SDCCU Stadium

SDCCU Stadium
Mission Valley

With two ballot measures coming up for vote in November 2018, proposals and discussions over the future land use for and around San Diego Stadium (its original name), there has been a roaring silence when it comes to cheering for an award-winning structure with a design that was nationally ahead of its time. Voters were not adequately informed of the initiatives' potential impact on the stadium, and most do not know that this sports magnet is one of the last remaining mid-century designed, multi-purpose stadiums in the United States. Designed by Frank L. Hope Associates, a leading San Diego firm for decades, the stadium opened in 1967 as home to the San Diego Chargers, San Diego Padres, and San Diego State University Aztecs football team. The stadium's novel form (eight concentric circles) provides excellent sight lines, a key requirement for ticket sales and design success then and now. In 1969, its innovative features, including pre-cast concrete, pre-wired light towers and spiral concrete pedestrian ramps, earned the stadium an American Institute of Architects Honor Award for outstanding design—the first such national award for a San Diego building and for a U.S. sports stadium. The backers of the two ballot measures, named Soccer City and SDSU West for their proposed future uses, with the City of San Diego must find a way to reuse this celebrated, iconic, and adaptable Modernist Era monument. Equally important, we need to save this building instead of dumping untold tons of concrete into our landfills. Preserving and sensitively adapting the stadium to meet the future needs of San Diego would be a win-win-win in sports history, for environmental sustainability, and for optimizing centrally located redevelopment land for the highest and best public good.

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