SAN FRANCISCO — To break a record, Bay FC had to break the rules.
Well, not exactly.
But the second-year expansion franchise’s big dreams of drawing the largest crowd in the history of the National Women’s Soccer League rested its ability to work out a way around a golden rule outlined in the league’s collective bargaining agreement:
No matches in non-soccer venues.
“There was some history back in the early days in the league of some not great experiences on baseball pitches,” said team CEO Brady Stewart, who helped pave the way to Saturday’s match at Oracle Park against the Washington Spirit.
The waterfront home of MLB’s San Francisco Giants has hosted a handful of international friendlies over the years, but this will be the first time it welcomes two women’s teams. And ticket sales so far leads the franchise to believe it will make even more history.
The team announced Wednesday that it had sold more than 35,000 tickets, toppling the attendance record set last year by the Chicago Red Stars in a match at Wrigley Field. Oracle Park can hold upward of 40,000 fans, and limited tickets remain available.
Contrary to the league’s fraught history of playing in converted minor-league baseball stadiums, which often featured artificial turf, dirt infields and subpar training facilities, Stewart ensured the experience at Oracle Park will be “world-class” — for players and fans.
“To have the players play a match at a baseball pitch, you have to be incredibly careful,” Stewart said. “We had to work with the players association, with our players, with the league and with the Washington Spirit. … We looked at every element of the player experience.”
Bay FC typically plays its home games in San Jose at PayPal Park, where they have averaged 13,400 this season. But Oracle Park has become like a second home for some Bay FC players, who have made multiple visits before and after the match was announced to confer with groundskeepers, tour the facilities and raise awareness. In April, they threw out a ceremonial first pitch and, on another occasion, posted up on a barge in McCovey Cove.
Even Stewart took part in the marketing effort, passing out fliers to fellow parents at her 14-year-old daughter’s soccer matches.
It seems to have paid off, with record-setting ticket sales and increases among first-time buyers. The team has sold three times more tickets to fans in San Francisco and Marin County than it does for the typical game in San Jose, Stewart said.
While the match in San Francisco coincides with the team breaking ground on its future headquarters on Treasure Island, Stewart said Bay FC has no intentions of abandoning its fans in the South Bay.
“We love playing at PayPal, we love our fans in San Jose,” she said. “We are a team for all nine counties. It’s one of the things we love about Treasure Island: You can be on that island and you see just about all nine counties. We will always want to access our fans across the Bay Area, whether that’s training in San Francisco, playing in San Jose or doing more big event games in other locations outside PayPal Park.”
Fans in attendance will be treated to a halftime show featuring P Lo and Mistah F.A.B., featuring a special guest that Stewart only described as a “Bay Area legend.” As they arrive at the ballpark, fans will be greeted by DJs spinning tunes at various entrances.
A team of groundskeepers from the Giants and NWSL are hard at work removing the pitcher’s mound and sodding a temporary grass surface over the infield dirt, and they will have to convert it back for baseball by the time the Giants begin their next home stand on Tuesday, barely 72 hours after the match.
“It is a pretty magnificent transformation,” Stewart said.
To get approval to waive Section 16.1 of the CBA, Bay FC’s players had to petition their peers in the Players’ Association to vote with them. The bylaw clearly states, “No matches or training shall occur on any surface that requires substantial conversion to the dimensions of a soccer field.”
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Caprice Dydasco and Emily Menges were “involved from Day One,” Stewart said.
“We brought the concept to them from the beginning and the way we framed it was, ‘We’re not interested in doing this unless it’s something that sounds right for you.’”
Having experienced the match at Wrigley Field as visitors, “they felt the excitement of that match and were excited to figure out how to do it here,” Stewart said.
The idea of playing at Oracle Park, though, was ruminating even before Bay FC played in front of 35,038 fans in Chicago. Three months into existence, the expansion club hosted FC Barcelona in a friendly, drawing 14,187 to PayPal Park.
“And we immediately said, ‘OK, how are we going to raise the bar for ourselves next year?’” Stewart said. “We are a club with ambitions to be a global sports franchise and part of that is always pushing the envelope. … And we’d have the opportunity to break the league attendance record. So it seemed like a great move on all fronts.”