Mayor Daniel Lurie, SCORES Executive Director Colin Schmidt, Airbnb Co-Founder Brian Chesky, two-time World Cup player Megan Rapinoe, and San Francisco Commissioner Mark Sanchez celebrate the ribbon-cutting of the new pitch.

On the kind of brilliantly sunny San Francisco day that makes anything feel possible, America SCORES Bay Area and Airbnb unveiled a new soccer field at Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy in the heart of the Castro. The celebration drew Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky, Mayor Daniel Lurie, and Olympic champion and two-time World Cup winner Megan Rapinoe, along with students, school leaders, Bay FC players, and community members, all there to mark what this field means for a public school in the heart of the city.

The field is part of Airbnb's FIFA World Cup 2026 Host City Impact Program, which is funding pitch improvements across California to expand youth access to soccer, a more than $1.2 million commitment to communities statewide. SCORES is proud to serve as Airbnb's local partner in that effort, and Harvey Milk is the first of three new fields being built through the program, with additional pitches coming to Oakland and Los Angeles.

For SCORES, this is also a milestone. Harvey Milk marks the 30th field the organization has built across the Bay Area, more than a decade of converting asphalt schoolyards into places kids actually want to play. Former School Board Commissioner Mark Sanchez put that history into context, emphasizing the power of a community effort. “The first field SCORES put in was at Cleveland Elementary, when I was there in 2013. It was the very first field in the history of this district for a public elementary school, and now there are 30,” he said.

Speaking from the stage, SCORES Executive Director Colin Schmidt put the need plainly: "Asphalt is for cars, not kids. We can make these dark and unforgiving hard spaces more vibrant, more colorful, more welcoming, and that's what we want for our schools and for our communities."

The setting carried its own meaning. Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy is named for the civil rights pioneer who made San Francisco a symbol of what it looks like when a city chooses inclusion. It was fitting that the afternoon unfolded at a school named for a man who spent his life arguing that every community is stronger when it includes everyone.

Brian Chesky grounded his opening remarks in Airbnb’s birthplace. "San Francisco is very much a part of our history. We benefited a lot from San Francisco, and we want to give back," he said. The child of two social workers, Chesky described service and giving back as a part of his family’s DNA. “A soccer field isn’t just a field— it’s a place where you can belong. And for a lot of kids, it’s where they really figure out who they are. They develop an identity, they develop confidence.” And well beyond the upcoming World Cup, touching down in the Bay Area this summer, the kids in this city, he argued, will have somewhere to play, a team to show up for, and something to work toward.”

Echoing Chesky’s sentiments were those of Mayor Daniel Lurie, a longtime San Franciscan now raising two children of his own in the city with his wife, First Lady Becca Prowda. "There's no better place than that soccer field to learn about life–about perseverance and hard work and teamwork and how you get stronger and better each and every day," he said. “In a time when everyone is trying to divide us and tear us apart, sport brings us together, and it’s going to unify the world this summer for about six or seven weeks,” he enthused, referencing the upcoming World Cup. “I cannot wait to show off San Francisco, our great culture, our great communities, and our great kids.”

San Francisco Chief of Housing and Economic Development, Neg Segal, accompanied Mayor Lurie to the field opening, and responded not only as a city representative, but as a father. “My wife and I raised three kids in San Francisco. They need places to run around and get their energy out, places to have friendships, and places to compete with one another. And you can’t always do that on grass, or in your backyard, or in a nearby park. So having places like this is really important,” he said.

Two-time US World Cup player and Olympian Megan Rapinoe

Megan Rapinoe drew on her own history with the game. "Youth sports has the ability to be the core and the center of a community,” she said, explaining the power of showing up at the same place, at the same time with families and friends for regular games. “Soccer is a melting pot, bringing together people from every neighborhood, every race, every class, and every place in the world. There’s a reason it’s called “The People’s Game,” she said.

Tracing her own path back, remembering the sheer excitement of watching the World Cup at Stanford Stadium at age eight, Rapinoe described the possibilities a new field can engender. “There will be kids watching games in the morning, then jumping up from their living rooms to come to this field to try to recreate the moves they saw on the screen just hours before. But to have moments like these, it takes investment. It takes community access. It takes a field like this. Every kid and every community deserves a space like this.”

At SCORES, soccer and poetry are equal parts of the same program, and the afternoon made that visible. Poetry, as SCORES Executive Director Colin Schmidt explained, “gives kids a creative and expressive outlet for their ideas, their passions, their questions, and their voice.” Genesis, the San Francisco winner of a national poetry contest sponsored by Telemundo, stepped to the microphone and performed her winning poem in Spanish. And not long after, inspired by the day’s events, Harvey Milk student, Maggie, stepped up to perform her own poem, focusing on what it feels like to play — the high fives, the crowd noise, and the particular joy of scoring a goal.

SCORES Poet-Athlete Genesis

Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy student Maggie

SCORES board member, Andrea Bonilla, a senior data scientist at Airbnb, helped spearhead the partnership and funding from Airbnb.

SCORES Board Member and Airbnb Senior Data Scientist Andrea Bonilla with Megan Rapinoe, Genesis, and Colin Schmidt

The event was captured by fifteen media outlets, including NBC, which put together this piece.

Airbnb partners with SCORES on new pitch at Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy.