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San Francisco Chronicle
a day ago
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
Bay Area scores another major soccer event with 2025 NWSL championship at PayPal Park
PayPal Park, Bay FC's home stadium in San Jose, will host the 2025 NWSL championship game on Nov. 22, the league announced on Friday morning. The league's championship contest was held at Kansas City's women's soccer-specific CPKC Stadium last season and Audi Field in Washington, D.C., the season prior. Bay FC have played home games at PayPal Park the past two seasons and have three years left on a lease with the San Jose Earthquakes-owned stadium. The playoffs will begin the weekend of Nov. 7-9, with the semifinal round set for the following week, Nov. 14-16. 'The NWSL Championship brings another top soccer event to the Bay Area in 2025 and is an indicator of how impactful the Bay Area is in the global soccer landscape, the tremendous support of the game across the region and the widespread passion shown by fans for women's sports,' Bay FC CEO Brady Stewart said in a news release. 'We're looking forward to putting on a top-tier event for fans of both Bay Area soccer and the NWSL.' More For You 'We all played for her': Bay FC, Angel City honor Savy King during match The Bay Area is the site of several significant soccer events in the next year-plus. The 18,000-seat PayPal Park is scheduled to host four matches in the upcoming CONCACAF Gold Cup, including Sunday's contest between the U.S. men's national team and Trinidad and Tobago. Santa Clara's Levi Stadium will host six games of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. PayPal Park has previously hosted the NCAA College Cup, most recently in 2019, but has never hosted an NWSL postseason contest. 'We're thrilled to bring the NWSL Championship back to the West Coast and to a region with as rich a history in women's soccer as the Bay Area,' NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman said in a statement. 'This community's passion for the game, combined with the excitement surrounding one of our newest teams in Bay FC, makes it the perfect setting to celebrate the league's top talent and crown our next champion.' The top eight teams in the NWSL regular season will make the playoffs. Bay FC, who qualified for the first round in its expansion season a year ago, entered Friday tied for eighth place in the league with 15 games left to play. Two NWSL clubs – North Carolina in 2019 and Portland in 2018 – have played a championship game at their home field since the league went to a neutral site format in 2015. The championship game will be played at 5 p.m. Pacific and air on CBS for the fourth consecutive season. Tickets will be available for purchase in August, and the league announced that Bay FC season-ticket holders will get early access.
Fox Sports
22-04-2025
- Sport
- Fox Sports
Bay FC to play an NWSL match at the San Francisco Giants' ballpark
Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Bay FC will play the Washington Spirit in a National Women's Soccer League match at Oracle Park, home of baseball's San Francisco Giants. Bay FC hopes the Aug. 23 match will attract an NWSL record of 40,000-plus fans to the ballpark on the San Francisco Bay. "We're eager for the opportunity to create league history alongside the Washington Spirit by being the first professional women's teams to play at Oracle Park and thankful to the San Francisco Giants for their support of our ambitions,' Bay CEO Brady Stewart said in a statement Tuesday. 'Playing a match in San Francisco allows us to connect with our fans from around the Bay Area in an incredible setting.' Bay FC plays its home matches at PayPal Park in San Jose. The team played last year against the Chicago Stars at Wrigley Field, which drew a league-record 35,038 fans. 'Oracle Park has long been home to iconic events across sports and entertainment, and we're proud to host our first-ever women's professional soccer match this summer. The match represents a milestone not only for the ballpark, but for the entire Bay Area community," said Stephen Revetria, president of Giants Enterprises. The game will be broadcast nationally on CBS. ____ AP soccer: in this topic
Forbes
22-04-2025
- Sport
- Forbes
Bay FC Set To Host Historical Match At Oracle Park
