Bay FC announced on Tuesday that it will build a training facility in San Francisco’s Treasure Island neighborhood, set to open in 2027. The site is roughly an hour north of PayPal Park in San Jose where Bay FC plays its home games. Per the NWSL club’s press release, the facility is intended to contain three training fields and sports operations facilities.
Treasure Island — constructed next to the Bay Bridge, which connects San Francisco and Oakland — was originally built for the 1939 World’s Fair. It became a naval station during World War II through 1997 when the station closed and the island was leased to the city of San Francisco.
“Treasure Island provides us an iconic location to continue to build an iconic club – it centers the Bay’s team literally in the middle of the Bay,” said Bay FC CEO Brady Stewart in a club press release. “Having a permanent dedicated space that is built specifically for our players and football operations staff will allow us to continue to attract the best national and international talent and continue our Club’s mission of being a catalyst for innovation and change for our athletes and the community.”
The artificial island has also been the focus of community scrutiny due to its history of hazardous waste and alleged ineffective cleanup while the land is being developed for housing and businesses.
A Bay FC representative told The Athletic: “Treasure Island has been extensively investigated and remediated by a government-led process which has proven it is available for re-use by the public. We are aware of Treasure Island’s history and have worked with a team of experts to choose the location for our facilities with that history in mind. There have been large-scale public and private investments made to make Treasure Island San Francisco’s newest neighborhood and Bay FC is excited to be a part of this growth story. The City and County of San Francisco have been great partners and helping to identify this iconic location for Bay FC.”
The location of Bay FC’s planned training facility. (Photo courtesy of Bay FC)
Residents have criticized the Treasure Island neighborhood, alleging that the Navy’s prolonged use of the site left chemicals and radioactive objects on site, making it unsafe for residential use. Reuters and the San Francisco Chronicle reported in 2019 that families living on the island had been exposed to radioactive and toxic materials.
Reuters’ report stated that, as of its January 2019 publication, “the Navy’s $285.1 million Treasure Island cleanup has unearthed concentrations of lead, dioxins, petroleum and more than 1,000 radioactive items.”
In September 2019, the SF Chronicle published an article asking why Treasure Island was not listed as a Superfund, or Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act site, by the Environmental Protection Agency. Superfund sites are hazardous waste contaminated sites targeted for cleanup by the EPA.
The Chronicle obtained EPA documents showing that Treasure Island’s hazard score, which the EPA uses to measure “the threat to human health and the environment on a 100-point scale,” was 51.78 in 1991, nearly twice the 28.5 threshold for Superfund consideration. That score was also higher than the hazard score for Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, where a 2024 lawsuit filed by Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice alleged the Navy and the EPA failed to properly clean up the site.
The city of San Francisco is currently developing housing on Treasure Island, including low-income affordable homes.
“Bay FC is bringing a whole new level of excitement not just to soccer in the Bay Area, but to women’s sports,” San Francisco mayor London Breed said in the club’s statement. “This also is another major success for Treasure Island, a future neighborhood that will be home to thousands of people, thriving businesses, iconic views, and now a new soccer destination that will bring together our professional players and community from across the Bay Area.”
The groundbreaking for the facility is pending lease approval from the Treasure Island Development Authority and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Bay FC looks to build its new training facility as one of the few in the U.S. specifically designated for a women’s professional team and will be privately financed. The expansion team, in its first season in the NWSL, will continue to play its home games at PayPal Park. Bay FC currently sits ninth in the league, one spot out of playoff position.
(Top photo: Darren Yamashita / Imagn Images)
