Goodbye Telegraph Field, Hello ???
Its been a long year since we learned that we'd be losing Telegraph Field to the America's Cup. While we were hoping to extend our time on Pier 27 or find a new home, it hasn't quite happened... yet. The Chronicle ran a short update on the current status of the field and while we're still working hard, we want our Tots to have a place to play soccer until a new field is built.
With that in mind, we are working with Mission Bay Parks to start Saturday classes in their neighborhood. Mission Bay Commons Park is located off 3rd Street between China Basin Street and South Street. While its not an official soccer field, it is a nice stretch of grass with plenty of room for tots to run around. With positive feedback from our SoccerTots community and the neighbors, we'll expand our classes at this location during the year.
Also, its not too late to relocate Telegraph Field! Did you know that San Francisco Soccer & Telegraph Field is the only business on the pier which has not been relocated with the city's assistance? Let Mayor Edwin Lee,
What about the field?
The America’s Cup, SF’s hottest topic, has pushed our much beloved Telegraph Field into the spotlight. Though racing doesn’t commence until 2013, construction is scheduled to begin January 2012. And if you have not heard by now the "public race village" will be where else but at Pier 27. Goodbye Teatro Zinzanni. Goodbye Bauer's Limousine. Goodbye Telegraph Field?
Many concerned parents, of our over 300 families this season alone, have been asking about the future of SoccerTots. We have found it difficult to acquire field space through the San Francisco Recreation and Parks, as Trishan worked with them for months before we were able to secure the Upper Noe Recreation Center, and we continue to struggle to maintain our times and expand with their support. So as we pursue private spaces, preferably easy-access, fenced-in fields with storage and parking (hint, hint, if you know other fields that we might be able to use, we'd appreciate a contact), and continue
We've been making lots of changes to our program over the past year based on parent feedback. One of the complaints we hear frequently is that registration is a huge hassle. Guess what? We hate registration too! We'd much rather be playing with the tots on the field but the paperwork still has to be done... We took one step earlier this year by introducing Priority Registration. Our next step is to increase the length of each session from 7 weeks to 8 or 9 weeks (depending on the season) which will reduce the number of registration periods each year. This will be most helpful for those who sign up for each session and grow through our different age group classes.
As part of this change, we are overhauling our pricing structure. This gives us an opportunity to provide reduced costs for weekday sessions and discounts to our most enthusiastic supporters - the parents & tots who sign up each season and our SoccerTots families who bring all the kids out to play. There will be new discounts for Concurrent Session Early Sign Up (that's a mouthful) or a Sibling Sign-up. Here's how they'll work:
Early Sign Up: The current priority registration period will remain, allowing people registered in the current session to register early for the upcoming session. If you register during the priority registration period, there will be a $15 discount built into the price.
Sibling Sign-up: For parents signing up multiple children, the second tot will receive a $25 discount. Our registration system can't automatically handle this discount so we ask that you put in the notes section the Sibling's name and class. We will process the discount as a partial refund which
We've been so busy on the field that its been a while since we posted to the TotSpot Blog... hope that you've been having so much fun that you didn't mind! :)
I wanted to address the topic of registrations for our SoccerTots classes. Our registration process often seems more chaotic than having the "messy monkeys" kick over the cones! Everyone is trying to get to the website and call at the same time for a limited number of spots. To keep our classes great, we limit the tot:coach ratio; this combined with the selected hours of field space we can use leads to a limit on the number of classes we can offer. One of the downsides to SoccerTots' popularity is that many of our classes fill up very quickly, especially the weekend ones. As a result we are frequently unable to provide a spot for everyone who wants to participate.
For some time, we've been searching for a fair solution to this issue. Many parents have requested that they be automatically re-enrolled. Unfortunately, that isn't a workable solution since it means that very few new children would ever be able to participate in weekend programs and not every parent or tot wants to keep coming back each season... hard to believe, but true! ;-) Our current first come, first served system also isn't ideal since some of our loyal parents might miss the email announcement, be out of town, not at the computer, or otherwise not able to register that very day.
This Summer Season we are making some changes that we hope will make it easier & fairer for everyone:
You asked for more SoccerTots on weekends at more locations and we listened! For the spring season, we'll be adding Sunday morning sessions in Noe Valley at the Upper Noe Recreation Center. Its been hard to find space on weekends in San Francisco's overwhelmed parks system but we've squeezed in a couple hours on the baseball field. Wait, did he say "baseball field"?!? Yes, I did. But not to worry, we'll set up portable goals using the grassy outfield and you'll be kicking around the soccer ball just like normal. We might confuse some of the folks passing by but that won't stop us from having SoccerTots style fun! :)
Classes will begin on Sunday April 18th with 9 & 10 am time slots. Registration will open when our normal Spring registration does (in a few short days!). If you haven't already signed up for our email newsletter or follow us on Twitter, please do so to receive notice when registration opens.
To kick things off, we're having a Demo Day so all the kids who haven't tried SoccerTots yet can find out what we're all about! Demo Day is on March 28th and we'll have Teddies II (2 yr olds), Koalas (3 yr olds), and Cubs (4 yr olds) classes. Please tell all your friends in the area to come out and check out the fun. Due to our limited space, we'd like to have children who are new to the program get a chance to try it out first. If you want to stop by and say hello, we would love to see you too and may even have some fun stuff to give away. Sign up for demo day by clicking here or following this link:
One of many videos from our proud parents!
We've seen you on the sidelines documenting your child's SoccerTots class fun with your iPhones, Blackberries, digital SLRs, Flip video cams, and all other manner of digital media device! You're probably even posting them online like Vivian's mom did in the video above. Why not share it with us? We love getting pictures and videos from happy parents showing off their tot's soccer skills and fun adventures. Email us at info@soctots.com with links to your pcitures and videos. We might even use it in our advertising so your tot can be famous! Well, sorta famous. But if we do use your material, we'll give you a discount on your next SoccerTots class. So start sending in your pics & videos and share them on our Facebook page.
Welcome to our new website and TotSpot blog!
Everyone who has participated in our classes knows that the "spot circle" is where we start each class, make announcements, introduce everyone, and stretch to get ready for all our soccer activities. The TotSpot will be our online virtual spot circle! It will be the place to find the latest information about our programs, upcoming events, future plans, and other news for the SoccerTots community. Blog articles can be read on our website, or pushed to you via an RSS subscription, shared with friend through email, Twitter, and Facebook. We hope that you enjoy reading the blog and encourage your active participation in the comments section.
SoccerTots started in San Francisco two years ago and the reception has been incredible. The program has grown to the point where hundreds of tots and parents are attending our classes each week! That growth has been almost exclusively through word of mouth referals from our wonderful parent community. In fact, we're receiving multiple inquiries from new parents every single day! We want to keep sharing our love of soccer with all the kids in the San Francisco Bay Area and keep providing the fantastic experience which your children enjoy week after week.
With that in mind, we're proud to launch our brand new website which is part of our effort to reach out and bring together the SF SoccerTots community. You can now stay connected to us on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook, read and write reviews on Yelp
