LA Breakers FC
EIN: 95-4715516 · Tax status: 501(c)(3) nonprofit
Overview
Los Angeles Breakers FC is a 501(c)(3) youth soccer nonprofit headquartered at 12100 Wilshire Blvd, 8th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90025, with training operations centered on Santa Monica, West LA, Pacific Palisades, and Brentwood. The current legal entity has been tax-exempt since February 1999 (legacy entity dates to 1998). The contemporary club brand, however, was formed in April 2018 through the merger of FC Los Angeles and Westside Breakers — at the time, the two largest competitive clubs on LA’s Westside. The combined club secured ECNL Girls status within weeks of the merger and has since added ECNL Boys and full ECNL Regional League programming. (HIGH — IRS BMF, SoCalSoccer merger thread)
The club describes itself as the “sole ECNL member club across Los Angeles and Ventura counties” — a defensible positioning claim within its specific Westside / 405-corridor catchment, though lafc-so-cal-youth (San Fernando Valley) and la-galaxy-academy both compete for the same elite talent pool from adjacent geographies.
Financials
| Year | Revenue | Expenses | Net Assets |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | $2,843,215 | $3,058,180 | -$617,934 |
| 2023 | $2,493,454 | $2,910,294 | -$405,787 |
| 2022 (calendar) | $1,310,248 | $1,970,039 | $11,053 |
| FYE May 2022 | $1,996,967 | $2,028,842 | $670,844 |
| FYE May 2021 | $1,576,807 | $1,276,745 | $572,618 |
| FYE May 2020 | $1,713,326 | $1,696,803 | $272,556 |
| FYE May 2019 | $1,881,169 | $1,850,497 | $256,033 |
| FYE May 2018 | $784,631 | $954,005 | $225,361 |
Revenue has roughly 3.6בd since the 2018 merger (~$785K → $2.84M), reflecting the additive effect of combining FCLA and Westside Breakers plus organic ECNL growth. Program services drove $2.74M of the $2.84M FY2024 revenue (96%), with grants/contributions at $87K and investment income at $18K. (HIGH — 990)
Two consecutive years of operating deficits ($417K in 2023, $215K in 2024) have driven net assets negative (-$618K). The club shifted from a May fiscal year to a calendar year between 2022 and 2023, which created the short-period filing visible above. Negative net assets on a $2.84M revenue base is a meaningful financial-health flag — if expenses are not brought back into line by FY2025, the club will be operating with structural insolvency. (MEDIUM — 990 trend, no explanatory note in public filings)
The club reports 26 employees as of FY2024.
Teams & Players
- 45+ boys and girls teams across birth years 2010–2000 (~U8 through U19) per club statements; the AGENDA legacy estimate of 43 teams / ~650 players remains the working count.
- Coed program; ECNL pathways on both sides.
- Camps and clinics year-round; holiday camps priced at $250 (3-day) or $95/day, with financial aid available.
League Affiliations
- ecnl Girls (since 2018)
- ecnl Boys
- ECNL Regional League — Girls and Boys
- Pre-ECNL
- NPL (US Club Soccer sanctioned)
- SoCal Soccer League
The club is not in mls-next or girls-academy — those pathways are filled in West LA by lafc-so-cal-youth (MLS Next via the LAFC affiliate structure) and la-surf (Girls Academy via the pioneer-sports Surf network).
Facilities
No owned facility. Training and home matches occur on shared-use municipal and university partner fields:
- VDM — referenced as “Breakers Home Field”
- UCLA Intramural Fields
- Loyola Marymount University
- Santa Monica College
- West LA College
- Palisades Charter High School
- Marina Del Rey Middle School
- 10+ additional sites across LA and Ventura counties
The pure shared-facility model is endemic to Westside LA youth soccer — land scarcity and prohibitive capex preclude club-owned complexes for nearly all peers. This is a structural ceiling on margin: every field hour is rented at municipal rates, with no offsetting tournament/rental revenue.
