By Calvin Welch, HANC Board and Kezar Advisory Committee member
On May 15th the Recreation and Parks Commission voted unanimously to grant an unprecedented 30 year use permit (15 year and 3 five year extensions) to Golden City Soccer Club, a privately held, for-profit professional soccer team. The agreement allows the team, not the Commission or staff, with no public hearing or review, to determine if any other adult soccer team can use the facility. Both the terms and the length of the agreement are unprecedented.
Kezar Stadium was rebuilt after the 1987 passage of Proposition D, an $18 million general obligation bond. The Voter Handbook official argument urging the passage of the bond stated " Proposition D will provide for the revitalization of Kezar Stadium and adjacent park areas to better meet the recreational needs of community groups and local high schools and sports leagues". The open recreational use and high school sports focus of the stadium was restated once the new Kezar was built in 1991 by a Rec and Park Commission Resolution drafted, in large part, by community groups from the surrounding neighborhoods. . Resolution 16191 states "informal community access to the stadium will be a priority use of the new Kezar Stadium... Structured community use is expected be occur less frequently than school use and informal community access...public and private schools will continue to be the primary user group at Kezar Stadium". While community based non-profit soccer leagues are specifically mentioned in the Resolution there is no reference to professional, for-profit soccer leagues or games prioritized in the Resolution. The Resolution created a Kezar Stadium Advisory Committee (KAC) to oversee the policies articulated in the Resolution in some specific detail.
Almost immediately tension developed with Rec and Park staff over use of the new stadium. The first issue was the tall fence surrounding Kezar. The model that the community had in mind was the Polo Field in Golden Gate Park. Open to all for informal recreation most times, yet allowing sports events and large scale venues as well, there is no tall fence surrounding the Polo Field facilitating organized and pick up team sports occurring alongside recreational users. When ticketed events are held a temporary fence is constructed. During the Newsome administration staff closed the stadium during the day to allow commercials to be filmed. Staff plans were made to lease out the field for large scale weddings and other corporate events during week day afternoons and evenings.
What became clear is that Rec and Park staff saw Kezar as a potential revenue generator, not a school sports/community recreational facility. The matters came to a heard in 2017 when over the objections of the KAC Rec and Park leased out Kezar to a new professional soccer team, The Delats. 16 night games a year were reserved for the team. Backed by high tech investors the Deltas were set for success. They lasted one season and then folded. They never drew more than a few hundred as nights at Kezar are cold and $12 for a can of beer simply did not appeal to all that many.
What has become clear is that Rec and Park simply does not want to pay for the maintenance of Kezar. In 2008 with the ten year old track showing serious wear, Rec and Park initially refused the KAC request to place track repair in its budget. It took a campaign of getting high school students to circulate a petition to Mayor Lee before he had Rec and Park include the track repair in its budget. With that additional $2 million for track repair the total public bill for Kezar now stands at $30 million (1987 bond $18 m, interest on bond, $10m, $2m 2008 track resurfacing). This of course does not include the 25 years of operation and maintenance done by City paid employees.