Legendary San Diego Stadium, which has witnessed many great football and baseball games, was recently demolished. Meanwhile, in just over a year, its successor will be inaugurated.

Stadium more expensive and slightly different than planned

Aztec Stadium in San Diego is scheduled to open on September 3, 2022, during a match against Arizona. The cost of building the 35,000-seat venue is expected to be $310 million (€262m). This is an increase over what was made public during the stadium's first presentation at the end of 2017. At that time, construction works were valued at $250 million.

© SDSU

Compared to the preliminary visualizations presented in 2017, the concept of the west stand has changed, which is to have three levels, separated by two strips of premium seating and a terrace. In the 2017 version, the premium seats were located on the top tier of the west tribune.

Behind the goal, on the south side, there will be a one-tier stand and a premium terrace in the south-west corner. In the first presentation, only the terraces were to be located in the southern part of the facility.

© SDSU

What recently happened at construction site

In March, the demolition of SDCCU Stadium (renamed back to historical San Diego Stadium for its final months) was completed. A large university campus will be built in its place, while the new stadium is being built just 150 yards west of this site. The old stadium was dismantled piece by piece as it was not possible to demolish it by implosion for legal reasons.

During the last 10 months, the land located in the north-west part of the construction site was leveled. There were also works related to the reinforcement of the foundations and then their pouring. The stands were slowly emerging from the ground throughout early spring, as were commercial buildings, to be erected on the west side of the facility.

Once the steel skeleton of the future auditorium began arriving on site, progress has been very fast. This allowed construction workers to celebrate topping out just yesterday, on July 14. Thanks to the great help of drone pilot Kevin J. Munster, we can now show you updates from the site!

We are about a year away from laying the turf, but we can already see the outline of the field, which has already been surrounded by concrete wall. On the west side, works related to the construction of stairways and an elevator are already underway. 

There will also be changing rooms for players, a conference room and a space for photographers. Medical facilities and an equipment room will be situated at the rear of the west stand, more precisely on its lower levels.

© Kevin J Munster

After the demolition of SDCCU Stadium, nearly 90% of the materials that made up its structure will be recycled. 125,000 cubic yards of concrete are being reused for site fill and hardscape. Two million square feet of asphalt removed from the parking lot also will be reused onsite.

The stadium and the university campus are the most important elements of the project. In an area of over 166 acres, there will be recreational and green spaces (80 acres), apartments and a hotel with 400 rooms. All these investments will generate $ 3.1 billion for the local economy.

Author: Tomasz Sobura