The San Francisco Deltas were an American professional
soccer team based in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
, United States. Founded in 2016, the team made its debut in the
North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League may refer to:
*North American Soccer League (1968–1984), a former Division I league
*North American Soccer League (2011–2017)
The North American Soccer League (NASL) was a professional men's soccer league b ...
in 2017. The franchise played its home games at
Kezar Stadium
Kezar Stadium is an outdoor athletics stadium in San Francisco, California, located adjacent to Kezar Pavilion in the southeastern corner of Golden Gate Park. It is the former home of the San Francisco 49ers and the Oakland Raiders (first AFL s ...
located at the south-east end of
Golden Gate Park.
In the same year they started to play in 2017, they won the
2017 NASL Championship and then folded 12 days later.
History
The San Francisco Deltas soccer team were led by CEO Colombian-born entrepreneur, Brian Andrés Helmick. On October 14, 2015, the Deltas got the final signatures for admission to the North American Soccer League (NASL) in order to bring pro soccer to San Francisco.
The Deltas were financially backed by a group of investors from
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Coun ...
tech companies and venture capital firms as well as investors from Brazil. The group included Jonathan Peachey, former CEO of Virgin in North America; Danny Khatib, Co-Founder, President and COO of
Livingly Media
Livingly Media (formerly Zimbio, Inc.) is an American digital media company based in Redwood City, California that publishes six lifestyle sites for women: Livingly.com, Lonny.com, Mabelandmoxie.com, Itsrosy.com, Zimbio.com, and StyleBistro.com. ...
; and Josh McFarland, senior director of product at
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
.
The Deltas promised to bring tech-inspired innovations to the sport, including a
virtual reality
Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), e ...
fan experience and
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...
ticketing system, none of which were ever fully realized.
The first three players were announced on December 12, 2016 with more announced over the next two months.
Prior to the team's debut, it received high praise for its large Canadian contingent, including coach Marc Dos Santos and captain Nana Attakora. The team was dubbed "Canada's Unofficial Team".
Including their first preseason, The Deltas did not lose a match in nine games, drawing six and winning three, including a 1–0 victory over the
San Jose Earthquakes in a preseason friendly. Their first loss was on April 29, 2017 against the
New York Cosmos New York Cosmos may refer to
* New York Cosmos (1970–1985), a team in the North American Soccer League (then the top-tier soccer league in the United States and Canada)
* New York Cosmos (2010), a team playing since 2020 in the National Independ ...
where they lost 1–0.
The Deltas earned their first competitive victory on Saturday, April 8, 2017, beating
North Carolina FC
North Carolina FC is an American professional soccer team in Cary, North Carolina, a suburb of Raleigh. Founded in 2006, the team plays in USL League One, the third tier of the American league system.
The team has played its home games a ...
3–1 at home.
The Deltas earned their first
US Open Cup
The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, commonly known as the U.S. Open Cup (USOC), is a knockout cup competition in men's soccer in the United States of America. It is the oldest ongoing national soccer competition in that country.
The 2023 U.S. Op ...
victory on Wednesday, May 17, 2017, beating
Burlingame Dragons
Burlingame Dragons FC was an American soccer club based in Burlingame, California. Founded in 2014, the team played in the Premier Development League (PDL). The team was owned by Nick Swinmurn, founder of Zappos.com and a minority investor in the ...
2–1.
In July, Helmick wrote a blog post lamenting poor attendance at the games. He warned that the Deltas might not return for a second season if that situation didn't improve, challenging the fans with "only you can fix this".
The Deltas continued to succeed on the field and struggle off it. After the team earned a spot in the NASL Championship Final, the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' reported that the Deltas could fold even if they won the championship, citing poor attendance and over $8 million in losses.
On November 12, 2017, the Deltas beat the New York Cosmos 2–0 to win the NASL Championship. Twelve days later, on November 24, 2017, the Deltas announced that it had ceased operations effective immediately, releasing all players and staff from their contracts.
Record
Crest
The name and crest were unveiled on January 30, 2016. San Francisco Deltas CEO Brian Helmick wrote "DELTA means CHANGE. In the city of change and innovation, our goal is to take risks and grow the world's sport for fans in the entire Bay Area." during a
Reddit
Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, imag ...
''Ask Me Anything'' (AMA) session in February 2017. When coming up with name and crest, the operations team listened to a lot of fan input before making a decision. The name came about through eight major points: 1) No animals, there are too many animal team names; 2) Don't copy European Club Soccer in terms of naming, be original; 3) Europe is known for crests and nobility, but the USA is not; 4) With 40% of the people living in San Francisco not being born in the USA, they want to make sure the name can be pronounced in most languages (e.g. "th" doesn't exist in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, etc.); 5) Less is more, don't make it complicated; 6) Take risks and be different, SF is all about taking risks and being different; 7) Don't manufacture history, own the fact that you're a new team, pick a name and let your actions develop your brand and not your colors, font type, design, etc; 8) Don't over-explain things, let fans create their own relationship with the club for their own reasons. The fourth letter in the Greek alphabet is Delta and the symbol is a triangle and has connections with both soccer (Cruyff and
possession football) and SF (
Twin Peaks
''Twin Peaks'' is an American mystery serial drama television series created by Mark Frost and David Lynch. It premiered on ABC on April 8, 1990, and originally ran for two seasons until its cancellation in 1991. The show returned in 2017 for ...
,
Transamerica Pyramid
The Transamerica Pyramid is a 48-story futurist skyscraper in San Francisco, California, United States, and the second tallest building in the San Francisco skyline. Located at 600 Montgomery Street between Clay and Washington Streets in the c ...
, the towers and cables of the bridges form triangles, etc.).
Stadium
In early 2016, it was announced that San Francisco Deltas would play their home games at
Kezar Stadium
Kezar Stadium is an outdoor athletics stadium in San Francisco, California, located adjacent to Kezar Pavilion in the southeastern corner of Golden Gate Park. It is the former home of the San Francisco 49ers and the Oakland Raiders (first AFL s ...
. In December 2016, more than 3,800
Candlestick Park
Candlestick Park was an outdoor stadium on the West Coast of the United States, located in San Francisco's Bayview Heights area. The stadium was originally the home of Major League Baseball's San Francisco Giants, who played there from 1960 ...
seats from the former home of the
San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-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 of the league's National ...
were acquired by the San Francisco Deltas and installed at Kezar Stadium. This was part of $1 million in improvements The Deltas agreed to make to use Kezar Stadium, including new flood lights and updated locker rooms for the players.
Jerseys
Predominantly red and black, the inaugural season home jersey was unveiled on August 31, 2016 after fan voting by season ticket holders.
The away jerseys were announced on March 10, 2017 and were predominantly white. The jerseys were manufactured by Inaria.
Individual records
Top goalscorers
Most appearances
Managerial records
*Notes:
References
External links
*
{{NASL2010
Articles with hCards
Association football clubs established in 2016
Association football clubs disestablished in 2017
North American Soccer League teams
Soccer clubs in California
2016 establishments in California