Super Bowl 50 is coming up soon on February 7 and Santa Clara is changing things to make the city Super Bowl ready. Most of these alterations are things that will make the city a better host, but not everybody is happy with these changes. One change in particular has upset and affected a whole group of people: the Santa Clara Youth Soccer League.

On January fourth, the NFL began working on the Santa Clara Youth Soccer Park next to the 49ers Stadium. Their plan is to turn the field into a media center and then return possession of the field back to the youth soccer league on March second. That leaves the league without a field for 250 soccer games that would be played there during January and February between the 1,500 players in the league.

This media center will hold up to 6,000 members of the media and requires the removal of fences, dugouts and the changing of other parts of the field. Some people fear that the field will be damaged in the efforts to create this “media village, “which would require approximately 6-9 months of setup then re-construction. “All that water is probably pooling underneath those plastic boards, and the cause of that is going to be either generation of bacteria that is probably going to kill the grass, or the grass will drown because it’s underneath these boards,” says Gabe Foo, a Youth Soccer League board member.

In the first week of January, the soccer league sued Santa Clara and the NFL to keep their field for the two months. According to the San Jose Mercury News, “They claimed city leaders illegally allowed the NFL to use the fields for the Super Bowl because a city permit only allows its use for youth soccer and the city didn’t hold a public hearing where the youth league could argue against the deal.” However, on January fourth, Judge Joseph Huber denied the league’s request and has ruled to allow the NFL to use the field until March second. “Without information and communication, we now believe that the city is acting irresponsibly and secretively in an effort that will jeopardize the SCYSL & PAL 2016 Soccer Seasons, and cause serious damage to the Santa Clara Youth Soccer Park,” says a representative from the Santa Clara Police Activities League Organization. On the Santa Clara Youth Soccer website, there is a link to sign a petition to save the soccer park, as well as a letter from the Santa Clara board members.

Another bay area sports team has offered to help these young soccer players: The San Jose Earthquakes are offering the use of their Avaya Stadium main field for the two months that the kids are without a field. This is a great solution to the league’s problem and even gives the players and exciting chance to be able to play in a professional soccer stadium. “It’s unprecedented because we don’t normally rent these facilities out to youth soccer leagues,” Dave Kaval, president of the San Jose Earthquakes, says. “It’s a pretty amazing opportunity to have 14-year-olds play on Avaya’s main field.”