AS A NEW CLUB CLOSES IN, SAN FRANCISCO CITY FC FIGHTS FOR PLACE IN THE COMMUNITY

Words by Fay Harvey
June 1, 2025 Updated 10:48 a.m. ET

Photography by Jonathan Borruso, Alejandro Gutiérrez Mora, and Ben Nichols
On-field research by Marvin Heilbronn

SAN FRANCISCO, California. — Following the Summer of Love in the 1960s — a counterculture, psychedelic movement that drew in 100,000 beatniks and “flower children” to San Francisco both in the wake of WWII and in response to the Vietnam War — the city had solidified itself as a hub for revolutions, creativity and bohemian lifestyles. In a turn of events on March 23, 1975, after years of local assemblies, festivals and protests, Kezar Stadium in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park opened its gates for a different kind of get together. It wasn’t a function aimed at protesting world wars or a bash for indulging in newfound hippie subculture— it was a concert devoted to saving youth programming.

In early ‘75, Bill Graham, a prevalent music promoter in the city, was infuriated alongside the community when he learned that the San Francisco School Board shed athletic, music and drama programs due to a lack of funding. With his pull in the music industry coupled with the area’s rambunctious spirit, he was able to put on one The SNACK Benefit Concert, with the acronym standing for “Students Need Athletics, Culture and Kicks.”

Planned in just three weeks, music greats like Bob Dylan, The Grateful Dead, Santana, Neil Young, Joan Baez and more planted their feet on a stage in the grassy Kezar Park and performed for the cause, not compensation. Athletes Willie Mays and Jesse Owens made appearances alongside actor Marlon Brando and San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto.

After sitting on lawn chairs through the night for early entry into the concert, attendees paid $5 for entry. In the early morning hours, 60,000 San Franciscans piled into Kezar, with thousands listening in from the outside grass after capacity was filled to the brim. People danced, sang and celebrated the power of community, and when all was said and done, over $200,000 was raised from the mutual aid concert. On that spring day in Golden Gate Park, the city made their voice clear, and their belief in accessible athletics and cultural resources for the community remained resolute.

The 100-year-old Kezar Stadium pitch. Photographed by Jonathan Borruso

Pete Bogdis’ tattoo dedicated to his ultras group The Northsiders. Photographed by Jonathan Borruso

Present day, the 100-year-old Kezar Stadium is more or less the same. Hills surrounding the forested terrain are still friendly with the everyday fog rolling down them, and the lively Haight & Ashbury neighborhood, a nucleus during the 1960s movements, sits across the street, still sporting tie-die swirls and flower imagery on numerous walls. Citygoers can still be seen strolling around the track and using the stadium’s stairs for circuit training, while traffic still ensues on the surrounding streets.

But, there is one thing that has changed at Kezar. The stadium, which historically stood as a reference point for community and liberation, is now the battle ground for an inner-city conflict that threatens to strip America’s oldest community-owned football club of its identity, history and home field, leaving the team and supporters with a mirage where they once saw a future.

It all started on May 9, when San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie broke the news via Instagram Reels that a new club is being developed in San Francisco: Golden City Football Club (GCFC), made possible by a private-public partnership between club and city. As A Tribe Called Quest’s Can I Kick It played in the background, Lurie explained that once up and running, GCFC is set to compete under MLS NEXT Pro, an offshoot of Major League Soccer (MLS) that was created for player development. The new team will call Kezar Stadium home, and has pledged to put $10 million of private funds towards improving its conditions.

In a separate, written statement posted to the city’s website, Lurie claims that this development marks a “new era for sports in San Francisco,” through breathing new life into the stadium and neighborhoods surrounding it.

But the reality is, there already is both life and football in Kezar, and its pulse is the 2001-formed, community-owned San Francisco City Football Club (SF City).

A United Soccer League’s (USL) League 2 team, SF City exists under the umbrella of the San Francisco Soccer Football League (SFSFL), which happens to be America’s oldest football league in continuous existence. Established in 1902 by Englishman Edgar Pomeroy alongside a group of fellow immigrants, the league stands to help players achieve their goals of competing at high levels and competitions, and even employs a promotion relegation model for their own three divisions.

