San Diego State University has awarded a $250 million contract to one of the nation’s preeminent construction firms to build its Mission Valley stadium.

The firm, Clark Construction Group, won the contract through a competitive bidding process that started in November, the university announced Thursday. Clark Construction, which also built Petco Park where the San Diego Padres play, was selected to design and build an expandable 35,000-capacity stadium for college football and other sporting events, including professional soccer. Clark is required to pay prevailing wage.

“Clark Construction has significant expertise building large, multi-use stadiums and is a great fit to build San Diego State University’s new multi-use stadium and the future home of Aztec football,” said John David Wicker, the university’s athletic director.


The selection comes as the university works in tandem to acquire 132 acres of Mission Valley real estate from the city of San Diego. In the November election, SDSU won the right to negotiate to buy the property, which is currently owned by the city and home to SDCCU Stadium. Land sale negotiations are under way with the mayor, though final sign off from City Council is required before a transaction can be completed.

In the meantime, SDSU is moving forward with an environmental review process that is expected to culminate in early 2020 with approval from its governing body, the California State University Board of Trustees. The university most recently wrapped up public hearings and is now working on a draft document that will be made available for review this summer.

The speedy timeline is designed to get a multi-use stadium built in time for the start of the 2022 NCAA football season.

SDSU’s newly contracted builder Clark Construction is based in Bethesda, Maryland. It was established in 1906 and is responsible for a number of high-profile developments ranging from residential towers and high-end hotels to government buildings. In the sports world, the construction company is behind Nationals Park in Washington D.C., where the Major League Baseball franchise the Washington Nationals play, as well as the renovated press box at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.


“(Clark Construction) has done a lot of work in San Diego and on San Diego State’s campus,” Wicker said, referencing projects such as Petco Park and the university’s Engineering and Interdisciplinary Sciences building. “We’ve had a really good experience with them and they’re familiar with CSU processes.”

The stadium will stay consistent with the conceptual ideas floated publicly ahead of the November election, Wicker said. That means a variety of seating types, including premium options and standing-room-only areas. The final look is subject to a design process that will start in the weeks ahead.

Clark Construction will work jointly with the university to pick an architect and that process is already under way. A winner should be announced before the end of March.

But whether or not the university can afford its proposed $250-million stadium is up for debate. San Diego State has said the stadium will be financed through revenue bonds, which will be paid off using ticket revenue, facilities rental revenue, naming rights, sponsorships and donations. The university has also said that it will not use student tuition to finance the stadium.


However, economists question SDSU’s ability to pay back debt with stadium revenue alone, noting that the Aztec football program has limited money-making potential and that other events may not make up for annual shortfalls.

“Most mid-major football programs, no matter how nice a stadium you build them, will end up in the red,” said Victor Matheson, an economist at College of the Holy Cross who specializes in sports.

The sentiment was echoed by Andrew Zimbalist, a sports economist at Smith College.

“It’s a little baffling to me. SDSU is not going to ever make it into the ranks of high revenue-generating football programs,” he said. And, even if they were to, only one-third of colleges at that level — as in, teams in the so-called “Power Five” conferences — show an operating profit on their athletic programs, Zimbalist added.


Both economists were also skeptical that a 35,000-capacity facility could book enough concerts and other events to cover the gap between football revenue and an estimated annual debt payment of around $18 million. Plus, high-end, high-cost luxury boxes and club seats, which could help juice revenue, don’t typically make sense at the college level, and particularly not for the SDSU program, Zimbalist said.

Wicker, the athletic director, downplayed any financial concerns.

“We’re not going to build something that we can’t pay for,” he said, noting that the CSU Board of Trustees won’t approve bonds without the proper assurances.


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jennifer.vangrove@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1840 Twitter: @jbruin

UPDATES:


2:50 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details.

This article was originally published at 11:30 a.m.