When Santa Clara hosted the Super Bowl in 2016, the Youth Soccer Park next to Levi’s Stadium became the center of a fierce legal battle between soccer parents, the city and the league.
At the time, the NFL intended to transform the soccer fields into a “media village” as part of a longtime agreement with Santa Clara that allowed them to utilize city-owned facilities around the stadium. But just days before the league was set to begin preparations for the Big Game, the Santa Clara Youth Soccer League took the matter to court, unsuccessfully seeking to block the takeover.
The reason? The local soccer community feared that the heavy foot traffic, tents and other equipment brought in to transform the pitch into a media hub would destroy the fields and displace hundreds of youth soccer players who had nowhere else to play.
Now, a decade later, the Youth Soccer Park is once again being handed over to the NFL to use as it sees fit, and the city is seeking to avoid another legal showdown.
“We approached this with eyes wide open and are really happy to report that the proposal … does not create any damage to the Youth Soccer Park and in fact has a community benefit attached to it of over $1.2 million,” City Manager Jovan Grogan said at Tuesday’s Santa Clara City Council meeting. The council unanimously approved the terms of the agreement.
The NFL first notified the city in July that it wanted to use parts of the Youth Soccer Park for Super Bowl operations, though Damon Sparacino, the city’s parks and recreation director, said the league was initially hesitant, given what played out a decade ago.
The Youth Soccer Park comprises three fields — two natural grass and one artificial turf. In the agreement, NFL will have exclusive access to the parks and some of the surrounding areas from Jan. 5 to Feb. 22. The league plans to use the artificial turf field as the media hub. But this time, they plan on covering it with a more protective surface — the NFL covered the field last time, but complaints still arose afterwards that it was damaged. One of the grass fields also will be used for the halftime show rehearsals.
The NFL has pledged to replace both grass fields — which are nearly a decade old — all of the sprinkler heads and 15 new dugouts. The cost of the work is more than $1.2 million and comes at a time when the city has struggled to maintain its infrastructure due to lack of funds. The NFL made repairs and replacements in 2016 as well.
“We don’t currently have any capital projects either designed or funded for the Youth Soccer Park,” Sparacino said. “Any time the city can get $1.2 million in either real money or in-kind services to help maintain or improve our infrastructure to help offset all the dollars we don’t have and all the projects we need to complete is a blessing.”
The replacement work is expected to occur in late summer, following both peak soccer season and the FIFA World Cup. If the NFL doesn’t complete the work within 90 days of the authorization date, it will pay Santa Clara $8,702 per day until it’s completed.
Mayor Lisa Gillmor was on the council when the turf war erupted a decade ago, making national headlines as her fellow soccer parents took on the wealthiest league in U.S. professional sports. At this week’s council meeting, she said the NFL ultimately left the park in better condition than when the city gave it to them due to “a lot of pressure and a lot of accountability.”
The NFL commitments this time around still give her pause due to the heavy trucks and machinery that will be hauled onto the field — even with a sturdier protective covering. The mayor wants the city to inspect the fields before and after to check for damage.
“The synthetic field was built for youth soccer use, not this type of use,” she said. “The base layers could be compacted afterwards, the turf itself could be torn or punctured, the infill displaced. … What this means for us is that even though at the end of the day it may look good, it may be unsafe for our children to use.”
Councilmember Albert Gonzalez, who has coached soccer at the park, also pushed for the NFL to replace the artificial turf field.
“That’s something that we got 10 years ago, and we’re probably not going to get this time,” he said. “We understand the life cycle of those, and we have to be prepared and working toward getting the money so we can replace fields for our community.”
While the city has been working with youth soccer groups since August to find enough spare fields for them to play on when the NFL has control over the Youth Soccer Park, fields in the area are limited, and some coaches are still scrambling.
Shea Salinas, a former professional soccer player for the San Jose Earthquakes who now is involved with the Santa Clara Youth Soccer League, told the council that they fill the park every weeknight from 4:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. The “lighting and quality” of the artificial turf field hasn’t been something he’s been able to find elsewhere as he searches for a temporary space for the kids to play.
“I’m currently panicking trying to find field space for hundreds of kids so much so that I spent the morning at A Tool Shed down the street looking at generators (and) the big pop up lights so I can put lights on (other fields), which would be a much lower quality surface and a much more expensive cost,” Salinas said.
Regardless of whether or not the NFL was planning on using the Youth Soccer Park, the displacement of the many youth teams around the Super Bowl appeared to be unavoidable.
“These fields are going to be within the secure perimeter,” Grogan said. “The NFL has no conditions in the bid to provide for relocation of those soccer groups, so we certainly knew that no matter what, there would be a period where our community would be impacted.”