Professional soccer coming to San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO - Professional soccer is coming to San Francisco. 

Kezar Stadium has a long history with American football, and now its future lies with another kind of football, what we call soccer.

Mayor Daniel Lurie said the Golden City Football Club will call the stadium home. 

"Kezar Stadium is iconic, and it's going to just get better. $10 million worth of upgrades," Lurie said. "New seats, new field. It's going to be good for the whole community, and we get professional soccer."

The team will join MLS Next Pro, a development league for Major League Soccer. 

Supervisor for the district, Bilal Mahmood, and Phil Ginsburg, head of San Francisco Recreation and Parks, posted on social media about the team's plans to call Kezar home. 

The city said the field will still be available for the city's young athletes to enjoy. 

"San Francisco is the best soccer city in the United States," said Ginsburg. "We have over 30,000 kids playing the beautiful game, on more than 2,000 teams. We are all very excited to welcome Golden City FC to Kezar Stadium in San Francisco."

"I'm going to be introducing legislation next week to kick off this process so we can hopefully have the inaugural of games in 2026," said Mahmood.

San Franciscans are already saying they'll show up. 

"Yeah, 'cause it's right here," said Mike Walker. "Just like the stadium downtown, if it's here, I'll go."

Kezar Pub has a long history tied to the stadium, and is already one of the hotspots to watch soccer.

Owner Cyril Hackett, said he's already talked with the team owner, and is looking forward to being the homebase for Golden City FC fans. 

"Anytime you bring more people to the neighborhood, anytime there's more activity in the area, we obviously see a swell in business," said Hackett.

There are a lot of steps the city and team now have to go through in this public-private partnership.

Kezar Stadium just celebrated its 100th anniversary, and if everything goes to plan, Kezar will be the home of the Golden City Football Club for the next 100 years.