With over century-old roots, SFSFL matches at Kezar are fond memories for generations of long-time San Franciscans, and Pete Bogdis, a professional baker and founding member of the SF City ultras group “The Northsiders” is one of them.

A first generation Greek-American, Pete knew from a young age that he supported two teams: Athens-based Panathinaikos F.C. first, and local SFSFL team Greek Americans A.C. team second.

“I remember going to the Greek Americans’ games as a kid and just knowing: this is my team,” Pete recalled, and in true European football fan fashion, mentioned how he remained loyal to the club through relegations, promotions and varying professional levels. For him, it was about community first.

Throughout his years watching the Greeks, which stand as the most successful team in SFSFL history, they advanced to the US Open Cup, the nation’s oldest ongoing football competition, numerous times and even reigned as champions twice. Locally, the team matched up against historic clubs such as SF Italian Athletic Team (Est. 1917), SF Vikings Soccer Club (Est. 1922) and the San Francisco Glens (Est. 1961) — all three of those, along with a handful of others from the 90s, are still in operation.

But in 2005 after The Greeks folded, Pete was left locally teamless.

With his eyes on Greece and his ears constantly picking up on European protest clubs and supporter ownership models overseas, he wished for change in local football. He craved a shift away from big corporations around him, like the rising MLS club San Jose Earthquakes, and towards community-oriented clubs.

Suddenly, he caught wind of SF City via Facebook seeking grassroots support. He joined immediately, and has not looked back since.

Inspired by the Bundesliga's 50+1 rule, SF City operates under a supporter-owned model. This system ensures members, who combined own 51% of the club, receive a legitimate stake in the organization while also having a major voice in any decisions made by the board, from club crest alterations to home stadium location changes. “We believe this model ensures the sustainability of the club and a powerful connection to the local community,” the club website reads.

And since working its way up to USL League Two in 2016, the club has grown rapidly.

Pete recalled the days when there were just six supporters in the stands banging heavy drums and waving flags. Now, SF City has seen a rise in attendance by the hundreds each season. Ian Blackley, the club’s creative director, even secured a first-of-its-kind partnership with Muni in 2023, the city’s primary transit system and a brand the club has referenced for years now: old social media posts play on bus fast passes and fans lead chants about riding Muni to get to the matches. Since joining forces, the kit displays Muni’s distinct worm logo front and center and in exchange, SF City gets free advertising in Muni buses and digital boards in bus shelters — a symbiotic advertising deal that increases both ridership and club recognition, two things that were impacted after the Covid-19 pandemic. “We’re all in this together,” Ian added.

At this season’s home opener on May 14, five days after Mayor Lurie’s announcement, the Kezar stands packed in an approximate 1,500 supporters despite a busy sports day for the Bay Area: Messi’s Inter Miami’s side faced the San Jose Earthquakes a couple cities down, the San Francisco Giants held a home game and The Golden State Warriors were playing a must-win playoffs game. Even Kezar Union, a new, independently-formed ultras team led by high schoolers and mentored by the Northsiders, debuted in the crowd after leading a march to Kezar from the nearby Conservatory of Flowers.

Kezar Union and The Northsiders pose with a handmade SF City FC banner. Photographed by Jonathan Borruso

17-year-old Isaiah spearheaded the creation of the ultras group, alongside his friends Isa, Nate, Eero, David and Asa, to bring a new kind of spirit to the matches. Both inspired by European fan culture seen at matches abroad and disappointed in the lack of youth viewership at SF City matches, the group banded together to grow their sport community through tifos, marches and chants.

But, with plans of a new club coming to town, Kezar Union is unsure of what that growth will entail.

“When we saw the announcement, we were just kind of shocked,” Isaiah said, emphasizing the fact that the group hadn’t even made their first organized appearance yet. “We want to try and make something that replicates fans in Europe, and that obviously takes years and years of work … and we’re sad because we don’t know how long this is going to be able to last.”

