To All:
This is the first communication that the Coalition has sent out since Covid began! Rest assured, we have still been diligently working on our mission, but felt with the pandemic here, everyone was dealing with far more important issues than Surf Cup and the Polo Fields.
And of course, as a result of the pandemic, there has been little activity at the Polo Fields over these past several months. All practices, games, and competitions were cancelled due to Covid-19. However, that changed in June when Supervisor Kristin Gaspar pushed for approval to allow the kids to return to the fields for safe, socially distanced day camps for conditioning and exercise. Activity returned, albeit on a limited scale with no competitions.
That may change if Surf Cup gets their way, as they are now mounting an all-out propaganda campaign to pressure city and state officials into allowing games and competitions – YES, including travel tournaments with thousands of families from around the country – who would descend on our neighborhood potentially spreading the virus after we have sacrificed for months to stay home and socially distance in order to finally get off the state’s coronavirus watch list. Surf Cup has compiled their own data into a so-called “white paper” and released it to the media in an effort to get restrictions removed. They are claiming their ‘study’ proves that it’s safe for kids to play soccer. Of course, it strains credulity to believe this study is science-based research coming from the very people who stand to gain financially from its favorable conclusions. This flawed study is not transparent or unbiased. In scientific circles, it would be considered anecdotal at best!
Citing their own study, Surf Cup has now launched a Kids 1st petition campaign that has gone out to soccer clubs around the state to persuade decision makers to open the floodgates. They claim it’s in the best interest of the kids, but it’s clearly an attempt to restore their profit stream at the expense of our community. As previously stated, kids can already get out for training and exercise in approved, safe ways. We are empathetic to the kids and families that have been cooped up due to the pandemic. But how exactly is Surf going to keep the kids safe from COVID (and by extension our community) during competitions when the PAC-12, Big-10, and MLB haven’t figured it out yet?
It seems inconceivable that we would encourage thousands of players and their families to come here from around the country at a time when there is no in-person school, no Fair, no races, no ComicCon, and no concerts due to potential spread of the virus. Surf Cup has said they’ve received inquiries from all over the West and Midwest, so there would undoubtedly be asymptomatic people carrying coronavirus from other hot spots and seeding it here. As we know, these traveling teams will be in our local stores and restaurants so the potential for community spread is great.
In light of these developments, we felt it necessary to inform you of what’s happening and encourage you to speak out now. While we all want to get back to our regular routines including recreation, this is not the time or place for Surf’s experiment with our health and safety. We want to stay off the watch list so all kids can go back to school, and we can resume more normalcy in our everyday lives. Surf will be touting their petition with thousands of kids’ signatures. As we saw at the city council vote in 2016 where Surf brought in busloads of kids, this kind of display can have an impact. So we need our voices heard too, by writing letters to the San Diego County Health Officer Dr. Wilma Wooten and copying other city officials.
We are not distracted by this COVID event. Our original mission of the Coalition remains the same:
‘To preserve, protect, and secure the safety, peace, and rural character of the polo field neighborhoods by requiring the City of San Diego to enforce municipal code, to address environmental concerns and honor the requirements of the grant deed which runs with the land.’