San Diego State Getting True Home-Field Advantage With New Snapdragon Stadium

To hear officials at San Diego State University talk about the school’s brand-new 34,500-seat Snapdragon Stadium, they’re glad one of the only things remaining from the 1967-built QualcommQCOM
Stadium are decorative concrete pavers in Snapdragon Stadium’s new northeast concourse.

“It is such a better atmosphere and such a different experience from before,” says J.D. Wicker, San Diego State University athletic director. “We built something that has never been experienced here.”

Opening on Sept. 3 when the Aztecs host the University of Arizona in football on CBS, Snapdragon Stadium sits just west of what was once Qualcomm Stadium—don’t fret, the statue of Jack Murphy now sits outside the north end of the new venue—and provides an entirely modern, if not professional, feel for the stadium’s owner, San Diego State University.

The $310 million LEED Gold venue, designed by Gensler, will serve as the football home for SDSU, as well as the home field for the NWSL’s San Diego Wave FC and Major League Rugby’s San Diego Legion. And it will do so in an intimate fashion unlike any stadium before it in San Diego.

Wicker says fans will be surprised at how on top of the action they will be from their seats. “Qualcomm was a terrible place to watch a game,” Wicker says. “From an experience perspective for our student-athletes, this is huge and should give us a true home field advantage.” With the top of the tallest light pole just 148 feet from the field, the 34,500-seat venue, all with chairbacks, and expandable to 55,000 if ever needed, not only brings intimacy to a SDSU football game, but it also brings with it the modern amenities common at professional venues. And, yes, Snapdragon Stadium is MLS ready from day one.

Work on Snapdragon Stadium has been a two-year process. Part of a larger 160-acre Mission Valley site that will eventually see a hotel, mixed-use residential and retail, greenspace and an innovation complex pairing SDSU research departments with private companies, the stadium sits as the heart of the development. With Qualcomm Stadium completely removed—90% of the old stadium was recycled and 200,000 tons of concrete was ground up and used in the streets, parking lots and other locations on the new project—that allows Snapdragon to shine.

To start, SDSU wanted to create a community-minded venue accessible to multiple professional teams and groups while creating a home field experience for fans. The north end includes a 5,000-capacity soccer-style supporters section with a safe standing section for students. The section, Wicker says, can double as the supporters section for an MLS team (and, yes, MLS officials have been talking with Wicker throughout the process).

“It allows us to make the student section steeper and closer to the field,” says Derek Grice, SDSU executive associate athletic director, Mission Valley development, “and have a true home field advantage that can impact the game. We are hoping to bring ‘The Show’ from Viejas (Arena) to the stadium.”

The SDSU band will sit in the northeast corner for Aztec football

The concourse level behind the student section will include concessions designed for the students, a place where they can use their SDSU student ID and meal plan. “We are trying to create a sense of place for them,” Grice says. “Our students are really excited to have a place of their own. They don’t quite know what they have yet.”

Throughout the venue, SDSU welcomed nine different local restaurant partners, including well-known eateries The Crack Shack, Hodad’s and The Taco Stand, mixed with more traditional stadium offerings in a roughly even 50-50 split. The bulk of the concessions show up on the east side of the venue in differing neighborhoods.

The beverage options are also local, with five different craft beer partners working to man seven different stands, each with a mix of local taps. And there’s no exclusivity in product outside of a few naming rights areas, including the Qualcomm-owned Snapdragon naming rights deal, a 15-year agreement worth $3 million annually. That means SDSU can bring in any event. “We wanted to make sure we didn’t lose any events because of exclusivity,” Wicker says.

Each of the park-like food-serving pockets on the east side extend off the concourse, offering a food hall-style way to enjoy the concession offerings. Each area can get partioned off, just like the five premium spaces within the stadium and the plaza in the northeast corner, to serve community events on nonevent days. “We are making sure we are using every space for every event,” Wicker says.

The wide concourses allow for the addition of kiosks and the street on the outside of the stadium’s east side will close on gamedays for activations.

The southeast corner, where many fans will enter after getting off on the local San Diego light rail line, also features the first-ever true SDSU team store at a football game (the Chargers didn’t allow use of their team store during the Qualcomm days, relegating SDSU to pop-ups).

The East Club, with seating for roughly 700 fans, has garage doors that roll up on both sides, allowing the breeze to run through the club. The most entry-level premium offering, Wicker expects the club to be a “vibrant” space during games.

The west side of the stadium features the West Club, Field Club and Founders Club, along with two levels of suites. The Field Club, known as the Cox Business Club, seating about 900, opens to the field at the 50-yard line. The team will walk directly through the club when they take the field, ideally creating a fresh experience for both fans and players.

The West Club sits above the Field Club, welcoming about 800 fans and was the first to sell out.

The west side features 16 traditionally sized suites, eight lower and eight upper, along with four special oversized Founders Suites to accommodate 30 people each and three additional suites, such as the Presidents Suite. Snapdragon includes a unique Sycuan Founders Club. This exclusive space is limited to 24 pairs (48 total seats).

SDSU expects to sell out every premium offering by the first football game, over 10% of the building’s seating.

The Sycuan Piers offers one of the most distinct design elements of Snapdragon Stadium and a mix of social spaces. One of the highest points in the venue, the top pier cantilevers over the south end zone seating, a nod to the famous piers of San Diego.

The differing levels of the piers offers a mix of opportunities for a tap room open to all ticket holders and another bar at the top of the piers.

Wicker expects one of the more popular locations will also be the bar sitting directly below the northwest scoreboard, open to everyone walking the 360-degree concourse.

Qualcomm, a San Diego company with ties to the stadium site, will continue to promote its Snapdragon product with the naming rights deal and in-game offerings. Already the company has plans for augmented realty experiences, one a photo opportunity at stations around the stadium and the other a halftime game that brings fans into a 3D race they participate in by using their phone.

To make it all work, SDSU and Qualcomm collaborated on the connectivity, bringing Snapdragon Stadium on par with the top professional football stadium. “We are working closely with all the different partners to make sure we have a unified fabric of connectivity,” says Don McGuire, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at Qualcomm. “Let’s make sure the connected experience is really great. We started there.”

The 1,700 linear feet of ribbon board, plus the two video boards at the corners of the northwest and southeast end zones, ensure the only static signage comes from a few entitlement areas, such as the stadium’s naming rights partner.

For the players, both the home and away locker rooms are built in two 40-person pods with a central area, able to be used for football or broken into four different spaces for other uses, such as a soccer double-header. The back-of-house includes all the necessary training rooms for the athletes. SDSU used a local company to grow and install Latitude 36 Bermuda grass.

Throughout the venue, murals tie to San Diego—from fighter jets painted in stairwells to a large Tony Gwynn quote on the backside of the east stands—and were done by locals, including SDSU students and alumni.

“We wanted people to feel,” Wicker says, “this is a community building.”