San Jose is going back to its roots with the next generation. On January 20, 2026, the San Jose Earthquakes announced their MLS NEXT Pro team will officially return to the name Quakes II ahead of the upcoming 2026 season, ending the two-year rebrand run as The Town FC.
The move comes after what the club called a two-year pilot commercial partnership with The Town Group, LLC—the deal that changed the team’s identity to The Town FC. Now, after “careful consideration,” San Jose says it’s reviving the original Quakes II branding and bringing the team’s commercial operations back in-house.
To understand why this matters, you have to go back to 2024. That’s when the Earthquakes announced the partnership that made The Town FC happen in the first place. Under that setup, San Jose still controlled the soccer side (player development, roster movement, coaching), while The Town Group ran business operations like ticketing, marketing, and community/corporate partnerships.
On the field, the program has been rolling. Last season, the Quakes’ MLS NEXT Pro side (under The Town FC name) put together another strong year under head coach Dan DeGeer, hitting 14 wins and 52 points to break the club’s previous record set in 2024. The team also locked up a third straight MLS NEXT Pro Playoffs berth, won a second straight Pacific Division title, and reached the Western Conference Semifinals.
DeGeer isn’t going anywhere either. The Earthquakes confirmed he’ll remain head coach in 2026, after a season where he was also a Coach of the Year finalist and crossed 100+ matches in charge.
Quakes II originally launched in 2022 as a founding MLS NEXT Pro team, and the club has used it as a clear pathway for development—something the Earthquakes highlighted again in the announcement, even noting that Shea Salinas made appearances for the squad early on.
As for what’s next, the league schedule isn’t out yet. San Jose says the 2026 Quakes II schedule will be announced later.
The big takeaway: the Earthquakes are keeping the same developmental mission, but bringing the branding back under the main club identity. Now the next questions are simple—what the new look will be, where they’ll play most home games, and which young names are about to pop up next through the Quakes pipeline.
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