Leadership
| Name | Role | FY2024 Compensation |
|---|---|---|
| dave-binkley | President / Principal Officer | $0 |
| richard-simms | Director and Coach | $145,190 (FY2023) |
| daniel-raben | Director and Coach | $127,240 (FY2023) / $95,000 (FY2024) |
| nick-hazell | Director / Coach | $106,072 (FY2024) |
| christopher-lofgren | Director / Coach | $100,072 (FY2024) |
| Irvin Morales | Head Coach | (not disclosed; per filing dated 3/14/2025) |
The earlier stub identified “Steven Chuck” as Principal Officer; this does not appear in the most recent 990 filings and is likely outdated or based on a legacy FCLA / Westside Breakers signatory. Dave Binkley is the current President of record. (MEDIUM — discrepancy flagged, needs reconciliation against historical 990s)
The compensation pattern — four director-coaches in the $95K–$145K band on a $3M expense base — indicates a coach-led, flat-leadership structure rather than a separately compensated CEO/Executive Director. This is consistent with the merger origin: FCLA and Westside Breakers each contributed senior coaches who became co-directors of the combined entity.
College Placement
Public detail on college commitments is thin. ECNL Girls participation since 2018 has produced multiple Division I commitments (the club promotes “college showcase opportunities” but does not publish a tracked commitment list on the public site). Notable alumni connections include former LA Breakers coach Andy Bru, who joined the LAFC Academy staff in 2023 — a marker of coach-development credibility within the LA elite-soccer ecosystem. (LOW — anecdotal, no published placements list)
Competitive Position
LA Breakers occupies a specific niche: the highest-tier ECNL club for the Westside / 405-corridor families for whom the LAFC Academy / la-galaxy-academy free pathways are not a fit (either by selection or by the family’s preference for a traditional pay-to-play club experience). Direct competitors:
- lafc-so-cal-youth — competes for the same Westside families on ECNL and adds an MLS Next pathway via LAFC affiliation. ~$3.8M revenue.
- beach-fc — South Bay anchor, much larger ($7.3M revenue, 95+ teams). Pulls families from the southern half of the Westside.
- la-surf — Girls Academy alternative under the pioneer-sports Surf network.
- la-galaxy-academy and LAFC Academy — free MLS academy pathways that siphon the top ~5% of male talent.
Strengths: established Westside brand, ECNL-on-both-sides programming, coach continuity from the 2018 merger. Weaknesses: no owned facility, two-year operating deficit, smaller scale than Beach FC or pateadores, structural exposure to LAFC and Galaxy academy poaching.
Investment Thesis
Limited standalone strategic value to a platform acquirer. Reasons:
- Sub-scale in a saturated market. $2.8M revenue is below the natural scale tier for Southern California (Pateadores, Beach FC, Sporting CA Arsenal all sit at $4–9M). On a per-player basis the economics are modest.
- Negative net assets. The balance sheet is impaired — any acquirer would inherit a deficit and need to inject working capital before extracting value.
- No real estate. Unlike clubs with owned fields (washington-premier-fc, pride-sc, richmond-united), there is no facility asset to underwrite a deal.
- SoCal is pioneer-sports territory. A consolidator entering West LA would be moving into Pioneer’s primary geography — see the southern-california market article for the broader thesis.
Possible exception: As a tuck-in to a larger LA-area consolidation play (e.g., a future Westside roll-up combining LA Breakers + lafc-so-cal-youth + a Valley club), the ECNL Girls + ECNL Boys franchise pair has scarcity value. ECNL membership is not transferable but is rarely revoked from active clubs, so the franchise itself is the durable asset, not the operating entity.
Open Questions
- Why are net assets negative for two consecutive years? Expense management issue, growth investment, or one-time items?
- Is the “Steven Chuck” name in legacy records the same individual as someone currently on the board, or fully outdated?
- Coaching staff size and total comp pool — the four named director-coaches appear to be ~$450K of a $3M expense base; what does the rest of the coaching roster look like?
- What is the relationship (if any) between LA Breakers FC (Los Angeles) and LA Breakers FC Long Beach (fclongbeach.com), which uses the same brand but operates separately under Mark Hervin as Technical Director?
- Tracked college commitment data for the last 3 ECNL cycles?
- Any owned or long-term-leased facility plans, or is the shared-use model permanent?