Born out of the Fight to Save the Santa Clara Youth Soccer Park

Stand Up for Santa Clara was started in March 2015, by Burt and Vickie Field, Tino Silva and Steve Robertson.  We are a grass-roots watchdog organization dedicated to educating and engaging Santa Clara citizens.

We became community activists when San Francisco 49ers owner Jed York, former Santa Clara Mayor Jamie Matthews, and City Council Members Dominic Caserta, Pat Kolstad and Jerry Marsalli took action to sell the Santa Clara Youth Soccer Park to the 49ers. The Santa Clara City Council had planned to meet behind closed doors to approve the sale of the city’s soccer park to the 49ers for pennies on the dollar. Jed York wanted the 3-acre soccer park land to build a parking lot and retail shopping center, and he instructed the city council to sell him the city property at a massive discounted rate. York and Matthews also offered no plan to build a new soccer facility.

Leadership from the Santa Clara Youth Soccer League organized a civil protest and brought over 300 soccer players and parents to the Santa Clara City Council Meeting. During that contentious meeting, Santa Clara City Council Members Lisa Gillmor and Theresa O’Neil made a motion to stop the closed door meeting.

Together with broad support from Santa Clara residents, the soccer community and the City Council, we stopped the sale of the soccer park to the 49ers.

Santa Clara Residents Pass Measure R to Protect Parks and Open Space

Our community activism generated enthusiasm and support and in 2019, 90% of Santa Clara residents voted to pass Measure R. The law removed the authority of the 7-person City Council to sell any city parks and open space, and put the decision in the hands of Santa Clara residents.

Our Mission Going Forward