In their second NWSL season, Bay FC is scheduled to host the Washington Spirit at Oracle Park, home of Major League Baseball's San Francisco Giants, which has a stadium capacity of 42,300. Bay FC is scheduled to host the Washington Spirit at Oracle Park, home of Major League Baseball's ... More San Francisco Giants, which has a stadium capacity of 42,300. (Photo by) 'Oracle Park is an iconic venue and has proven across its 25-year history to be a gathering place for the most passionate fans in sports. We're eager for the opportunity to create league history alongside the Washington Spirit by being the first professional women's teams to play at Oracle Park and thankful to the San Francisco Giants for their support of our ambitions,' said Bay FC CEO Brady Stewart. 'Playing a match in San Francisco allows us to connect with our fans from around the Bay Area in an incredible setting.' Bay FC made history in their first season as they were the winningest expansion side in NWSL history with 10 wins. They were also the second expansion side in league history to make the playoffs. The match between the two clubs will mark their second meeting in the 2025 NWSL regular season and their fifth meeting overall. 'As the NWSL and women's sports as a whole continue their tremendous growth, it's exciting to see demand from our fans to play matches in larger venues like Oracle Park. It's also important to expand the regional reach of clubs within their markets,' said Spirit CEO Kim Stone. 'We're honored to be taking part in such a momentous milestone in Bay FC's history and excited to see the crowd and atmosphere in San Francisco this August!' CARY, NORTH CAROLINA - APRIL 19: Kiki Picket #23 of Bay FC celebrates after scoring the team's first ... More goal during the NWSL match between NC Courage and Bay FC at First Horizon Stadium on April 19, 2025 in Cary, North Carolina. (Photo by Jacob Kupferman/NWSL via Getty Images) Although this will be a new milestone for Bay FC, the club has previously participated in a similar initiative set by the Chicago Red Stars last season when they played at Wrigley Field with a crowd of 35,038 fans. When the match took place last August, Bay celebrated a 2-1 win against the Red Stars as they scored a goal in each half. The match set a new NWSL attendance record. Oracle Park has been home to the San Francisco Giants since 2000. As a major venue that has hosted four World Series matchups, an MLB All-Star Game, concerts, and club and international soccer games. 'We're honored to welcome Bay FC and the NWSL to Oracle Park for what will be a truly historic moment,' said Stephen Revetria, President of Giants Enterprises. 'Oracle Park has long been home to iconic events across sports and entertainment, and we're proud to host our first-ever women's professional soccer match this summer. The match represents a milestone not only for the ballpark, but for the entire Bay Area community.' Bay FC finished their inaugural season in the top five in NWSL attendance as PayPal Park holds 18,000 fans. In the opening matches of the 2025 NWSL season, Bay holds a 2-1-2 (wins draws, losses) record and sits in eighth place in the NWSL standings. In their most recent meeting against the Spirit, Washington record a 2-0 win and are currently in third place. The match at Oracle Park is included in Season Ticket Members' plans with a pre-sale opportunity available on April 30. Tickets will be available to the general public on Tuesday, May 6.
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Bay FC to play Washington Spirit at San Francisco's Oracle Park this summer
Bay FC will play at San Francisco's Oracle Park, home of Major League Baseball's Giants, against the Washington Spirit on Aug. 23, the team announced Tuesday. The matchup will mark the first women's professional sports competition held at the waterfront baseball field, which has a capacity of 40,260. According to Bay FC leadership, it will demonstrate the club's ambitions to accommodate fans from other regions of the vast Bay Area. San Jose, where the club's 18,000-capacity home stadium, PayPal Park, is located, is in the region's southernmost county. Advertisement 'That was a big consideration for us,' Bay FC CEO Brady Stewart told ahead of the announcement. 'We're a team for the whole Bay Area, all nine counties. Our fans are incredible, they come down to San Jose to watch us play, and we wanted to bring the game to them here, the fans here in San Francisco and in the North Bay, and our fans in the East Bay. It's a central location for that group of fans.' This will be Bay FC's second match played at a baseball stadium in two years, with the first taking place at Chicago's Wrigley Field during its inaugural season against the Stars (then known as the Chicago Red Stars), whom they beat 2-1 in front of a record-setting crowd of 35,038. Outside of baseball, Oracle Park has been a top destination in San Francisco for major artists' concerts — Kendrick Lamar and SZA will stop there next month on their tour — and men's soccer games, including the 2006 World Cup, friendlies featuring Manchester City, Juventus, and Everton in 2011 and 2013, and a match between Real Madrid and Club America in 2022. The club has wanted to organize a match like this for itself since Stewart joined Bay FC in 2023, she said. She called the team's experience at Wrigley 'inspirational,' the special kind of match that Bay wants to bring its supporters in northern California. Advertisement 'We always knew that