SANTA CLARA — In a blow to the youth sports community, a judge on Tuesday denied the Santa Clara Youth Soccer League’s request to temporarily kick the NFL out of a soccer park next to Levi’s Stadium — the latest salvo in what’s become an all-out legal war pitting soccer parents against the city and the NFL just one month before the Super Bowl lands in the Bay Area.
The soccer league last week sued Santa Clara to stop the city from handing the 11-acre soccer park over to the NFL for a Super Bowl 50 media center, but Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Joseph H. Huber declined then to block the move with a temporary restraining order. He denied it again Tuesday, after the soccer league expanded its lawsuit to include the NFL.
And while the judge will decide the fate of the soccer park in a hearing Monday to consider a long-term injunction, the soccer league wanted a restraining order to stop the NFL from using the fields until then.
“Obviously, we’re disappointed,” said Gautam Dutta, a managing partner at Business, Energy and Election Law, the firm representing the soccer league. “But we remain confident in the merits of our case. The city broke the law, and the kids are suffering for it. We will have our day in court on Monday.”
Dutta and the city’s attorneys on Tuesday met behind closed doors with the judge for the second time in a week to hash out accusations that Santa Clara violated the law in how it allowed the NFL to use the soccer park for Super Bowl 50. Soccer groups knew since 2013 that the park would be used for the Super Bowl and had no objections, said Steve Robertson, vice president of the Santa Clara Youth Soccer League and the petitioner in the lawsuit.
What they didn’t know, according to Robertson, is that the complex would be used for a “media village,” requiring the removal of fences and dugouts and the installation of wooden planks to house nearly 6,000 members of the media.
In Tuesday’s meeting, attorneys for the NFL, which was added to the soccer league’s lawsuit on Monday, were there as well. And after 30 minutes inside Huber’s chambers, the lawyers emerged without a resolution.
The NFL, whose agreement with the city allows usage of the park from Jan. 4 to March 2, began removing sprinkler heads Monday to prepare for construction of a media workroom to house international broadcasters and NFL Films. By mid-Tuesday, a plastic covering was plastered across one of the two grass fields.
The youth soccer league, which includes 1,500 local players, argues in its lawsuit that the city failed to follow a process — including holding a public hearing — for changing the soccer park’s conditional-use permit to allow for a usage other than youth soccer.
Former Santa Clara Mayor Patricia Mahan, who was on the council when the permit was issued in 2001, said city leaders deliberately took steps to limit other uses on the public land.
“We wanted to ensure that land would be used only for that purpose,” Mahan said. “We didn’t want it to be used by professional teams. Any major change, even if it was temporary, warranted a public discussion.”
In the city’s rebuttal papers filed Tuesday, Santa Clara City Attorney Ren Nosky argued the city has the power to control, govern and supervise the use of its recreation areas and that the agreement with the NFL to use the soccer park was a “contractual obligation” stemming from the city’s 2013 bid to host the Super Bowl — and not subject to a public hearing.
The city also says the lawsuit is “inadequate” because the San Francisco 49ers, Super Bowl 50 Host Committee and the Levi’s Stadium Authority are affected parties but not named in the lawsuit.
Soccer enthusiasts say they fear the soccer fields will be damaged when the NFL transforms them into the media facility — despite a promise from NFL officials to protect the grass with plastic covers, limit vehicle access and repair damages after the big game.
“The NFL and 49ers have already committed to replace, at no cost to the city of Santa Clara, the two natural grass fields,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told this newspaper.
According to new court papers filed Tuesday, Santa Clara is also asking for a $25 million bond from the soccer league to “protect the city and NFL” by covering their costs for relocating the media center if the judge grants an injunction at the Jan. 11 hearing that makes the soccer fields unavailable for Super Bowl use.
Nosky estimates the costs could be even higher — up to $100 million — if the NFL can’t use the park, which the soccer league’s attorney calls ridiculous.
“You’re asking for a $25 million bond from soccer moms and dads? Give me a break,” Dutta said. “This is not Apple versus Samsung. This is a community group that’s fighting for its rights.”
Follow Ramona Giwargis at Twitter.com/ramonagiwargis or contact her at 408-920-5705.
