Welcome to Save Our San Francisco Tennis Club

SOSFTC is an effort organized by a group of volunteers focused on saving the San Francisco Tennis Club, an integral part of the San Francisco community for over 30 years.

The San Francisco Tennis Club and its members has been a host and sponsor to many key local community programs and events - the Youth Tennis Advantage - YTA, the USTA Senior Men's Open, ongoing USTA leagues involving over 600 individuals, local policeman and fireman through the Guns and Hoses event, local high school programs, and so much more. The club, the largest indoor tennis complex remaining in the Western United States, has hosted such luminary tennis players as Arthur Ashe, Bjorn Borg, Martina Navratilova, Brad Gilbert, Andre Agassi, Monica Seles, Chris Evert, and others.

San Francisco Tennis Club Members Win Match Point!

Five years ago the San Francisco Tennis Club was literally just months away from being bulldozed and replaced by condominiums. SFTC member-volunteers fought a huge developer and stopped them. But could the same threat re-appear? Could the San Francisco Tennis Club (SFTC) be at risk of destruction again?

Here’s great news: SFTC tennis players made sure it won’t happen. If you play tennis, this is the story of the most important “match” of the year:

In late 2004, members of the San Francisco Tennis Club received grim news. The Club was being sold by ClubCorp, the owners, to Pulte Homes, a major developer who planned to demolish the Club and replace it with high-end condos. One of the great tennis sites in the United States and a premier Bay Area recreational facility would be destroyed.

It was a done deal. Or was it?

First Set:

In a project that was deemed undo-able by many, Kris Schaeffer and Rick Hamer formed the Save Our San Francisco Tennis Club (SOSFTC) – a grassroots committee chartered to save the facility for members, the neighborhood, and the City. Lena Grotz was elected chair and, with Kris and Rick as facilitators, assembled a team who believed the Club could be saved.

The game plan: get those with the power to make land use decisions see the value of tennis and recreation. SOSFTC volunteers relentlessly lobbied all the Supervisors and attended innumerable meetings with the Western SoMa Citizens Planning Task Force – the area where the Club is located -- on behalf of saving SFTC. Two tennis club members, Sue Contreras and Dan Becco, actually joined and served on the Western SoMa Task Force to bring added clout to our efforts. The eventual result? A temporary moratorium to halt demolition of recreation facilities was unanimously passed by the Board of Supervisors; SFTC could not be destroyed without replacing it “in kind on the site.” When Pulte appealed the decision to the Planning Commission, empassioned SFTC tennis club members and supporters spoke to saving the Club. They won another unanimous decision.

To the amazement of many outsiders, Pulte withdrew their offer to buy the Club. Against all odds, the Save Our San Francisco Tennis Club committee had won. Almost immediately, SFTC was sold to the current owner -- Western Athletic Clubs. Seemingly all was well.

But was the fight to save SFTC really over? No. The City began moving forward with the development of the 4th Street corridor. Could there be another threat from the billion-dollar construction of the new subway, just one block away? Yes. Development begets development and city planners want to increase housing and commercial space along Fourth Street.

SFTC could again be a potential target of developers. Ominously a proposed re-zoning of the Club from its current 65 foot limit to 85 feet would dramatically increase the value of the land and inevitably re-start the process of selling SFTC for destruction and development.

Set Two:

Kris Schaeffer, now the Chair of SOSFTC, along with other volunteers initiated another battle to save the San Francisco Tennis Club. This time, the key decision was in the hands of the Task Force. In 2008, Schaeffer and a small core group of SOSFTC members worked with the Western SoMa Task Force to persuade them that SFTC was too important to lose.

Their new and audacious goal: Save all recreation facilities in the entire Western SoMa area. And after two more years of hard effort, SOSFTC got it done. The Task Force voted to recommend protection for every recreational facility larger than 10,000 square feet. If the facility were to be displaced, then an equivalent, nearby and affordable facility would have to be built that would meet the needs of the users and community.

May, 2010 – Game; set; match! Mission accomplished!

The perseverance of SOSFTC volunteers led by Lena and Kris over a five year period has insured that the San Francisco Tennis Club will continue to provide great recreational opportunities for decades to come. The dedication of SOSFTC volunteers coupled with donations from hundreds of supporters allowed the San Francisco Tennis Club to be recognized as a strong political force in the City and accomplished what many believed to be impossible.

It would have been completely unattainable without the volunteer work of so many dedicated people. They include: Steve Jamison, Mason Grigsby, Norm Berson, Simon Kao, Judy Baer, Diane Eisenberg, Mark Burton, Cloey Hewlett, Irene Dick Endrizzi, Sarah Steinbreder, Rick Hamer, Holly Suzara, Michelle Pampin, Chester Santos, Peter Lam, Evelina Galang, Jane Cloninger, Margaret Ryan, Bill Schwartz, Barbara Walters, and Linda Holbrook.

Outside Support came from these fine people:

• Jim Meko, chair of the Western SoMa Task Force, was our first and final supporter. He went with us to get support from our Supervisor, Chris Daly, and worked behind the scenes to get the Task Force to listen to the need for recreation.
• Fiona Ma and Chris Daly – San Francisco Supervisors who were the original co-sponsors of the moratorium
• Gerardo Sandoval and Jake McGoldrick – Supervisors joined as sponsors of the moratorium
• Loretta Conway, now Executive Director of YTA -- rallied the tennis community to support us and join us at the press conference
• Lee Radner -- had his own fight to save the Golden Gateway Swim & Tennis Club on his hands; his FOGG supporters joined SOSFTC for unified front.
• And, of course, Sue Hestor, our land use attorney, was invaluable; those seeking to destroy SFTC could not defeat her political savvy.

Game, Set, Match, to the San Francisco Tennis Club – the greatest indoor tennis and recreational facility in America!

As Kris says, “Five years, three months, and 16 days. Why that’s even longer than the Isner-Mahut fifth set at Wimbledon.”