Murmurs surrounding the home grounds for SF City have been swirling as well, with word on the block being a change in location from Kezar to Boxer Stadium in Balboa Park to make space for the new club. “I don’t know if you’ve been to Boxer stadium, but the field is terrible,” Isaiah said candidly. Divots are found throughout Boxer’s pitch which players have to fill with dirt before kick-off, the penalty boxes are missing grass below the posts and there are no lights. In addition to losing proper infrastructure, moving across town to the Mission Terrace neighborhood means missing out on cemented cultural mementos found at the club’s built roots.

“Being close to the Haight and all its history of the 60s, we try to incorporate those kinds of stories,” Ian told me, adding that at the end of each home match, “Ripple” by The Grateful Dead can be heard through the stadium speakers as fans walk out. “That neighborhood is a big part of the club’s identity.”

As the storm brews over Kezar, Football Case Study Reporter Marvin Heilbronn took to the grounds himself in an effort to understand the local thoughts.

Stepping into the bowl-like stands at Kezar Stadium’s field, which are dug into the ground far below street level, Marvin was immediately immersed in the historic atmosphere of a stadium that looks like it was frozen in time. Fog crept up towards the stadium gates, and to the side, goals were locked up by an American football field goal post. On the track, a woman ran with her son who sported a full Arsenal kit. On the pitch, a sign read, “FIELD CLOSED.”

Under a sun-filled sky painted with drifting fluffy clouds, Marvin met San Franciscans of all ages, backgrounds and interests — an accurate depiction of the melting pot that is the bustling city.

In every conversation, Marvin felt the love the community had for Kezar Stadium and its amenities. From the history the park has witnessed — groundbreaking concerts and early 49ers games — to the public offerings — well kept bathrooms, a kempt pitch, massive running track —; everyone held a shared appreciation for the facilities, and simultaneously, not one person spoke about needing a $10 million renovation.

SF City FC before a practice at Beach Chalet Athletic Fields. Photographed by Jonathan Borruso

On the other hand, a few parkgoers did acknowledge SF City and the anger some have felt around the city. “I have definitely heard and felt the frustration that the city is not supporting a local team, and that they are putting a whole new team together,” Ray, a San Francisco father whose son plays football in the area, told Marvin. “Whatever they can do to bring in energy to this part of the city is great and I hope it's with an existing team with an existing following. That seems like the right, and honestly easier, way to go.

Dane, an Ohio native turned Californian in 2018, said though he felt the whole situation was slightly disappointing, the new club’s presence could be an exciting change in dynamic, “[GCFC] seems like something that would replace existing revenue, existing fans,” he stated. “But with that being said, people are gonna read about a new team, and they're gonna think ‘Oh, there's a new team, maybe I'm interested in this,’ … I think it’ll bring in more fans overall for this league of soccer.”

A lot of people at the park thought like Dane and expressed their interest in fostering greater energy and communal pride in their own backyards. Kezar Union’s Asa echoed this feeling, and suggested that their club can be that gateway into collective belonging.

“The impact of SF City FC extends far beyond just those who are interested in football. All the jerseys we make, all the art that you see on them, they really do a great job of reflecting San Francisco Bay Area values,” Asa, a 17-year-old founding member of Kezar Union explained, alluding to the SF City crest that features two local landmarks: the Golden Gate Bridge and Sutro Tower, a radio tower that looms noticeably in the hills.

18-year-old Nate, a fellow founding member of Kezar Union, added on with his personal reasons for showing up, saying, “I am not even a super big soccer fan. I can barely understand how the game works, but just coming out with these guys and playing the drum — it's just so fun to be a part of this community. I'm just grateful to be a part of it all.”

Amidst this cautious optimism, Marvin additionally picked up on a layer of confusion in these on-scene conversations.

