San Diego State University officials released new information regarding plans to build a sports stadium at the site of the former home of the San Diego Chargers.
University leaders, architects, and project consultants just released details regarding a campus expansion that is estimated to cost $3 billion.
SDSU's vision for a west campus includes a football stadium, apartments, buildings, and classrooms.
Aztec athletic officials announced what's in the works for the stadium portion of the plan.
The concourse will be built at ground height with a lowered field.
In addition to 35,000 seats, there will be a terrace area with standing room and club space, field-level club space, suites and a student section that will be designed with input from student leaders.
There will be portable field loge boxes that can be moved based on the event.
“They can be end-zone loge boxes for an Aztec football game. They can be sideline loge boxes for a professional soccer match,” said John David Wicker, Director of Athletics at SDSU, adding the boxes can be clustered in the center of the field for a concert.
There will be 18 garden rooms that will have individual themes. These can be used for university or business events connected to the campus buildings or nearby hotels.
SDSU West will compete with SoccerCity on the ballot in 2018, but unlike SoccerCity we haven't seen many details about their vision, until now.
To deal with the annual rainy season, not to mention a huge 50-year flood, SDSU's design team wants to restore the watershed to its more natural state.
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They've proposed an open space much larger than the $40 million river park shown in renderings proposed by SoccerCity.
The green space would likely include sports fields, a dog park, and lots of trails which will blend up into the campus. It will be at a lower elevation so water can’t get up to the site.
SoccerCity Project Manager Nick Stone maintains that the SDSU West initiative is "virtually identical" to SoccerCity.
Stone released the following statement:
"As we were reminded again today, the uses that SDSU envisions are virtually identical to those the SoccerCity initiative promises voters. Both feature a new multi-use stadium with similar seating capacity, a large river park and space for SDSU to grow and flourish. The major difference is that SoccerCity will be built without a dime of public funds in a legally binding initiative and lease with the city, while the SDSU West plan offers no binding commitments and will leave taxpayers on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars."
