San Diego State University says it won’t be able to meet growing demand for enrollment or evolve into a top 50 public research school unless it opens a satellite campus on the site of SDCCU Stadium in Mission Valley.

“There’s no room left for significant growth on main campus,” said Bob Schulz, SDSU’s university architect.

He said the university could conceivably knock down one or more smaller buildings and put up a larger ones. But Schulz adds that such change could be prohibitively expensive while making main campus more crowded.

The university’s comments contradict recent claims by FS Investors of La Jolla that SDSU has ample room to grow on main campus and only wants the SDCCU property as the site of a stadium, at least in the short term.


FS Investors wants to place a soccer stadium on the same site, along with mixed-used development.

Both proposals will appear on the ballot when San Diegans go to the polls in November.

FS Investors has been challenging SDSU’s growth statements, often in blunt terms.

“SDSU is far from land-locked. They have lots of space to grow on campus,” Rachel Laing, an FS Investors spokeswoman, said in a recent email to the Union-Tribune.


“That’s why they’ve repeatedly and and publicly stated they do not need the land on the Qualcomm site land for several decades. The only thing they need now on the site is a stadium, which they would have (for $150 million less) with SoccerCity ...

“You will literally not find SDSU breathing a word of needing to expand in the near term to a west campus until the developers marched in and told them to queer the deal with Soccer City.”

SDSU currently has about 35,000 students, a figure close to its historic record of just over 36,000. Campus officials say they’ll remain roughly where they are now — for the short term, at least — due to funding and space issues. Enrollment has topped out at a time when SDSU is receiving record numbers of applications for admission.

SDSU would like to build a stadium along with 1.6 million square-feet of academic and research space in Mission Valley, as well as housing and some private development. The entire plan could take 10 to 15 years, if the university finds the funding.


FS Investors also could have trouble developing its plan due to changing demand for commercial property.