SANTA CLARA — Just hours after the city handed the keys to its youth soccer park to the NFL, an outraged group of soccer advocates expanded their lawsuit to include the NFL.
The Santa Clara Youth Soccer League’s new lawsuit against the NFL comes hours after the football league began drilling holes in the soccer fields across from Levi’s Stadium for use as a media center for Super Bowl 50. The NFL took possession of the city-owned soccer park today until March 2, according to a contract with the city.
But the soccer league last week sued Santa Clara to stop the NFL from taking its fields, saying the city failed to follow the process for changing the conditional use permit for the soccer field’s usage. The advocates also said the NFL would destroy the soccer fields, though the NFL promised in writing to make repairs after the Super Bowl.
Today, the league expanded its lawsuit to include the NFL, according to an amended complaint filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court. The original suit, filed last week, sought a temporary restraining order to block the NFL from taking possession of the soccer park, but only named the city of Santa Clara.
“It’s no longer just the city,” said Gautam Dutta, a managing partner at the Business, Energy, and Election Law firm, and the attorney representing the soccer league in its suit against Santa Clara and the NFL. “The NFL actually gets custody of the fields today. Now you have a new party who is involved.”
Despite the threat of a lawsuit, the NFL issued a statement last week to this newspaper saying it will move forward with its Super Bowl 50 plans without interruption.
“We are thankful that the Super Bowl plans and build-out will continue on schedule. We are poised to deliver a great Super Bowl experience and leave a positive, lasting legacy for the community,” said the joint statement, which included the Super Bowl 50 Host Committee and the San Francisco 49ers.
A judge last week didn’t grant the soccer league’s request for a temporary restraining order, but asked the NFL not to make “drastic changes” to the soccer fields until the issue could be heard in court. A hearing was scheduled for Wednesday.
But this morning, it appeared that some work had begun on the soccer fields. Advocates watched as workers drilled more than 95 holes into the grass of one of the three soccer fields.
“We’re just disappointed,” said Burt Field, a referee and scheduler for the youth soccer league, standing by the field and snapping pictures on his cell phone. “It’s disheartening. The judge asked them not to do anything until Wednesday — and here they are.”
Dutta said the lawsuit originally didn’t include the NFL because the league hadn’t yet taken ownership of the soccer park — until now. The city argued the NFL should be included in the suit since it’s an involved party, Dutta added.
“We did not believe the NFL needed to be part of the suit,” he said. “However, we now need to get all relevant parties involved in the lawsuit.”
This story will be updated.
Follow Ramona Giwargis at Twitter.com/ramonagiwargis or contact her at 408-920-5705.
