SANTA CLARA — Just days before the city would hand over its soccer park for Super Bowl 50, a youth sports league filed suit Wednesday to stop the NFL from turning the fields next to Levi’s Stadium into a media camp and displacing 1,500 kids — the latest blow in the city’s high-profile feud between futbol and football.
“We’re not trying to ruin the Super Bowl,” said Gautam Dutta, a managing partner at the Business, Energy, and Election Law firm, and the attorney representing the Santa Clara Youth Soccer League in its lawsuit against the city filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court. “But we want to make sure the kids are provided for. And right now, time’s up. The fields could be paved over as early as Monday.”
City Attorney Ren Nosky said he’s reviewing the lawsuit, and that the city will vigorously fight it.
“We do plan to defend the lawsuit and deny the allegations in the complaint,” said Nosky, who came to his office while City Hall was closed for the holidays to deal with the issue. He added that lawyers for the NFL, which isn’t named in the complaint, also are reviewing the lawsuit.
“I’m not sure what their course of action is,” Nosky said. “But they’re viewing it as a potential threat to the course of their preparations.”
As part of Santa Clara’s 2013 bid to bring the Super Bowl to Levi’s Stadium, the city agreed to let the NFL use nearby city-owned sites, like the soccer park, at no cost. The NFL would use the park from Jan. 4 to March 2, according to its agreement, which became public on Dec. 15.
But youth soccer advocates say the takeover jeopardizes 250 soccer games and threatens to leave lasting damage to the fields, potentially closing the park for months. The city had previously offered to provide for the soccer league to use the Twin Creeks sports complex along San Francisco Bay in neighboring Sunnyvale while the NFL uses its soccer park. But soccer advocates say it’s unavailable on weekends and too small to handle their games.
The lawsuit asks a judge to stop the NFL’s takeover on Monday until the city offers alternative fields.
Steve Robertson, vice president of the Santa Clara Youth Soccer League, and others say the NFL will use the fields for a Super Bowl media center, which means tearing out dugouts, removing fences and trampling over the grass with heavy equipment, though the contract doesn’t specify its use. And while the NFL has agreed to replace the grass fields, the lawsuit says the grass will be a cheaper-grade quality.
The lawsuit also accuses the city of not fully informing the public about the NFL’s plans for the park.
“When we supported the Super Bowl, it was never communicated to us that in doing so our facility could be damaged to the point where we would not be able to use it,” Robertson said.
According to the complaint, the soccer park’s 2001 conditional use permit allows only one usage — youth soccer. When the city changed that usage for the NFL, even for two months, it needed to hold a public hearing. That didn’t happen, the lawsuit contends.
Mayor Jamie Matthews, an advocate for bringing the Super Bowl to Santa Clara, said Wednesday he’s aware of the litigation but can’t discuss it.
“As this is now a pending lawsuit, I have no comment at this time,” Matthews said.
NFL media representatives did not return calls for comment.
The complaint also alleges some soccer players, including Robertson’s 16-year-old son, will miss out on college scholarship opportunities because of the park’s closure. College soccer coaches attend local games to recruit players, Robertson said, and his son is talking to a handful of colleges whose scouts likely won’t travel to away games.
“If Harvard wants to come watch him, the coaches aren’t going to travel to another city to see him,” Robertson said.
The legal dispute highlights years of hostility between the local soccer community and the NFL. Soccer enthusiasts say San Francisco 49ers owner Jed York broke a promise to build three new fields after Levi’s Stadium opened.
The 49ers countered by saying that “promise” was actually a letter in which York proposed refurbishing existing high school fields only if the team could use the soccer park for stadium parking on game days.
The team previously offered the city $15 million to rent the land but dropped its bid after public outcry. The 49ers later offered a “peace offering” of $3 million with “no strings attached,” but city leaders said no thanks.
The clash also sparked a bitter divide between Mayor Matthews, his male council colleagues and three female council members who have challenged the NFL’s bid. Matthews had said the opposing council members are creating “drama for the sake of drama” during an election year.
Others worry the political brouhaha could leave a bad taste in the NFL’s mouth, jeopardizing the region’s ability to land another Super Bowl in the future.
“The Super Bowl has gone from a single game to the whole Bay Area being involved — and the economic impact is significant,” said George Foster, a professor of business management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, who’s published multiple books on sports business management.
“Barring a lot of political infighting, the Bay Area could be put on a rotating cycle for future Super Bowls,” he continued. “But many cities are bidding for the Super Bowl, and, anytime you have a lawsuit or fighting close to an event it’s viewed as a negative by the NFL.”
Follow Ramona Giwargis at Twitter.com/ramonagiwargis or contact her at 408-920-5705.
