Bay FC will play at San Francisco’s Oracle Park, home of Major League Baseball’s Giants, against the Washington Spirit on Aug. 23, the team announced Tuesday.
The matchup will mark the first women’s professional sports competition held at the waterfront baseball field, which has a capacity of 40,260. According to Bay FC leadership, it will demonstrate the club’s ambitions to accommodate fans from other regions of the vast Bay Area. San Jose, where the club’s 18,000-capacity home stadium, PayPal Park, is located, is in the region’s southernmost county.
“That was a big consideration for us,” Bay FC CEO Brady Stewart told The Athletic ahead of the announcement. “We’re a team for the whole Bay Area, all nine counties. Our fans are incredible, they come down to San Jose to watch us play, and we wanted to bring the game to them here, the fans here in San Francisco and in the North Bay, and our fans in the East Bay. It’s a central location for that group of fans.”
This will be Bay FC’s second match played at a baseball stadium in two years, with the first taking place at Chicago’s Wrigley Field during its inaugural season against the Stars (then known as the Chicago Red Stars), whom they beat 2-1 in front of a record-setting crowd of 35,038.
The…
