San Diego’s pro women’s volleyball team is headed to the playoffs, but its long game just took a hard turn. The San Diego Mojo announced yesterday that the club will not return for the 2027 season and will cease operations after the 2026 campaign. Owner Gary E. Jacobs said the team will finish out the 2026 schedule while the franchise and league work on a longer-term plan. The decision lands just as the Mojo roll into the Major League Volleyball postseason after a late-season surge.
The announcement came in a team post and was first reported by The San Diego Union-Tribune. The outlet quoted Jacobs saying he wanted the Mojo to “take the 2027 season off while building a long-term plan for the franchise.” The Union-Tribune also reported that Jacobs said the league believes a different direction is required, and that Major League Volleyball will assist in identifying potential new investors for the club. The paper framed the move as an effort to reposition the franchise rather than an immediate sale.
On-court turnaround and the playoffs
On the court, the timing almost feels cruel. Under first-year head coach Alisha Childress, the Mojo caught fire late in the season, winning 13 of their last 19 matches and finishing 14-12 to grab a spot in the four-team MLV Championship. As detailed by Pro Volleyball, San Diego will face either the Dallas Pulse or the Indy Ignite in a May 7 semifinal at Comerica Center in Frisco, Texas. Before that, the club returns to Viejas Arena for one last home match before hitting the road for the postseason.
Final home match and fan promos
Yesterday, the team said the upcoming contest will be the franchise’s final home game of 2026, and internal communications framed the break as a chance to rebuild the club’s business foundation, according to a release reported by OurSports Central. Local listings show the Mojo lining up fan promotions around the finale. San Diego Magazine notes that the May 3 home date includes a fan appreciation giveaway for early arrivals. For supporters who stuck with the team through the season’s ups and downs, the announcement turns what felt like a breakout year into an abrupt pause.
What happens next
According to The San Diego Union-Tribune, Major League Volleyball will lead the search for new investors who could carry the Mojo forward while the club uses 2027 to reshape its plans. Jacobs has presented the hiatus as a way to design a more sustainable, long-term blueprint for the franchise.
Background: ownership and the rise of pro volleyball
The Mojo debuted in 2024 as a West Coast franchise in the Pro Volleyball Federation with high-profile backing from Olympic beach volleyball star Kerri Walsh Jennings, as contemporaneous coverage noted. Team and league materials now list longtime San Diegan Gary E. Jacobs as the club’s owner, and Major League Volleyball’s season coverage identifies the Mojo as one of this year’s four postseason teams. The wider consolidation of pro volleyball into MLV last winter reshaped the league map and forms the backdrop for the investor search now underway.
For now, the Mojo will play out the rest of the 2026 schedule and head to the MLV championship weekend from May 7 through 9. Whether San Diego will still have a team called the Mojo on the court after the investor hunt wraps up is anyone’s guess. What fans do know is that they get at least one more night at home with this version of the club before it pauses while the league pursues new ownership options.
