The LA Aztecs have spent long enough in the history books.
The next 12 months are about turning the return of the Aztecs from an idea into a football club.
By this time next year, we want the foundations in place.
A home city chosen.
Supporters becoming owners.
Cornerstone investors around the table.
Fixtures being assembled.
A top-class coaching structure taking shape.
Players being identified.
And one clear football philosophy running through everything we do.
Total Football.
Not as nostalgia.
As DNA.
First, we choose our home
Los Angeles is enormous.
That creates opportunity, but it also creates a problem.
You can call yourself an LA club.
That does not mean you belong anywhere.
Football clubs need roots.
They need a community that identifies with them.
They need somewhere supporters can point to and say:
That is ours.
Over the coming months, we will continue discussions with cities across the Los Angeles metropolitan area as we decide where the modern LA Aztecs should put down those roots.
We are not simply looking for a stadium to rent.
We are looking for a partner.
A city that wants professional football.
A city that understands the economic, cultural and community opportunity a football club can create.
A city prepared to explore facilities, land, development, youth football, events and the wider possibilities around the Aztecs.
The badge may say Los Angeles.
But every great football club eventually needs a patch of earth it can call home.
Within the next 12 months, we intend to choose ours.
The supporters have to own part of it
This is fundamental.
Modern football has become very good at calling people supporters while treating them like customers.
Fans provide the songs.
The loyalty.
The history.
The atmosphere.
The emotion.
Then somebody else owns everything.
We want to build differently.
Supporters must have a meaningful ownership stake in the returning LA Aztecs.
That does not mean rejecting investment.
Quite the opposite.
Building a serious professional football club requires serious capital.
But capital and supporter ownership do not have to be enemies.
Investors should be able to invest.
Entrepreneurs should be able to build.
Football people should be trusted to make football decisions.
But supporters should also have permanent protection over the things that make the club theirs.
The badge.
The colours.
The identity.
The home.
The values.
The challenge is not choosing between supporters and investors.
It is building a structure where both can win.
That is one of the biggest jobs ahead.
Then the Aztecs have to play football again
There is a point where talking about bringing a club back is no longer enough.
You have to kick a ball.
Over the next 12 months, we intend to begin assembling the Aztecs’ first playing programme.
Fixtures.
Opponents.
Venues.
Players.
Coaches.
Some matches may be exhibitions.
Some may form part of a touring programme.
Some may become the beginning of something permanent.
The format can evolve.
The objective cannot.
The LA Aztecs have to play again.
Because the moment eleven players walk onto a pitch wearing that badge, something changes.
It is no longer a revival project.
It is no longer a concept.
The football club is back.
We need investors who understand what we are building
Football takes money.
There is no clever way around that.
Players cost money.
Coaches cost money.
Facilities cost money.
Travel, operations, insurance, marketing and matchdays cost money.
But we are not looking for money at any cost.
We want investors who understand the scale of the opportunity.
People who see the potential intersection between football, entertainment, property, community and culture.
People willing to build something with patience.
People who understand Los Angeles.
And, crucially, people who understand that supporters are not an inconvenience standing between investors and their return.
Supporters are the reason there is something worth investing in.
Over the next year we want to bring cornerstone investors into the project who can help us move from ambition to execution.
Not passengers.
Builders.
The football has to look like the LA Aztecs
This matters enormously.
The Aztecs cannot come back playing football without personality.
We cannot spend years talking about our history and then produce a team frightened of the ball.
Rinus Michels coached this club.
Johan Cruyff played for this club.
Those are not decorative names for a heritage page.
They represent an idea.
Movement.
Space.
Intelligence.
Courage.
Players comfortable with the ball.
Defenders expected to play.
Midfielders expected to think.
Attackers encouraged to create.
A team attempting to dominate a game through football rather than simply survive it.
That philosophy became known as Total Football.
We are not trying to recreate 1979.
Football has evolved.
But principles survive.
The job now is to translate those principles into the modern game.
That means finding a top-class coaching team capable of building a modern version of Aztecs football.
Not copying Ajax.
Not pretending Rinus Michels is coming back through the door.
Building our own identity from the same foundations.
Brave football. Intelligent football. Attacking football.
Football with personality.
Los Angeles deserves that.
The next 12 months have clear targets
This cannot just be another year of talking about what the Aztecs might become.
The mission is clear.
Choose the home city.
Build the supporter ownership structure.
Bring in cornerstone investors.
Assemble the first fixtures.
Recruit the football leadership.
Begin identifying the players who can represent the club.
Create a football philosophy worthy of the LA Aztecs name.
Some conversations will fail.
Some locations will not work.
Some investors will say no.
Some plans will change.
That is building.
The danger is not hearing no.
The danger is standing still.
We have no intention of doing that.
By this time next year
I want the conversation around the LA Aztecs to feel very different.
Less:
Wouldn’t it be great if the Aztecs came back?
More:
When is the next game?
A home taking shape.
Fans becoming owners.
Investors building alongside them.
Coaches preparing a team.
Players pulling on the shirt.
Fixtures appearing on the calendar.
And an unmistakable idea running through the club.
Play football.
Play it bravely.
Play it intelligently.
Play it with imagination.
The Aztecs once brought some of the world’s greatest football thinkers to Los Angeles.
We cannot bring that era back.
We should not try.
Our job is to make the next one worthy of it.
The next 12 months are massive.
And we are looking for people who want to help make it happen.
If you are an investor, developer, city leader, coach, football operator, commercial partner or supporter who believes in what we are building, get in touch.
Do not watch from the sidelines.
Join us.
scott@footballisforthefans.com
Let’s bring the LA Aztecs home.
