Snapdragon Stadium

Snapdragon Stadium is an outdoor stadium in San Diego, California, located on the campus of San Diego State University. The stadium is home of the San Diego State Aztecs football team. The Aztecs compete in NCAA Division I (FBS) as a member of the Mountain West Conference (MW).

The stadium is also home of San Diego Wave FC of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) and the San Diego Legion of Major League Rugby (MLR). San Diego FC, a Major League Soccer (MLS) expansion team, begins play at the stadium in 2025. The stadium hosts the Holiday Bowl, an annual college football bowl game.

Snapdragon Stadium is the first project within SDSU Mission Valley, a 166-acre (67 ha) noncontiguous expansion parcel west of the main campus. The stadium was built adjacent to the demolished San Diego Stadium, which had been the home of the school's football program since it opened in 1967.

History

Planning

Following the announced departure of the NFL's Chargers from what was then SDCCU Stadium to the Los Angeles area in January 2017, focus began on building a new stadium for the Aztecs that was modern and the right size for the program. Over the course of the next nearly two years, the plan for what would become Snapdragon Stadium (known during its planning and early construction phases as Aztec Stadium) and the rest of the SDSU Mission Valley development (initially known as SDSU West) took shape. A competing redevelopment proposal surfaced, known as SoccerCity, which envisioned the SDCCU Stadium site being leased from the city and redeveloped with private funding if San Diego was awarded a Major League Soccer (MLS) team. Under this proposal, SDSU football would have the option of sharing the proposed smaller-capacity soccer stadium with the new MLS team. The SoccerCity proposal was placed on the November 2018 ballot in competition with the SDSU Mission Valley proposal, where the SDSU Mission Valley plan emerged victorious.

On December 5, 2019, the school announced that it had received a $15 million gift from Dianne L. Bashor to help finance the new stadium, which led to its playing surface being named Bashor Field.

On June 30, 2020, the city of San Diego approved the sale of the SDCCU Stadium site to San Diego State University and on August 10, 2020, the university officially took control of the property. San Diego State bought the entire 135 acres (55 ha), including the existing stadium, from the city for $88 million. Groundbreaking on the new stadium took place on August 17, just one week after SDSU took control of the site.

The entire $3.5 billion SDSU Mission Valley project includes housing, office and retail space, hotels, and eighty acres (32 ha) of parks and open space, including a 34-acre (14 ha) river park along the San Diego River on adjacent city property, and will be developed in phases over 10–15 years. The stadium will seat 35,000 fans and is being built to support college football, non-football NCAA championship games, professional soccer, rugby, lacrosse, and special events such as concerts. The stadium was designed to be expandable to a capacity of 55,000 (complete with a plan and renderings for such an expansion) or more to accommodate a prospective NFL return to San Diego and/or future needs of the Aztecs football team.

On December 6, 2021, San Diego State announced a naming rights agreement with San Diego-based telecommunications company Qualcomm, who also owned the naming rights to the original stadium from 1997 to 2017. The stadium became known as Snapdragon Stadium, named after Qualcomm's Snapdragon brand of Systems on a chip (the original stadium had also been briefly renamed to Snapdragon Stadium in 2011).

The stadium opened in 2022 for an Aztecs scrimmage on August 20. The Aztecs' first game was two weeks later on September 3, a 38–20 loss to the Arizona Wildcats.

On December 15, 2021, San Diego Wave FC of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) announced it would move to Snapdragon Stadium starting in September 2022 following the stadium's completion; the club began its inaugural 2022 season at Torero Stadium at the University of San Diego.

On February 2, 2022, the San Diego Legion of Major League Rugby (MLR) announced Snapdragon Stadium to be their new home beginning in 2023.

On May 18, 2023, MLS announced San Diego has been awarded the league's 30th team (later named San Diego FC) and that the team will be playing at Snapdragon Stadium starting in 2025.

Opening

Snapdragon Stadium opened for a SDSU scrimmage on August 20, 2022. The first game in the stadium was played on September 3, ending with the Aztecs being defeated 38–20 by the Arizona Wildcats. The game occurred during a heat wave, resulting in heat illnesses among attendees that required the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department to send five ambulances and three fire engines to treat around 200 people, 20 of whom were hospitalized. By kickoff, the game started when the temperature reached 100 °F (38 °C), with attendees retreating from the seating area and into shade. On social media, the stadium design was called into question by fans because of the lack of shade.

On September 8, San Diego Fire-Rescue stated that the department did not receive a heat injury and illness plan from the university, having only received the medical plan two days before the game, and wrote that "it was evident that the sheer number of patients at the game quickly overwhelmed the EMS resources on site and required assistance from SDFD." Around 12:30 pm PDT (UTC−7), SDFD and EMS deputy chiefs considered asking the university to cancel the game but decided that doing so would not resolve the situation.

San Diego Wave FC set a new NWSL attendance record when it debuted in the new stadium on September 17, 2022 against Angel City FC. By August 28, about three weeks before the game, over 27,000 tickets had been sold. This total was comparable to the then-current league record of 27,278, set on August 29, 2021 when OL Reign played Portland Thorns FC at Lumen Field in Seattle as part of a doubleheader that also featured an MLS match between rivals Seattle Sounders FC and the Portland Timbers. The pre-sales for the Wave's stadium debut had already surpassed the record for a standalone game of 25,218, set on August 11, 2019 when Thorns FC hosted the North Carolina Courage at Providence Park in Portland, Oregon. On September 1, the team announced the game had sold out, based on a soccer capacity of 32,000, and the official attendance for the game was announced as that number.

Year by year

Events

Sports

Soccer

Snapdragon Stadium has hosted San Diego State Aztecs women's soccer and men's soccer matches. On November 7, 2023, CONCACAF announced that inaugural final of the CONCACAF W Gold Cup will be held at Snapdragon Stadium on March 10, 2024.

Lacrosse

2023 NLL Stadium Showdown

On December 6, 2022, the National Lacrosse League (NLL) announced that the San Diego Seals would host the NLL's first-ever box lacrosse game held outdoors on March 4, 2023. The game, which became known as the NLL Stadium Showdown, saw the Seals beat the Las Vegas Desert Dogs 15–12.

2023 World Lacrosse Championship

In January 2022, World Lacrosse announced that San Diego would host the 2023 World Lacrosse Championship, with Snapdragon Stadium to be the primary venue. The opening ceremonies and opening game with Steve Aoki as the halftime performer, semifinals, bronze medal game, and gold medal game were held at Snapdragon. All other games were held at Torero Stadium on the campus of the University of San Diego and three additional fields on the San Diego State Sports Deck.

Rugby

2031 and 2033 Rugby World Cup

San Diego is amongst the cities being considered for hosting matches during the 2031 (men's) and 2033 (women's) Rugby World Cup.

Motorsports

Since 2023, Snapdragon Stadium has hosted rounds of Monster Jam and AMA Supercross Championship. In January 2023, the stadium hosted Monster Jam for the first time on January 7–8 and 14–15. On January 21, 2023, the stadium hosted its first AMA Supercross Championship event.

Holiday Bowl

On June 11, 2024, it was announced that the Holiday Bowl would be moving from Petco Park to Snapdragon Stadium.

Concerts

On June 2-4, 2023, the Re:SET Concert Series was held at Thrive Park, located outside of Snapdragon Stadium. The outdoor concert series was headlined by LCD Soundsystem, boygenius, and Steve Lacy.

Gallery

See also

• List of NCAA Division I FBS football stadiums

References

External links

• Official website