A handful of people he spoke with had SF City and GCFC confused and some hadn’t even heard about the situation at all. In regards to GCFC, John, a five-year San Francisco resident from Southern California, shared a statement that will not surprise those in touch with America’s football culture:

“I live close, so I'd probably go to a game or two, okay, but I don't know that I'm going out of my way. But I also don't go watch [minor league] baseball either, you know. So it's like, if the San Jose Earthquakes moved up here, then yeah, I'd go see them.”

The San Jose Earthquakes, the Bay Area’s only MLS team, seems to be at the top of the radars for folks like John due to its Major League name, a connotation that deems teams not associated with the megacorporation a minor business. Quality of play in either league aside, the MLS versus USL conversation can’t be had without acknowledging the fact that a USL team cannot enter the MLS realm based on skill and merit alone due to a closed off structure instead.

New Zealand-born Calvin Lee, whom Marvin met inside Kezar, felt badly for SF City, a team he sees on the other side of the new MLS NEXT Pro rollout. “I think it's just a reflection of the fragility and volatility in US Soccer which seems like a real for-profit structure where clubs with often really rich history just get pushed to the sides,” he weighed in. “I see the structure the MLS is trying to roll out, similar to the Premier League in which the 2nd teams of MLS teams play against each other for more than just a summer season, but I think it is pretty sad for teams like SF City who are on the other side.”

Creative Director Ian, who in the recent days has had to correct many people that say MLS NEXT Pro is better quality than USL League Two, says this misconception stems from a problem with the U.S. Soccer Federation as a whole. “Everything is so fragmented, and the average American soccer fan isn’t going to know the nuance between this different stuff,” he said, pointing to all the different leagues in the triangle-like, top-down formation of the sport. “The word ‘MLS’ has so much cachet.”

Pete, standing on his two feet in Kezar’s stands, told Marvin, “We are here, and we’re not going anywhere… we will be a home for everyone who wants to help build something that is here to help the city and to serve this city through the beautiful game.”

Ben Nichols

Ben Nichols

Ben Nichols

Ben Nichols

Ben Nichols

Ben Nichols

When I initially came across this story of a smaller football club supported by staunch virtual and physical support, I was immediately reminded of San Diego Loyal Soccer Club, a USL Championship football club 500 miles south of San Francisco that faced similar beginnings to SF City. However, these beginnings of inadequate infrastructure and MLS intrusion led to its eventual end.

SD Loyal made their debut in 2020, and as soon as the roots were laid, the city grew infatuated. Supporter groups — namely the Rainbow Loyals, Section 109 and Chavos de Loyal — formed, the club’s social media presence developed a personality of its own, a rivalry with the bordering Phoenix Rising F.C. in Arizona ensued and the club’s tiny but mighty stadium, Torero Stadium, was consistently packed from kick-off to the 90th minute — a rarity more often than not for clubs in the USL.

SD Loyal chairman and San Diego-native Andrew Vassiliadis always knew that the city loved football. He first saw it in the 80s when he watched his father, a Greek-born ex-professional football player, admire the local football club the San Diego Sockers, and he saw the love even more when he coached football at San Diego schools. So with this passion in mind coupled with an interest in growing football in California, when he read a Sports Illustrated article in 2019 confirming a partnership between Landon Donovan, former MLS superstar, and sports entrepreneur Warren Smith, that would bring a USL team into San Diego, Andrew wanted in. He joined the two at O’Brien’s Pub on Convoy St. to discuss plans, and the rest is history.

From its conception, the team agreed that SD Loyal’s priority was honoring San Diego through every step of their football journey, from its crest designed by Patrick Cinco that’s inspired by local motifs such as California’s golden poppies and 16th century Spanish architecture found on Torero grounds, to the consistent and honest dialogue held with the community. At the club, everything was looked at through the lens of growing loyalty. Even through a global pandemic and tumultuous seasons, the staff remained tight-knit, the fans were listened to, and the creatives on the team were given free reign to capture San Diego and the community how they saw it: front row and center.

