial Ukrainians, Ukrainian ancestry. According to U.S. census estimates, in 2021 there were 1,017,586 Americans of Ukrainian descent representing 0.3% of the American population. The Ukr ...

and chairman of Spanish club

, had officially acquired a USL First Division franchise beginning in the 2007 season. The Victory was the first European owned team to compete at any level of the United Football Leagues, and also the first USL First Division team in California since the demise of the San Diego Flash in 2001. The club played at

Kezar Stadium Kezar Stadium () is an outdoor athletics stadium in San Francisco, California, United States, located adjacent to Kezar Pavilion in the southeastern corner of Golden Gate Park. It serves as the home of San Francisco City FC of USL League Two ...

, the former home of the

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team based in Oakland, California, from its founding in 1960 to 1981, and again from 1995 to 2019 before Oakland Raiders relocation to Las Vegas, relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan ...

and

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners and nicknamed the Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member ...

Name

The name Victory is derived from Alavés’ home city of

Vitoria-Gasteiz Vitoria-Gasteiz (; ; also historically spelled Vittoria in English) is the seat of government and the capital city of the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Country and of the provinces of Spain, province of Álava in northern Spain. I ...

, the capital city of both the province of

Álava Álava () or Araba (), officially Araba/Álava, is a Provinces of Spain, province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Country, heir of the ancient Basque señoríos#Lords of Álava, Lordship ...

and the Basque Country of

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

Management

Terry Fisher, a longtime football executive and coach, was the team's first

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

. The team was managed and coached by

Glenn van Straatum Glenn van Straatum (born 26 January 1959, in Paramaribo, Suriname) is an association football manager and former Surinamese football midfielder and forward. He was appointed as the manager of the California Victory, a new expansion franchise in ...

, while US international Hugo Perez was an assistant.

Supporters

1906 Supporters was the blanket term for the supporters of the California Victory. The term 1906 referred to the 1906 earthquake and fire of San Francisco. 1906 had its roots in early fan support of the San Francisco Seals football team and the San Jose Earthquakes, who were on hiatus from MLS when the Victory began to play. They were identifiable by their custom T-shirts, colourful chants and banners draped over the rails. California Victory Supporters Association (CVSA) was the official supporters club of the Victory. Seeing a need for community support of the club, several loyal 1906ers met at The Pig & WhistleThe Pig & Whistle – Inner Richmond – San Francisco, CA
/ref> with members of the Victory front office. There, the attending 1906ers established the CVSA. Through the sales of handmade merchandise and community outreach, the CVSA had effectively created a fan base for the Victory.

SaveTheVictory.org

SaveTheVictory.org was a movement set in motion by the Victory's official supporters club, the CVSA. The goal of the group was to raise enough money by accepting memberships to purchase the club, an ownership model based on the

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They ar ...

and influenced by My Football Club. They were however ultimately unsuccessful.

Year-by-year

Sources

{{Bay Area Sports Deportivo Alavés Association football clubs established in 2006 Defunct soccer clubs in California USL First Division teams 2006 establishments in California 2007 disestablishments in California Soccer clubs in San Francisco Soccer clubs in California Association football clubs disestablished in 2007