The Polo Fields is a large multi-purpose stadium and sporting field located on the

West Side West Side or Westside may refer to: Places Canada * West Side, a neighbourhood of Windsor, Ontario * West Side, a neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia United Kingdom * West Side, Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland * Westside, Birmingham ...

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

Golden Gate Park Golden Gate Park is an urban park between the Richmond District, San Francisco, Richmond and Sunset District, San Francisco, Sunset districts on the West Side (San Francisco), West Side of San Francisco, California, United States. It is the Lis ...

. Despite its name,

polo Polo is a stick and ball game that is played on horseback as a traditional field sport. It is one of the world's oldest known team sports, having been adopted in the Western world from the game of Chovgan (), which originated in ancient ...

is rarely played on the Polo Fields. The facility has a multitude of uses. There are six regulation

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

pitches on the grass field, surrounded by a .67-mile

cycle track A cycle track or cycleway (''British'') or bikeway (''mainly North American''), sometimes historically referred to as a sidepath, is a separate route for cycles and not motor vehicles. In some cases cycle tracks are also used by other users such ...

. Wooden bleachers flank the north and south sides of the cycle track surrounding the field. Surrounding the grass field, cycle track, and bleachers is a dirt track used for

running Running is a method of terrestrial locomotion by which humans and other animals move quickly on foot. Running is a gait with an aerial phase in which all feet are above the ground (though there are exceptions). This is in contrast to walkin ...

and

horse riding Equestrianism (from Latin , , , 'horseman', 'horse'), commonly known as horse riding ( Commonwealth English) or horseback riding (American English), includes the disciplines of riding, driving, and vaulting. This broad description includes the ...

History

The Polo Fields has been the site of diverse events over the years. The Polo Fields was originally called the Golden Gate Park Stadium and opened in 1906 as a

velodrome A velodrome is an arena for track cycling. Modern velodromes feature steeply banked oval tracks, consisting of two 180-degree circular bends connected by two straights. The straights transition to the circular turn through a moderate easement ...

Cyclists Cycling, also known as bicycling or biking, is the activity of riding a bicycle or other types of pedal-driven human-powered vehicles such as balance bikes, unicycles, tricycles, and quadricycles. Cycling is practised around the world for pur ...

from all over the West Coast have used the track for over a century. In 1967, the

Human Be-In The Human Be-In was an event held in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park Polo Fields on January 14, 1967. It was a prelude to San Francisco's Summer of Love, which made the Haight-Ashbury district a symbol of American counterculture an ...

counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Ho ...

music concert was held on the Polo Fields. The Polo Fields was also the home field for San Francisco-based rugby clubs in the Northern California Rugby Football Union from the 1960s through the early 1990s. It was the site of the Golden Gate Rugby Tournament, held in April, during this time.

Tenants

Cycling Cycling, also known as bicycling or biking, is the activity of riding a bicycle or other types of pedal-driven human-powered vehicles such as balance bikes, unicycles, tricycles, and quadricycles. Cycling is practised around the world fo ...

cross country running Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and soil, earth, pass through woodlands and ope ...

and

ultimate frisbee Ultimate frisbee (officially simply called ultimate) is a non-contact team sport played with a disc flung by hand. Ultimate was developed in 1968 by Joel Silver, Buzzy Hellring, and Jonny Hines in Maplewood, New Jersey. Although ultimate rese ...

events are frequently held on the Polo Fields all year long. The annual

Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival Outside Lands, formerly known as the Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival, is a three-day music, art, food, wine, beer and cannabis festival held annually in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Multi-genre and multi-generational, it is the larges ...

is held on the Polo Fields each August. From 1986 to 2009, the annual

Bay to Breakers Bay to Breakers is an annual road running, footrace in San Francisco, California typically on the third Sunday of May. The phrase "Bay to Breakers" reflects the fact that the race starts at the northeast end of the downtown area a few blocks fro ...

footrace held its post-race event, Footstock, at the Polo Fields each May. Golden gate park stadium

Cycling track

The historic cycling track at the Polo Fields was a 1 kilometer long paved track used by cyclists for training and events. The cycling track was a centerpoint of bicycle racing from the 1930s through the 1950s. The local grou
Friends of the Polo Field
was recently formed to restore the cycling track to the original condition when it was created.

References

{{reflist, 2

External links

San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department
Sports venues in San Francisco Athletics (track and field) venues in San Francisco Cross country running courses in California Soccer venues in San Francisco Sports complexes in the United States Golden Gate Park

History

Tenants

Cycling track

See also

References

External links