San Diego St unveils plans for $250 million football stadium

By AP
Published

SAN DIEGO (AP) San Diego State unveiled details Thursday of a $250 million stadium it wants to build at the site of aging SDCCU Stadium.

The stadium would be built in conjunction with a proposed campus expansion that supporters hope to place on the November 2018 ballot. It would seat 35,000 for SDSU football and a possible pro soccer team, and would be expandable to 55,000 if the city were to ever attract another NFL team following the relocation of the Chargers to the Los Angeles area earlier this year.

Time is of the essence because some at City Hall want to close the stadium, formerly known as Qualcomm Stadium, at the end of 2018.

The school is trying to get the city to keep the stadium open beyond that. Athletic director J.D. Wicker said SDSU hopes a new stadium could be open in time for the 2022 season.

Coach Rocky Long, who has presided over the most successful stretch for San Diego State football in school history, said he's confident a new stadium can be built. The price is $100 million more than original estimates.

''I also see this as a win for San Diego. I think it's a win for San Diego State,'' Long said during a news conference on the field at SDCCU Stadium, which is about five miles west of campus. ''San Diego State is one of the great universities in this country. We're landlocked. We can't get any bigger and we can't get any better. This gives us a chance to get bigger and better along the way, and in the process, the community of San Diego benefits dramatically. With cooperation and everything, I hope this gets done and I hope it gets done quick, because it needs to be done and it needs to be done quick so everyone in our community as well as our school and our athletic department gets the benefit.''

Led by star running back Rashaad Penny, the Aztecs will play in a bowl game for the record eighth straight season and will try to win 11 games for the third straight season.

The Aztecs are eager to fill the void left by the relocation of the Chargers, who failed for 15 years to get a new stadium built.

Earlier this year, SDSU broke off talks with a private group that wants to bring the MLS to San Diego as the centerpiece of a multibillion-dollar development at the stadium site. That proposal also will be on the ballot in November 2018.

JMI Sports will be a consultant on the project and Populous is the architect. JMI Realty will have a hand in the campus expansion. John Moores, the former owner of the San Diego Padres, is a partner in both JMI Sports and JMI Realty.

---

Follow Bernie Wilson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/berniewilson

---

More AP college football coverage: http://www.collegefootball.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP-Top25