At 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oracle Park won’t be a ballpark. The infield will be hidden under grass, the foul lines erased into touchlines, and women’s soccer will take over the Giants’ house for the first time.
Bay FC’s game against Washington Spirit is more than a novelty with Bay Bridge views. It’s a declaration that San Francisco belongs in the National Women’s Soccer League, and Bay FC belongs in San Francisco.
That hasn’t always been the case. Since their launch last year, Bay FC have lived mostly in the South Bay, training at San Jose State and playing at PayPal Park alongside the Earthquakes. Plenty of fans make the trip; plenty more don’t. Branding itself as “a team of nine counties” is one thing; asking supporters from Marin or Oakland to clear half a day for a San Jose trip is another. This weekend is a chance to close that distance.
CEO Brady Stewart puts it plainly: “This match on Saturday is going to make history. We will be the most attended NWSL game and professional women’s league match attendance.” By midweek, 38,000 tickets had already been sold. She frames Oracle as both thank-you and experiment — a way to reward fans who’ve balked at the commute and to see if the city will embrace the team. “We wanted to show our fans in San Francisco and the North Bay and the East Bay a little love by playing closer to home.”
The spectacle is designed to feel like San Francisco, not San Jose on tour: DJs outside and inside, Bay rap fixtures like Mistah F.A.B. and P-Lo, a special musical guest, the ballpark on the water. But timing cuts both ways. Bay FC arrive tied for 11th in the 14-team NWSL, winless in five, and without leading scorer Penelope Hocking for 3 to 4 weeks because of a stress injury. Their opponent — last year’s runner-up — sits third.
So while Saturday will break records regardless, it’s also the kind of game that can tilt a season.
For Brandi Chastain, the symbolism is impossible to ignore. She is forever linked to the image that changed women’s sports: the 1999 World Cup, the winning penalty, the black-sports-bra celebration that ricocheted around the world. A quarter-century later, the San Jose native and Bay FC co-founder sees Oracle as the next chapter of that same story.
“Sometimes distance creates barriers,” she said. “By having this match in San Francisco, it allows fans who love women’s soccer, who want to be involved with Bay FC, to come and cheer our team on.”
Then the pivot only a founder makes: “This is not just a celebration. This is a business event, first and foremost. But it’s also something so many have wanted for so long.”
The voice of the streets
How does Bay FC resonate outside the press box? At Alamo Square, contractor Ashlynn Autrey stationed herself next to one of the club’s giant ball sculptures — the team has planted nine of those sculptures across the city to spark buzz. Tourists snapped photos; locals with dogs lingered. Some knew Bay FC. Others were just learning.
“I probably talked to 30 people in an hour and a half,” she said. “One woman told me, ‘We didn’t even have a girls’ soccer team at my school.’ She was so excited that now they’re playing at Oracle with 38,000 people.”
By Thursday, several of the sculptures were graffitied. At Dolores Park, contractors handed out flyers to sunburned parkgoers more interested in beers than soccer. At Willie Mays Plaza the day before, tourists wandered past on their way to Giants merch.
At Alamo Square, though, soccer’s global language came through. “Most of them didn’t know about Bay FC,” Autrey said, “but they are about soccer.” They just call it fútbol or calcio or fussball. Some pressed Bay FC stickers onto their chests before moving on — a small show of support, or maybe just a souvenir from San Francisco.
Inside Rikki’s, the women’s sports bar in the Castro, the club already has a foothold. Bay FC blue shares wall space with Valkyries purple; fans drift in for away-day watch parties and for the Valkyries game nights, when a Chase Center crowd spills down Market.
Co-owner Sara Yergovich grew up splitting time between Giants and A’s games. N; now she plays in San Francisco’s queer leagues and says Bay FC’s following feels tight-knit, even if the Valks have the louder footprint.
“I don’t think I could’ve imagined as a kid watching a baseball game here that I’d ever watch women playing in the same venue,” she said. She and two dozen friends bought seats together for Saturday. The city is ready, even if the habit is new.
Stakes on the field
Head coach Albertin Montoya doesn’t dwell on records. “We’ve been playing some good football, creating chances, but Washington Spirit is one of the best teams in this league. They knocked us out of the playoffs last year in a close game. This could be a game changer.”
Montoya says selection will come down to players who can handle the stage. “It’s those players that show at practice that they understand the plan — and can handle playing in front of 35,000.” He remembers last season’s friendly against Barcelona, a 5-2 loss. “That game proved we could play with the best in the world. It turned our season around. This could do the same.”
Chastain echoes him: “We need fans to show up but, ultimately, we need our team to win.”
Forward Karlie Lema, a Bay Area native, frames it more simply: “We have a lot more to play for than just ourselves — our families, the fans, everyone coming to the game.”
Whether Bay FC “belongs” in San Francisco remains an open question. Stewart can point to the longer arc — a Bay FC training base slated for Treasure Island by 2027, the club’s week-in, week-out presence at Pride events across the region, even a Pride-day bus that once ferried Valkyries fans down to San Jose for a Bay FC doubleheader.
Chastain can point to the six-year-old granddaughter at her side — a child who now waves a Bay FC scarf the way her grandma once waved a Quakes one — and to the tailgates she still evangelizes: show up, make friends, make it yours. Fans in the Castro will point to the simple fact of women playing at Oracle Park, which is its own kind of proof.
For San Francisco, buy-in won’t be built on symbols alone. It will depend on whether Bay FC look like more than visitors in their own market, and whether a record crowd comes back when the venue isn’t a waterfront cathedral. For Stewart, success is a relationship that lasts past the selfie. For Montoya, it’s three points. For Chastain, it’s her granddaughter pumping a fist and deciding the game is hers.
The attendance record will tell one story. The scoreboard may tell the one that settles the question: pop-up, or home?
You can buy tickets to the Bay FC vs. Washington Spirits game HERE starting at $20.
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