we wanted to be playing games around the Bay Area, so you will see more of this from us,' Stewart said. The August game could also offer helpful insight into Bay FC's search for its next home stadium after its five-year lease at PayPal Park, the only soccer-specific venue in the Bay Area, expires. Just over 46 miles — and a drive that can take well over an hour in traffic — separate the two venues, and unlike PayPal, Oracle is centrally located in downtown San Francisco and easily accessible by several modes of public transportation from within San Francisco and other parts of the Bay. That is also the case for two other top women's sports teams: the Oakland Soul women's soccer team in the USL, and the Golden State Valkyries in the WNBA, which begins its inaugural season next month. The Soul recently announced its short-term home at the Oakland Coliseum, where the Athletics used to play, and the Valkyries will share Chase Center with the Golden State Warriors, a short distance south of Oracle. 'There's no other market like that in the country,' Stewart said of the cluster of women's sports teams. 'The support for women's sports in the Bay Area, and from such an authentic and deep and excited place, is incredible, and we're so lucky to be playing here amongst this ecosystem.' Advertisement Brady said the club is still in the early stages of its journey to secure its next home stadium, but that the search will employ the same strategies that led the club to build a permanent training facility on Treasure Island between San Francisco and Oakland that is set to open in 2027. PayPal Park, in the meantime, has proven a suitable temporary locale for a growing fan base. Bay FC played its inaugural home game in 2024 before a sold-out crowd and boasted an average attendance of 13,617 that season. 'It's hard to be an iconic sports franchise without your own home,' Stewart said. 'As we explore where it's gonna be, where the stadium's gonna be, we're gonna be really methodical and data-driven just like we were with our training facility location, and we're gonna look at the whole Bay Area and understand where's the best long-term home for this franchise. We want to be playing 150 years from now.' Bay FC, currently eighth in the league table, will be seeking their first win against the third-ranked Spirit, who were 2024 NWSL finalists and have beaten Bay in each of their last four meetings, including a quarterfinal match last November in Washington, D.C. This article originally appeared in The Athletic. Washington Spirit, Bay FC, Soccer, NWSL 2025 The Athletic Media Company
San Francisco Chronicle
22-04-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
Bay FC will host Washington on Aug. 23 in Oracle Park's first pro women's soccer game
Bay FC will play the Washington Spirit at Oracle Park on Aug. 23, the team announced Tuesday morning. The match will be broadcast on CBS and has a 1 p.m. kickoff. It will be the second time the second-year NWSL team will play on an MLB field after they faced the Chicago Stars at Wrigley Field last season. Tickets will go on sale for season ticket holders on April 30 and for the general public on May 6. 'Oracle Park is an iconic venue and has proven across its 25-year history to be a gathering place for the most passionate fans in sports,' said Bay FC CEO Brady Stewart in a news release. 'We're eager for the opportunity to create league history alongside the Washington Spirit by being the first professional women's teams to play at Oracle Park and thankful to the San Francisco Giants for their support of our ambitions. Playing a match in San Francisco allows us to connect with our fans from around the Bay Area in an incredible setting.' Oracle Park has previously hosted several soccer matches, most recently in 2022 when Real Madrid CF played Mexican side Club America in front of more than 40,000 fans. Oracle has also hosted the U.S. men's national team, Manchester City, Everton and the San Jose Earthquakes. 'We're honored to welcome Bay FC and the NWSL to Oracle Park for what will be a truly historic moment,' said Stephen Revetria, President of Giants Enterprises in a news release. 'Oracle Park has long been home to iconic events across sports and entertainment, and we're proud to host our first-ever women's professional soccer match this summer. The match represents a milestone not only for the ballpark, but for the entire Bay Area community.' After joining the NWSL last year, Bay FC entered into a five-year contract with PayPal Park in San Jose. They are slated to begin training in a new practice facility on Treasure Island in 2027 after breaking ground earlier this year. Investment firm Sixth Street, the principal owner of Bay FC headed by founder Alan Waxman, purchased a 10% stake in the Giants in March. Their Bay FC ownership in 2023 made them the first institutional investor to have a controlling stake in a team in major U.S. sports.
