![]() Saucedo said he calls the Recreation and Parks Department to book the fields around one to three months in advance, paying its for-profit field rate of $92, plus around $14 to $28 for lighting. San Francisco has the largest network of users in the Bay Area, followed by San Jose and Oakland. Meanwhile, the app’s target audience is working adults who “don’t necessarily have the group of friends they used to from high school who used to get together, and want to play after work in those comfortable hours that are easy to access, after work, at 7 p.m,” he said.Īccording to Saucedo, there are some 2,000 people who use the app in the Bay Area. Saucedo said that the goal in San Francisco is to have pickup games available to all residents in all areas. The Recreation and Parks Department told Mission Local that “there aren’t any current plans to expand Just Play, and any expansion would be limited to areas with excess capacity.” But, according to Saucedo, if there are no complaints from the public, and the public enjoys the initiative, Just Play might be permitted to book other days. The exception is at Garfield Square, where the app has a trial, and reservations are limited to Mondays and Wednesdays, he said. ![]() Just Play is generally able to make reservations without limit, Saucedo said. For example, soccer leagues, such as those of KICKIT365, generally reserve fields during prime-time soccer hours, said Luis Saucedo, Just Play’s business development manager. (Photo by David Mamaril Horowitz.)Īlready, the Recreation and Parks Department rents out fields to both nonprofit and for-profit organizations, such as KICKIT365. (Photo by David Mamaril Horowitz.) The interface of the Just Play app, displaying several locations. (Photo by David Mamaril Horowitz.) The interface of the Just Play app displaying soccer fields in the Bay Area. The interface of the Just Play app displaying the Garfield Square soccer field. The current City Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the legality of Just Play. Subscribe to our daily newsletter and have the latest stories from Mission Local delivered directly to your inbox. With both apps, and with Just Play, public space is booked and then re-sold for a profit. The situation somewhat resembles the city’s 2014 saga with Sweetch and Monkey Parking, apps that would allow motorists to auction off public parking spaces to nearby drivers. “We were perfectly happy renting the field from the city ourselves, and now the city is asking us to go through a private, for-profit company and pay them $14 an hour?” Zitrin said. By comparison, if two San Francisco residents have their residency discount approved and then book both halves of a field with lights, it would cost $98 an hour, or $7 per person if there are 14 players. The app, which charges a $13.99 fee in San Francisco for each hour of reserved time, is both more expensive and less accessible than the public reservation system. It was reserved, presumably, by the Just Play app, which shows that it has reservations at the park for the next two Monday and Wednesday evenings. But, since November, it has been consistently booked. Previously, at Garfield Square, Gabe Zitrin and some 30 soccer players would reserve the soccer field on Monday evenings.
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