Santa Clara May Destroy Youth Soccer Complex So 49ers Can have VIP Stadium Parking

People love their football teams. They are often willing to put up with a lot for the sake of their team. They will justify signing troubled players and keeping guys that run afoul of the law. However, if there is one thing that they love more than there football team it's their kids.

According to some recent reports, the city of Santa Clara and the 49ers may be looking to destroy a youth soccer complex just so the stadium can add some VIP parking.

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When the stadium was being built near the youth soccer complex the 49ers pledged to be good neighbors. That promise didn't last.

In a January 2012 letter team CEO Jed York stated that it was kind of difficult to have the soccer field where it is. It made game day operations a little difficult. At that time he pledged that the 49ers would underwrite the construction of several regulation fields elsewhere in the city so that the thousands of kids that used the field would not go without.

York backtracked on that of course. Now the team plans on not only parking in the soccer complex's lot, but on their game fields as well. The soccer complex will also be forced to shut down on game day and other special events effectively ruining the soccer season.

The city has proposed a plan that will allow the team to do just that and will call for the world class soccer facility to be closed down in two years--just so the 49ers can add VIP parking.

In the aforementioned plan being pushed by the mayor the team isn't going to just take the field and leave the kids hanging, but the plan hinges on whether suitable land can be found.

...in exchange for destroying the soccer park, the 49ers would pay the Santa Clara Unified School District $3 million to build soccer fields on school sites, putting youth soccer in competition with school activities. The team would prepay $15 million in "rent" for a facility that would cost an estimated $50 million to $60 million to replace or relocate -- if land is available.

The Stand Up for Santa Clara Coalition has been started in an attempt to save the soccer complex. You can read more about it here.

[MercuryNews]

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