Men's pro soccer is coming back to San Francisco

San Francisco Chronicle​

09-05-2025

Professional men's soccer is coming back to San Francisco after a decade-long absence, Mayor Daniel Lurie was to announce Friday.
Golden City Football Club, a new independent team in the second division of Major League Soccer, will begin play in 2026 or 2027 at Kezar Stadium in Golden Golden Gate Park.
The 100-year-old stadium, which is generally open to the public for workouts and interscholastic competition, will get a new natural grass playing field and modern irrigation system, all new seats with backrests, a sound system and a high-definition LED scoreboard.
The $10 million investment will be paid by the team's ownership group, led by co-founders Geoff Oltmans and Marc Rohrer, Bay Area finance executives and San Francisco soccer dads who both played collegiately.
GCFC will play an initial 15 home games a season at Kezar, not including playoffs, in what Lurie described as a 'public-private partnership' in his statement.
'This announcement is more than just a new team — it represents a new era for San Francisco sports,' said Lurie. 'The new GCFC team will bring new life to Kezar Stadium and the neighborhoods around it, and investments in the stadium will benefit the whole community.'
Major League Soccer is the top U.S. pro league in the sport and the San Jose Earthquakes are its Bay Area franchise. There are two minor leagues below that: MLS Next Pro and the United Soccer League Championship division.
MLS NEXT Pro was launched by MLS in 2022 to create a competitive environment where each team's reserve players could get game experience. The Earthquakes' MLS Next Pro team, The Town FC, plays at St. Mary's College in Moraga.
MLS Next Pro now has 27 reserve teams and two independent clubs. GCFC would be the league's third independent team.
The USL Championship is a competing league that has 24 teams, including the Oakland Roots, who play at the Oakland Coliseum.
Lurie is expected to introduce a resolution to approve the permit agreement at the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, with a board vote scheduled for May 20. Separately, the Recreation and Park Commission will consider the permit agreement for Kezar at its monthly meeting on Thursday.
'This partnership is a game-changer — not just for soccer, but for everyone who plays, runs, cheers and gathers at this historic stadium,' said Phil Ginsburg, general manager of the Recreation and Parks Department. 'It means San Francisco will have a world-class facility that serves both professional athletes, our school programs and the everyday residents who have made Kezar a beloved community space for generations.'
The GCFC partnership agreement calls for a 15-year permit for the team to play but not practice at Kezar, with two 5-year renewal options that include an annual payment of $1 million for maintenance. Oltmans said the team will start with 14 home games, most on weekend days, in a season that runs from February through October. Practices may take place at other soccer fields in the park system.
'It is a little bit nonsensical to us that professional soccer doesn't exist in a much bigger form in the city,' said Oltmans, 52, who lives on Potrero Hill and runs the capital markets team at Silver Lake Partners in Menlo Park. Rohrer, 51, lives in the Lower Haight and is a financial adviser at Wells Fargo.
They both played college soccer — Oltmans at Dartmouth and Rohrer at Fresno State. Each has two boys who grew up playing in youth soccer leagues in the city.
In a telephone interview Thursday, Oltmans declined to discuss details of the team's financing but said the group is still adding investors to a partnership that may end up with more than a dozen, all Bay Area-based.
'We truly intend this to be a community team,' said Oltmans. 'We are excited to engage with the broader San Francisco community and its even deeper soccer community.'
In the statement released by Lurie, Charles Altchek, President of MLS NEXT Pro and executive vice president of MLS, said the expansion team 'aligns with our mission to expand the reach of the game and foster a vibrant soccer culture in communities across North America. The vision and commitment demonstrated by Geoff, Marc, and their team — especially their investment in Kezar Stadium — reflect the standards we seek in our clubs and partners.'
Though the Earthquakes, which began in 1996 as the Clash, have always played in San Jose, San Francisco has a history of professional soccer at Kezar.
In 2016, the San Francisco Deltas of the North American Soccer League (NASL) announced their arrival by installing 4,000 of the old plastic orange seats from recently demolished Candlestick Park to replace some of the wooden benches at Kezar. They also installed new stadium lights.
The peak moment came in the Deltas' inaugural season when a near capacity crowd of 9,691 fans packed Kezar to see the team beat the New York Cosmos in the NASL Championship Game on Nov. 12, 2017. Two weeks later the club announced it was closing down. The league itself also folded.
'The Deltas proved that there is demand for professional soccer in San Francisco,' Geoff said. 'Unfortunately the league was on unstable financial footing. The Deltas failed because the league failed.'
Oltmans said MLS NEXT Pro will not fail because it has the support of MLS, which has been around for 30 years.
The second tier league continues to expand, and GCFC's permit allows the home season to play as many as 20 games a season, not including playoffs. A limited number of night games will be allowed.
'The energy and excitement that big games bring to the area not only support our business but also help our community thrive, said Cyril Hackett, owner of the Kezar Pub near the stadium. 'We look forward to carrying on our tradition of hospitality and can't wait to see GCFC fans fill the pub before and after matches.'
San Francisco City FC, a USL League Two team, will also continue to play some games at Kezar.
The stadium track will remain open and both Mission High and Sacred Heart Cathedral will continue to play home football games at Kezar. The stadium is also the site of the annual Turkey Day Game for the San Francisco public high school championship and the annual Bruce Mahoney game between St. Ignatius College Prep and Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep.
'We are proud to be playing at Kezar and are mindful of the history,' Oltmans said. 'We are going to preserve that legacy.'