“When I first got to San Diego, I knew the energy was different,” said Photographer Ryan Young who served as head of social at Loyal until 2022. Originally from Wisconsin, Ryan began freelance documentation for the team once a month as the club’s soil was still being placed. On his first visit to town, his assignment was to document a fan who was getting the SD Loyal badge tattooed on his arm. He realized then that this club would be big — but when he attended the sold-out home opener, he realized the club was even bigger than he thought. “It was a magical soccer environment.”

As he moved from freelance to full-time, his role at Loyal further engrained him in the community, leading him to feel like he had been in San Diego much longer than he actually had. He took time to speak with all members on the team, from those on the field to the bench. He met the player's families in the stands and he produced videos that used authentic conversations so fans could hear actual voices — with all he did, he aimed to make people feel things.

“We got to tell stories we wanted to tell,” said Ben Nichols, SD Loyal’s Director of Photography, adding that the USL’s independence gives you freedom to experiment with ideas alongside heightened creativity since funding can be on the smaller side. A stand-out project for Ben was directing and shooting the ‘Siempre Leal’ (‘Always Loyal’ in Spanish) kit release which paid homage to San Diego’s Mexican community by using a design inspired from Talavera Tiles, a world renowned style of ceramic originating from 1500s Mexico. Inspired by ranches and charros he saw on a drive through San Diego, Ben and the team were able to collaborate with the local Rancho La Laguna and its affiliated horseriders for the launch’s photoshoot. For the photographed campaign, young horeriders can be seen riding a horse or standing side-by-side with a lasso in hand while wearing the ‘Siempre Leal’ kit.

While the SD Loyal seasons progressed, so did rumors of an MLS expansion, leaving Loyal’s future on shaky ground.

Andrew, alongside the rest of the team, always knew that an MLS team was going to come in around 2025, and when he initially signed on for Loyal, he felt maybe there would be a chance for collaboration if they had time to build and create — and build and create they did. From sold-out nights and friendlies against Liga MX’s Xolos and Bundesliga’s Borussia Dortmund, to being honored by the USL in 2021 with the Community Engagement Award to leading initiatives supporting youth programs, local businesses and military veterans, Loyal felt like an immovable community pillar.

MLS chatter heightened, and SDFC was officially announced as the MLS’ 30th club following their payment of a $500 million expansion fee. Andrew reaffirmed Loyal’s presence in the community with a written statement in May 2023 in which he stated, “We aren’t going anywhere.”

For six months, leaders at Loyal had been searching far and wide for space that could accommodate new training facilities, academy players and a venue that could hold over 6,000 fans, a nonnegotiable if the club wanted to continue. Though Terero Stadium was home, the club was actively losing money every year by not being able to sign television contracts and not offering packages found in large stadiums.

During this time of uncertainty, Andrew and his team were trying their best to make something work. “We looked at everything, and I offered everything,” he explained to me on the phone. “But I was met with nothing.”

10% of profits from the ‘22 “Siempre Leal” kit were donated to the Chicano Federation, a local nonprofit organization. Photographed by Ben Nichols

SDFC’s inaugural home match on March 1 broke the Snapdragon attendance record when over 34,000 fans bought tickets to watch the club take on St. Louis City. Photographed by Alejandro Gutiérrez Mora

SDFC’s home grounds, Snapdragon Stadium, a facility located on the San Diego State University campus with a 35,000 capacity, opened in 2022 following years of construction and planning bids. Photographed by Alejandro Gutiérrez Mora

Chavos, an SDFC supporter group, originated as an SD Loyal supporter group before the USL Championship clubs folded. Photographed by Alejandro Gutiérrez Mora

All the while, unattractive suggestions such as moving the team 220 miles north to Santa Barbara or dropping down a level to USL League I were thrown in the air, when finally, a contract in 2023 to sign with San Diego State University to use the school’s Snapdragon Stadium facility — where the MLS team was also set to play — came to fruition. With 24 hours left on the clock to sign it, the contract was cancelled. The following August, Andrew announced that the fourth season would be SD Loyal’s last. Throughout the video announcement, tears welled in his eyes.

