By Vickram Agarwal

“SF City we love you more and more each day, olé olé olé, SF City we love you and Kezar’s where we play, olé olé olé.”

On a foggy Sunday afternoon, that chant rolls across the north stand at Kezar Stadium, drums pounding underneath it, even before the players ever touch the ball. It’s the sound of San Francisco City Football Club.

Founded in 2001, SF City FC is the oldest community-owned soccer club in the United States. The team competes in USL League Two, several rungs below Major League Soccer,

However, what makes SF City so special centers around its community. SF City is majority supporter-owned, meaning that members pay annual dues and, in return, get season tickets, club merchandise, and an actual vote in how the organization is run, including electing the club’s board of directors. The team described their ownership system as based on the belief that “ a local sports team should be an organization ingrained in and reflective of the San Francisco community, rather than a business used for the profit of a select few.”

“SF City FC represents the spirit of San Francisco,” said Asa Vaziri, a student leader with Kezar Union, one of the club’s two supporter groups. “There is a strong spirit of community, just like the city itself.”

That spirit is inseparable from where the team plays. Kezar Stadium, tucked into the southeastern corner of Golden Gate Park, is one of the most storied athletic venues in California. Built in 1925 with a gift from the estate of Mary Kezar, the stadium hosted the San Francisco ’49ers from 1946 to 1970 and has been the site of San Francisco events ever since. Rebuilt in the late 1980s with a smaller footprint, it’s been SF City FC’s home on and off since 2001.

“Kezar has been instrumental to our growth and is an important part of our history,” said Brendan Browne, chair of the SF City FC board of directors. “We love it here.”

For Ozo Umeh, the club’s head of finance, the connection to Kezar is tied to the city itself.

“One of the best parts of being involved with this team is getting to witness the historic Kezar Stadium, which is a pinnacle part of San Francisco and our love for this beautiful city,” Umeh said.

Walking into a home match provides an environment akin to a block party. Fans sing songs, kids run around, and several local restaurants sell food from pop-up tents. The Northsiders, along with Kezar Union, the two main supporter groups, create an environment that is unlike anything else in local sports. Foggy, the team’s mascot based on Karl the Fog, runs through the stands high-fiving fans of all ages. Another club tradition is letting young kids be the ball-kids for every game, creating a strong connection with the youth scene. The club also looks to strengthen its connection with San Francisco Vikings, a local youth soccer organization.

The club has long been intertwined with the City—its official colors of iron and gold pay homage to the City’s official colors and motto, and the Muni logo plays center stage on all its jerseys. In fact, the team has long been known for its SF-themed jerseys, from one detailing a full Muni bus map to another highlighting the strawberry-flavored It’s It, a local ice cream company.

Throughout its existence, SF City has bounced between venues over the years, including Boxer Stadium, USF’s Negoesco Stadium, and Cox Stadium, whenever Kezar wasn’t available. The club has also had real on-field moments to rally around: in 2015, a US Open Cup qualifying match between SF City and Cal FC drew 1,519 fans to a newly refurbished Kezar, a record for that stage of the competition, and the club has twice qualified for the U.S. Open Cup, the country’s oldest ongoing soccer competition.

That resilience is being tested again. A new professional club, Golden City FC, is set to move into Kezar Stadium as part of a 15-year lease with the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department, backed by a promised $10 million-plus in stadium upgrades and an eventual jump to MLS Next Pro. In the meantime, SF City FC has had to find other places to play this season, including SF State’s Cox Stadium, which holds roughly half of Kezar’s capacity. So, while the future location of the club remains unknown, their community-oriented spirit will surely persist, just like the city itself.