A local group that advocates for the historical preservation of San Diego landmarks wants to maintain the stadium in Mission Valley currently known as SDCCU Stadium.
The Save Our Heritage Organisation (SOHO) wants the city to preserve what was first known as San Diego Stadium in any deal that the city negotiates for the Mission Valley site.
SOHO includes San Diego Stadium on their most recent "Most Endangered List of Historic Resources," which is made up of nine San Diego sites the organization believes are threatened by development.
In order to save the landmark, a proposal would need to adaptively reuse or rehabilitate the stadium, which is possible, according to SOHO spokesperson and historic resource specialist Amie Hayes.
After garnering support on the November 2018 ballot with an initiative called SDSU West, San Diego State University appears poised to buy the 132 acres of land from the city, though a price and terms of the deal must still be negotiated.
"City officials must insist that #SDSU find a way to reuse this celebrated, iconic, and adaptable Modernist Era monument. Preserving and sensitively adapting the stadium to meet the future needs of San Diego is a win-win-win for environmental sustainability," SOHO says on their website.
On Tuesday, SDSU is holding its first of three planning sessions to discuss the future of the Mission Valley stadium site, which they are calling SDSU Mission Valley.
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SOHO will attend at least one meeting and urge SDSU to study "an adapted re-use of the stadium as part of the project," SOHO's Bruce Coons said.
"Hopefully they’ll take a serious look at it. Should save them some money and environmentally, it should be a preferred option," Coons said.
Beyond these public meetings, the group will not ask for any further action until much further down the line, he said.
The stadium was the first sports stadium in the country to win architectural awards and one of the last mid-century, multi-purpose stadiums left, according to SOHO.
The SDSU Mission Valley plan proposed to demolish the stadium and add extension buildings for SDSU, additional housing and a stadium for either a football or a soccer team.
SOHO argues innovative features -- at the time the stadium was erected -- need to be preserved, such as pre-wired light towers and the spiral concrete pedestrian ramps.
SOHO has been behind several projects to save San Diego landmarks, including the Broadway Fountain in Horton Plaza, the Santa Fe Depot and most notably the Western Metal Supply building on the corner of Petco Park.
Public comment is encouraged at the SDSU Mission Valley meeting, which starts at 3:30 p.m. at the university's Parma Payne Goodall Alumni Center across from Viejas Arena.
A meeting will also be held on Wednesday from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. and on Thursday from 5 to 7 p.m. at the San Diego Marriott Mission Valley.
