Boxer Stadium (also known as Matthew J. Boxer Stadium) is a soccer stadium in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for "Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. Located in Balboa Park, the stadium has a capacity of 3,500. It is owned and operated by the

San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department The San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department is the city agency responsible for governing and maintaining all city-owned parks and recreational facilities in San Francisco, California. The Recreation & Parks Department also runs Sharp Park i ...

and is the only public

soccer-specific stadium Soccer-specific stadium is a term used mainly in the United States and Canada to refer to a sports stadium either purpose-built or fundamentally redesigned for soccer and whose primary function is to host soccer matches, as opposed to a multi-p ...

in San Francisco. Boxer Stadium is the primary home of the century-old San Francisco Soccer Football League.

History

Boxer Stadium opened September 27, 1953 as the Balboa Park Soccer Stadium at a cost of $150,000. The concrete bleachers were added later after the November 1953 Proposition G bond passage. The stadium was renamed in honor of the late SFSFL President, Matthew J. Boxer in the 1990s. Boxer Stadium served as the main venue of the

1982 Gay Games The 1982 Gay Games (Gay Games I) were held in San Francisco, California, United States from August 28 – September 5, 1982. They were the very first Gay Games, an event officially conceived by Tom Waddell, an athlete and activist, along with th ...

Tenants

The stadium is home to the San Francisco Soccer Football League, the Golden Gate Women's Soccer League, and the

San Francisco Unified School District San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), established in 1851, is the only public school district within the City and County of San Francisco, and the first in the state of California. Under the management of the San Francisco Board of Educ ...

CIF Cif is a French brand of household cleaning products owned by the Anglo-Dutch company Unilever, known as Jif in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Middle East and the Nordic countries. Cif was launched in France in 1965 and was marketed in compe ...

high school and middle school soccer. For the 2013 season the San Francisco Stompers FC of the

National Premier Soccer League The National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) is an American men's soccer league. The NPSL is a semi-professional league, comprising some teams that have paid players and some that are entirely amateur. The league is officially affiliated to the U ...

played their home games at Boxer Stadium. High school

Lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensi ...

teams from SHC also use Boxer Stadium. Rugby and

Gaelic Athletic Association The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ga, Cumann Lúthchleas Gael ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include the traditional ...

teams had used Boxer Stadium until the opening of

Ray Sheeran Field Ray Sheeran-Wells Field is a rugby facility on Treasure Island in San Francisco, California that opened in 2005. History The San Francisco Golden Gate RFC leased land and a former PX building from the city of for the purpose of building a fiel ...

Treasure Island ''Treasure Island'' (originally titled ''The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys''Hammond, J. R. 1984. "Treasure Island." In ''A Robert Louis Stevenson Companion'', Palgrave Macmillan Literary Companions. London: Palgrave Macmillan. .) is an adventure n ...

in 2005. In 2016, Boxer Stadium was the home pitch for the San Francisco Rush professional rugby team in the new

PRO Rugby Pro is an abbreviation meaning "professional". Pro, PRO or variants thereof may also refer to: People * Miguel Pro (1891–1927), Mexican priest * Pro Hart (1928–2006), Australian painter * Mlungisi Mdluli (born 1980), South African retired f ...

competition in the United States, however, the team was folded by the league after one season citing an unsuitable venue.

USA Internationals

Boxer Stadium has hosted 16 USA Eagles international rugby union matches. It was the unofficial home of the Eagles from 1996 to 2000, hosting 12 of their 17 test matches. The results are as follows: ''Updated 30 April 2021''

References

External links

SF Recreation & Parks Department
{{Premier Development League stadiums Soccer venues in San Francisco Rugby union stadiums in San Francisco Sports venues completed in 1953 1953 establishments in California Defunct National Premier Soccer League stadiums Ultimate (sport) venues