A youth soccer team took the first kick at the reopening Friday of the Silver Terrace Playground athletic field in San Francisco's Bayview District.
The 145,000-square-foot athletic field, which has a soccer pitch and two baseball diamonds, was renovated over the past three months by the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department.
The $4.8 million in upgrades replaced the field's synthetic turf and added new soccer goals, benches, trash cans, backstops, gates and a drinking fountain with a water bottle filler, according to city officials.
The overhaul also included accessibility improvements to the Silver Avenue entrance and park restroom.
Bayview United, an SF Rec and Park youth soccer team, held a ceremonial first kick on the new playing field on Friday.
"The community has been the driving force behind this renovation," said San Francisco Recreation and Park General Manager Phil Ginsburg in a news release on Friday.
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"Silver Terrace is an important hub for young athletes and their fans, as well as a beloved neighborhood gathering space."
In 2006, Silver Terrace was the second field to be renovated under the Playfields Initiative, a $52 million public-private partnership between the City Fields Foundation and SF Rec and Park.
City Fields Foundation was established by Bob, Bill and John Fisher to help San Francisco upgrade its run-down athletic fields and provide more play space for the city's 800,000 children and adults.
In six years, the initiative renovated 12 athletic fields in six parks with synthetic turf and night lights and reorganized the city's antiquated field permit system. The efforts added more than 66,000 hours of annual playtime to San Francisco's parks and put the city on track to eliminate the deficit of athletic fields for local kids.
