On Monday night San Diego’s City Counsel overwhelmingly approved the transfer of the lease for the San Diego Polo Fields from the San Diego Polo Club
On Monday night San Diego’s City Counsel overwhelmingly approved the transfer of the lease for the San Diego Polo Fields from the San Diego Polo Club to Surf Cup Sports LLC. At the conclusion of stoppage time following the 90 minute meeting, the vote stood at 8-1 in favor of Surf Cup Sports. The news comes as a relief to thousands of youth soccer players, coaches and parents who call the Polo Fields home.
San Diego Surf Soccer Club is one of the regions oldest and most prestigious youth soccer clubs. Surf is a member of the United States Soccer Development Academy and regularly places their players into youth National Teams and boast several alumni who have been capped at the senior international level. While Surf Cup Sports LLC and San Diego Surf Soccer Club are not technically the same entity, the allocation of the property to Surf Cup Sports effectively enables Surf Soccer Club to continue utilizing the field for their training sessions and home league games.
In addition to the day-to-day usage of the fields, Surf Cup Sports also hosts a number of larger events throughout the year. The most prestigious of these events is the soccerloco Surf Cup that takes place every summer during late July and early August. The soccerloco Surf Cup has been running for over 35 years now and is widely regarded as the “best of the best” youth soccer tournament in the country. Elite players from across the nation travel to San Diego over the summer to showcase their skills and pit their abilities against the toughest competition around.
College coaches and scouts come to San Diego in droves to identify players worthy of those precious scholarship dollars, and they find them at the soccerloco Surf Cup. With all stories, there are two sides. While the awarding of the lease to the Polo Fields to Surf Cup Sports is largely viewed as a positive action, there is fierce opposition from local residents who claim that the noise from the field and the traffic generated by the large events negatively impacts their quality of life.
“We have up to 4,000 cars parking at the field so it’s just a nightmare getting in and out of my home. The noise, the dust, it’s a significant inconvenience besides I’m confident that it’s reducing the value of my property,” proclaimed local resident Christopher Gann. According to Maria Severson, an attorney hired by 50+ local homeowners, there is language within the deed to the land that stipulates terms of use allowing for quiet and non- commercial activities like jogging and equestrian events, but not things that would attract large crowds.
“They brag about having over 100,000 people coming to these events. By definition, the deed prohibits a large assembly of people. How do you reconcile that?” Severson asked. Severson plans on filing suit, and the outcome of that action remains to be seen, but for now Surf Cup Sports is focused on hosting the next soccerloco Surf Cup this weekend July 30-August 1st.
