SANTA CLARA — More than 1,000 youth soccer players who were kicked off their fields by the National Football League may have found a pretty cool replacement: a professional soccer stadium.
The San Jose Earthquakes have pledged to open two fields at Avaya Stadium to young Santa Clara players displaced by Super Bowl 50, a gesture that could end nearly two weeks of bitter litigation and finger-pointing between the Santa Clara Youth Soccer League, the NFL and the city of Santa Clara.
As a judge mulled over arguments from the three parties in a court hearing Monday, the Bay Area’s pro soccer club stepped in to offer its main field and a practice pitch as an alternative for the youth league’s weekend games while the NFL uses the youth soccer complex next to Levi’s Stadium for the world’s largest annual sporting event.
“It’s unprecedented because we don’t normally rent these facilities out to youth soccer leagues,” Dave Kaval, president of the San Jose Earthquakes, said in an interview Monday. “It’s a pretty amazing opportunity to have 14-year-olds play on Avaya’s main field.”
Kaval said the NFL, San Francisco 49ers and the Super Bowl Host Committee have been in talks for a week about allowing the Santa Clara league to use the fields at Avaya Stadium near Mineta San Jose International Airport.
The compromise comes in response to a lawsuit the youth league filed against the NFL and Santa Clara to stop the NFL from taking over the 11-acre soccer park.
Youth soccer officials claim the city violated the law by allowing the NFL to use the city-owned soccer complex for a media and security center for next month’s Super Bowl. The park’s permit allows only youth soccer.
The deal leaves about 1,500 local players without a home for two months, according to soccer advocates, who also worry about damage to the fields during the NFL’s takeover, which began Jan. 4 and runs through March 2.
Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Joseph H. Huber said he will rule Tuesday on a case that’s made national headlines for pitting a volunteer youth league against the powerful NFL.
The soccer league’s attorney said Monday he’s ready to drop the request for an injunction to stop the NFL’s work on the site if alternate fields are secured and paid for by the city. He did not commit to dropping the suit altogether.
The city previously offered the Twin Creeks facility in Sunnyvale for the youth league’s practices but acknowledged it’s not available on weekends and too small to host games. That led to discussions with operators at San Jose State University, the Morgan Hill Outdoor Sports Center and Avaya Stadium about alternate sites for the league’s 200 or so games.
Kaval said the Earthquakes would even waive rental fees for using Avaya Stadium, charging the city only for maintenance and the cost of turning on the lights — about $100 per hour. “People are in a tough spot, and we don’t want to exploit that,” he said.
Though she’s on her way to play college soccer in a few months, 18-year-old Mayte Corral called the opportunity to play on Avaya Stadium’s main field “inspirational.” Corral, a member of the Santa Clara Youth Soccer League for three years, watched the Earthquakes’ home games all season long — and now she might get to play there.
“I’ve seen the Quakes play from the stands, and having the opportunity to step on that field and play — words can’t describe how that feels,” Corral said Monday.
The youth soccer league’s attorney called Kaval’s offer an “awfully generous gesture.”
“This is a new and welcome development,” said Gautam Dutta, a managing partner at Business, Energy and Election Law. “This could go a ways in solving the problem, but the devil is in the details. We need to know how many games we can play there and when.”
While the Avaya Stadium offer might not cover all the league’s weekend games, it seems to be a much-needed start.
“We provided a pretty comprehensive list of times and availability,” Kaval said. “I can’t say we can meet all their needs, but we’re hoping we can be part of the solution here.”
On Monday morning, Dutta argued the NFL’s use of the fields would leave behind “irreparable damage.” But the judge dismissed that claim, saying the NFL’s contract requires it to make repairs and replace the two grass fields.
“I have to assume the NFL is free to do what it does in its contract with the city, and they’ll follow up with their agreement,” Huber said.
The NFL hired Allen Ruby, a prominent Palo Alto-based attorney, to fend off the lawsuit. Ruby told the judge Monday the NFL acted in “good faith” in using the soccer park, which the league notes was promised as part of Santa Clara’s 2013 bid to host Super Bowl 50.
“We tried not to be too adversarial,” Ruby said. “We don’t want to argue with these people.”
Santa Clara’s attorneys claim they’ve done their part to find alternate fields for the league’s games. “All of the issues that have been raised as far as alternate sites have been met,” Jim Wulfsberg, an outside attorney representing Santa Clara, said in court Monday.
Follow Ramona Giwargis at Twitter.com/ramonagiwargis or contact her at 408-920-5705.