Though all is said and done, SD Loyal still lives on for many people in San Diego. It is not uncommon to see the club’s name mentioned in San Diego-focused news outlets or Instagram comments, and lovers of the club still proudly wear their Loyal kits in the metropolitan beach town. A “Loyal Legacy” book which detailed the clubs total history and statistics with original stories and photography was released in limited quantities by the club; and fans left no copy behind.

Following the fold of SD Loyal, a large chunk of the former employees moved on to work for the new MLS side, ultras groups transformed to focus support on SDFC, and Sycuan Casino and Resort, a former partner of SD Loyal, signed on to become a founding partner of the new club, awarding them with space on their tribal reservation for a dedicated professional training facility. “I have no ill will towards anyone that moves on,” Andrew said confidently. “They’re just passersby in this weird system.”

Ben, Loyal’s previous Photography Director, is now on retainer with SDFC as a club photographer where he says the MLS matches are filled with amazing energy and atmosphere. 34,506 tickets were sold for the club’s homeopener, breaking an attendance record at Snapdragon Stadium, a 35,000-seat facility. And for this season thus far, MLS attendance tracker reports the average amount of tickets being sold sits at 28,509 — proving that a crowd for football in San Diego was here all along, but it showed up too late for SD Loyal.

“I struggle with understanding the whole, ‘you’re not major, you’re USL,’” Andrew explained to me. “It’s a knife fight trying to get people to understand.”

Towards the end of our conversation, after weighing the similarities in the two club’s stories — the amount the teams love their home cities, the way they integrate city history into the club, collaborations with integral members of the community — I felt inclined to ask Andrew if he had any advice for SF City.

Following Landon Donovan’s mantra of, “how you do anything is how you do everything,” an often quoted phrase at the club, Andrew urged the San Francisco club of a few things: sit with your crowd, hear their stories, look to community for support, and most importantly, enjoy these moments.

In cyclical fashion, the underlying message of the 70s-era SNACK concert at Kezar Stadium — the community needs public resources, with athletics being listed first — has returned to the same place the concert was held, with the venue itself now being added to the chopping block. But this time, there is no rock-and-roll superstar or hall of fame athlete showing up to advocate for the disenfranchised: the stage will be filled by those affected.

As the team embarks on its 2025 campaign, the future surrounding the club, its location and more information regarding GCFC remains generally unknown. Ian said his number one hope in the community is that the support felt at home matches stays consistent. “Hopefully everyone sticks together, bands together, then we show out and let our play and vibe do the talking.”

On the other hand, the supporters, namely Kezar Union, hope for conversation with the Mayor.

“I think the first thing that we initially wanted was support from someone like the Mayor…we were a little frustrated that he chose to support a new club coming into the city, rather than a club that's already existing in the city,” Isa said, with Asa adding that social media messages and emails to the mayor have gone unanswered.

Goal posts tied up to an American football flag post on Kezar Stadium’s grounds. Photographed by Jonathan Borruso

“What it feels like to me, is that this new club feels that they have to force us out in order to play,” Isaiah added. “They’d rather take everything that we’ve built and use things they’ve tried to copy from us with logos and colors instead of working together.”

As it stands, there are many questions left on the table, and they are not just dedicated to San Francisco’s Mayor; they’re for everyone involved in football leadership within America. As USL teams scrounge for access to infrastructure and grassroots organizations are left without a place at the drawing board, will the project that is growing the global game in the United States succeed?

As heard through the varying voices in this piece, many people dipping their toe into football first fall in love with the game when they’re impacted personally. Whether that be the euphoria felt while sitting in the stands of a lively match, or the warmth that is exchanged between strangers who follow the same club — it is in these evocative instances where people realize connection stems from collective unity. If local clubs continue being ignored, and access to football matches are moved further away from its people, the opportunity for this community building at the roots will be left in the dust.

If we want to grow the game, we must nurture the grass; but we first have to plant the seed. — FH