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With shovels in the ground and X marking the spot — fittingly, on Treasure Island — Bay FC is moving to San Francisco.
The second-year club is not officially departing from its shared home stadium with the San Jose Earthquakes at PayPal Park in San Jose — yet. But the players themselves are headed north.
With the official groundbreaking of its state-of-the-art sports performance center located at the center of Treasure Island on Thursday morning, all signs point in the direction of the second-year franchise eventually relocating.
The training facility, a landmark development as San Francisco’s first professional sports complex solely dedicated to a women’s sports team, will sprawl 8.5 acres and open ahead of Bay FC’s fourth season in early 2027.
Thursday’s groundbreaking ceremony included San Francisco mayor Daniel Lurie, District 6 supervisor Matt Dorsey, and several Bay FC executives, including Kay Cossington, who was the first women’s technical director at the English Football Association and was recently hired as the lead for the NWSL club’s sporting side.
“We talk a lot about having a local heart, but a global reach,” Cossington said. “Our heart is here in San Francisco.”
She called Treasure Island “an optimal place to live” for players and staff, and 10-year NWSL veteran and Menlo Park native Abby Dahlkemper agreed.
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“I think our quality of life would just be great to be housed close to San Francisco and have everywhere to go,” Dahlkemper said.
Earlier this year, Bay FC leased an office floor in SoMa for its new corporate headquarters after moving out of a coworking office. Then last month, the team made its San Francisco debut, borrowing the Giants’ Oracle Park for a record-setting afternoon against the Washington Spirit.
The diamond was converted to a pitch and 40,091 fans flocked to the ballpark. It marked not only a new NWSL single-game attendance record, but the most-attended women’s professional sports game ever in the United States.
During his opening remarks at Thursday’s ceremony, Lurie, who owns a stake in Bay FC, said the project at Treasure Island “brings Bay FC one step closer to San Francisco.”
Dorsey even mentioned the possibility of a new Bay FC stadium located in the city as he looked toward the team’s founders during his on-stage remarks: “I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that [a stadium] is also in my district, where it belongs.”
Bay FC’s new development is 49 miles — and a nightmare of a rush-hour commute — away from PayPal Park and many of the players’ San Jose housing accommodations. Cossington and team CEO Brady Stewart have both alluded to affordable housing and commute time being a factor in the organization’s thorough site-selection process, which included scouting more than 70 locations.
Treasure Island was deemed the right fit.
“Obviously we spend way more time training than playing in a game,” Dahlkemper said. “The priority will be to be closer to San Francisco and to be able to even be housed on Treasure Island.”
In digging their shovels into the grounds, the NWSL’s newest franchise and the city of San Francisco materialized a pledge to the investment in both the future of women’s sports and in the development of the 88-year-old man-made island built by the Army Corps of Engineers and accessible from the Bay Bridge.
Lurie, Dorsey, and Bay FC Co-Chair Alan Waxman all highlighted how the training facility’s blueprint sketches out more than just a practice pitch — it draws out a pivotal shift in how women athletes are supported at the professional level. As the sole Bay FC player representative in attendance, Dahlkemper shared her firsthand experience coming up through a league still pushing for parity.
“For a while, women’s sports and soccer teams were just put into men’s facilities and just adapted to that.
“To have this women’s-specific facility that can tailor to what we need. It allows us to take care of business on the field and be treated the way that we deserve, the way that we know women’s football is moving.”
From nursing rooms and dedicated locker spaces to nutrition cafes and even the simple inclusion of properly designed women’s restrooms, the facility will represent a step forward.
“We’re setting a benchmark. The growth of the NWSL from when I started to now is just incredible,” the former U.S. women’s national team defender said. “It’s really special to have an infrastructure that’s women’s specific and here in the bay we’re able to set the standard that people need to catch up or follow along.”
Cossington, too, sees Bay FC’s bold, boundary-pushing development as progress for both the club and the sport.
“We are moving the goalpost for women’s football and we hope to set a standard here that many other clubs will follow.”
Waxman noted that Thursday was a celebration of how Bay FC has soared from its “startup to growth phase,” but the club’s on-pitch action doesn’t quite match yet. The second-year franchise is struggling after earning a playoff berth in its inaugural season.
Bay FC’s 12th-place standing in a 14-team league and a winless stretch that dates back to June 7 suggests the club has still has plenty of work ahead between the lines.