struggled to maintain its infrastructure due to lack of funds.<\/a> The NFL made repairs and replacements in 2016 as well.<\/p>\n\u201cWe don\u2019t currently have any capital projects either designed or funded for the Youth Soccer Park,\u201d Sparacino said. \u201cAny time the city can get $1.2 million in either real money or in-kind services to help maintain or improve our infrastructure to help offset all the dollars we don\u2019t have and all the projects we need to complete is a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The replacement work is expected to occur in late summer, following both peak soccer season and the FIFA World Cup. If the NFL doesn\u2019t complete the work within 90 days of the authorization date, it will pay Santa Clara $8,702 per day until it\u2019s completed.<\/p>\n
Mayor Lisa Gillmor was on the council when the turf war erupted a decade ago, making national headlines as her fellow soccer parents took on the wealthiest league in U.S. professional sports. At this week\u2019s council meeting, she said the NFL ultimately left the park in better condition than when the city gave it to them due to \u201ca lot of pressure and a lot of accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n
The NFL commitments this time around still give her pause due to the heavy trucks and machinery that will be hauled onto the field \u2014 even with a sturdier protective covering. The mayor wants the city to inspect the fields before and after to check for damage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe synthetic field was built for youth soccer use, not this type of use,\u201d she said. \u201cThe base layers could be compacted afterwards, the turf itself could be torn or punctured, the infill displaced. \u2026 What this means for us is that even though at the end of the day it may look good, it may be unsafe for our children to use.\u201d<\/p>\n
Councilmember Albert Gonzalez, who has coached soccer at the park, also pushed\u00a0for the NFL to replace the artificial turf field.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s something that we got 10 years ago, and we\u2019re probably not going to get this time,\u201d he said. \u201cWe understand the life cycle of those, and we have to be prepared and working toward getting the money so we can replace fields for our community.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the city has been working with youth soccer groups since August to find enough spare fields for them to play on when the NFL has control over the Youth Soccer Park, fields in the area are limited, and some coaches are still scrambling.<\/p>\n
Shea Salinas, a former professional soccer player for the San Jose Earthquakes who now is involved with the Santa Clara Youth Soccer League, told the council that they fill the park every weeknight from 4:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. The \u201clighting and quality\u201d of the artificial turf field hasn\u2019t been something he\u2019s been able to find elsewhere as he searches for a temporary space for the kids to play.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m currently panicking trying to find field space for hundreds of kids so much so that I spent the morning at A Tool Shed down the street looking at generators (and) the big pop up lights so I can put lights on (other fields), which would be a much lower quality surface and a much more expensive cost,\u201d Salinas said.<\/p>\n
Regardless of whether or not the NFL was planning on using the Youth Soccer Park, the displacement of the many youth teams around the Super Bowl appeared to be unavoidable.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese fields are going to be within the secure perimeter<\/a>,\u201d Grogan said. \u201cThe NFL has no conditions in the bid to provide for relocation of those soccer groups, so we certainly knew that no matter what, there would be a period where our community would be impacted.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Santa Clara hosted the Super Bowl in 2016, the Youth Soccer Park next to Levi\u2019s Stadium became…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[184,7,8,181,25438,23,100,88,90,89,197,2919,198,1083,200,56890,11191],"class_list":["post-105036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-california-news","tag-latest-headlines","tag-levis-stadium","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-santa-clara","tag-santa-clara-city-council","tag-santa-clara-county","tag-soccer","tag-south-bay","tag-super-bowl-50","tag-super-bowl-lx"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}