San Diego State football is looking to take its rightful place as the game in town.

The Aztecs can accomplish this goal playing in a 30,000-seat stadium.

“I think that’s a good number,” SDSU Athletic Director J.D. Wicker said. “As you look at most stadiums being built today, people are downsizing their stadiums. They’re getting smaller. They’re having to be really creative with all of the different options available, especially from the premium side. … The bigger piece is making sure we create a stadium that is flexible that we can create an environment that people want to come to watch a game, but today it’s more of a social gathering than an actual game.”


This is what we needed to hear. Now we can work to ensure this happens.

San Diego State had been relatively quiet on the proposal by a group of local investors working to bring Major League Soccer to San Diego and build a stadium in conjunction with SDSU as part of a greater development on the Mission Valley site that has for 50 years housed Qualcomm Stadium.

There are lease terms, maintenance responsibilities and revenue splits to be worked out. But the direction this is heading makes sense and seems to greatly intrigue SDSU.

Pushback from some Aztecs fans on the stadium size has been clamorous and emphatic. Their concern is that 30,000 seats is too small – that such a venue constitutes “settling” and is “small-time,” that Aztecs football averages more fans than 30K per game now and a Power Five conference won’t find the program attractive.


All false or immaterial.

Yes, SDSU averaged 37,289 over six home games in 2016. That is tickets distributed, for one thing. Actual attendance is slightly less. And the number includes 46,486 for the annual KGB SkyShow and 42,473 for a game against Cal. That leaves an average below 34,000 for the other four games.

The capacity at the new stadium could end up being slightly higher than 30,000 straightaway. It might not. Future expansion is accounted for.

“We’re still discussing what that top end is going to be,” Wicker said of the initial capacity before addressing long-term possibilities. “It will be expandable to 40,000. That will be in the plan as we work with the architects and we lay out what the stadium site will look like.”


Among Power Five programs, Wake Forest of the ACC plays in a 31,500-seat stadium and Washington State of the Pac-12 in a 35,000-seat stadium, and several others play in venues that seat far less than 50,000. Attendance at many college stadiums is flagging. In the stadium game, the lesson being learned is that you don’t build for what you want to become but what you are.

And size doesn’t really matter for where you want to go.

“A conference coming in is not going to look at how big our stadium is,” Wicker said. “They’re going to look at how successful we are, how many eyeballs you bring. What is your institution like academically? … It’s not how big your stadium is and thing like that. They want a successful program that brings a lot of eyeballs to television contracts.”

So San Diego State continuing to be included in The Princeton Review and rising in the U.S. News & World Report rankings (up to No. 74 among public institutions), along with the size of the TV market and viewers’ interest in SDSU are more important than the number of seats in the stadium.


The Aztecs should have to earn a larger venue. That is safe, and it is smart. The $100 million contribution their potential MLS partners are seeking, which SDSU would finance through bonds, seems like a reasonable number. Much more than that seems like a gamble. If the Aztecs continue winning, growing and solidifying their fan base and, thus, increasing revenue, expansion will be feasible. It’s the blueprint by which many other programs have upgraded and expanded their stadiums.

For now, the value of scarcity created by having a little more than 20,000 season tickets available – after tickets for students and other allotments – would make SDSU a velvet rope attraction.

“With 30,000, it’s going to create a great environment,” Wicker said. “You’re going to have to buy season tickets if you want to get into the building.”

That is the goal, and it is the opposite of what has been the case at Qualcomm Stadium.


With fans knowing there would always be plenty of tickets available for walk-up purchase, it is amazing the Aztecs sold 14,000 season tickets in 2016.

Wicker is focused on the experience SDSU can provide in an intimate venue. He used the word “environment” several times in a recent conversation.

The Aztecs’ game experience has been swallowed inside the 68,000-seat behemoth. Even a crowd of 35,000, with tarps covering the upper bowl, made an SDSU game seem like it was being played inside a library. If you think what we’re talking about here is too small, think of it like the difference between watching a cage fight and watching ants fight. Anyone who has attended a football game in a smallish stadium that is full (or close to it) knows it can be as exciting and seem every bit as loud as a much larger venue.

And this won’t be some high school stadium. It will have all the amenities of a modern professional stadium, including the large and vivid video boards Qualcomm Stadium lacks.


“You create an event,” Wicker said. “People want to be there … You do that for some number of years, build up enough demand and potentially a better TV contract. It creates the additional revenue. Now you can bond for more money … You have this pent-up demand.”

Yes, of course this is about making more money.

This project can accomplish that. It really isn’t a question of if, just how much.

The revenue opportunity in the new stadium surpasses anything SDSU football has ever had even within sight. The profit will be infinitely more than what the program has generated at Qualcomm Stadium.


With control over sponsorship, signage and premium seating that has not been available while sharing a building with the Chargers, SDSU stands to reap even more than the $6.5 million or so a year it expected to make by joining the Big East, which was then a BCS conference and arranged on the other side of the country.

For a football program that (like most FBS football programs) doesn’t show red only due to some fancy accounting and help from student and university subsidies, this would change the game for football and all sports. Ostensibly, football success leads to a bigger slice of the pie for water polo and soccer.

Said Wicker: “A new stadium of appropriate size with all the amenities will be of significant benefit to ensuring the athletic department is able to grow and progress in the coming years.”

As sports fans, that is what we should be concerned with.


We may well become an MLS town. Maybe that will be fun.

But the priority here is San Diego State. They’re moving forward with an eye toward success. Let’s make it happen.

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kevin.acee@sduniontribune.com