Snapdragon Stadium

Capacity:
35,000
Country:
United States of America
Address:
2101 Stadium Way, San Diego, CA 92108, United States
Surface:
Grass
Conference:
Mountain West
Tenant:
San Diego State Aztecs
Opened:
September 3, 2022
Team:
San Diego State Aztecs football
Cost:
$310 Million

Located in the Mission Valley neighborhood of sunny San Diego sits Snapdragon Stadium, home of the San Diego State Aztecs. It’s one of the newest stadiums in college football. For over fifty years the Aztecs played at San Diego Stadium (aka Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium). It was a large multi-purpose stadium with a seating capacity of more than 60,000 that was once home to the NFL’s San Diego Chargers and MLB’s San Diego Padres. Not only was the stadium too large for the Aztecs, it lacked many of the modern amenities found in other stadiums nationwide. The Padres moved to downtown San Diego in 2004 and the Charges to Los Angeles after the 2016 season, leaving the Aztecs as the sole tenant. In the mid-2010s San Diego State developed the SDSU Mission Valley Development project that would redevelop the entire stadium site and include demolishing the existing stadium, building a new modern one, along with housing, retail, hotels and recreation spaces. In 2018 San Diego approved this development and the university purchased the 135-acre stadium complex for $88 million.


On August 17, 2020 construction began San Diego State’s new football home. The Aztecs temporarily moved to Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, CA for the 2020 and 2021 seasons while their new stadium was built. Qualcomm purchased the naming rights to the stadium, naming it after its Snapdragon brand system, thus the stadium has one of the oddest names in college football, Snapdragon Stadium. The stadium has a modest capacity of 35,000, expandable to 55,000 if the NFL were ever to expand to San Diego in the future. Snapdragon Stadium has a lower deck that encloses the playing field with upper decks on both sides of the gridiron. It features many amenities throughout the stadium including 22 loge boxes. There is one video board located in the corner of each end zone. The San Diego State Aztecs played their first game at Snapdragon Stadium on September 3, 2022, a loss to the Arizona Wildcats.