New Earthquakes Stadium

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New Earthquakes Stadium
(Working name)
Location San Jose, California
Broke ground N/A
Opened Planned 2010 or 2011[1][2]
Owner City of San Jose
Operator Earthquakes Soccer, LLC
Surface Grass
Construction cost est. $80 million USD
Architect Rossetti Architects
Tenants San Jose Earthquakes (MLS) (2010/2011- )
Capacity 18,000 (approximate)

New Earthquakes Stadium is the working name of a proposed soccer specific stadium that would be built in San Jose, California for Major League Soccer's San Jose Earthquakes. The stadium would be built on what is currently called the Airport West site that is located to the west of San Jose International Airport.[3][4] The stadium will hold approximately 18,000 fans. The stadium will be part of a mixed use residential, retail, R&D and hotel development. The stadium is planned to be constructed privately with no public money provided by the city of San Jose. Additionally Lewis Wolff, owner of the San Jose Earthquakes, has offered to pay for the maintenance of the stadium for a 55 year timespan.

[edit] History and details

The proposal for the new stadium for the Earthquakes was brought before the San Jose City Council in June of 2007. The proposal calls for the city of San Jose to rezone a parcel of industrial land in the city's Edenvale district to residential uses. The parcel is owned by iStar Financial, but members of the Earthquakes ownership group own an option to purchase the land. Rezoning the parcel would increase the value of the property by approximately 80 million USD. The site's industrial capacity would be transferred to surrounding properties allowing those sites to increase the density of the developments on their land, eliminating early generation single level developments. This would also preserve the industrial capacity for the city in the Edenvale area. The option or the land would then be sold and the proceeds would be used to construct the soccer-specific stadium on the Airport West site (formerly an FMC Corp. facility) at no cost to the city.

Lewis Wolff's ownership group would purchase the Airport West site from the city of San Jose at market value, alleviating the city of 7.5 million dollars in tax service the city is currently paying on the site. The Airport West site had been purchased by the city for a possible expansion to the San Jose International Airport infrastructure. However, as of November 2007, the airport has indicated that the land is no longer needed in any current or projected developments.

The city estimates that the total development of both the Airport West and iStar site would bring approximately 1.3 billion dollars worth of capital investment to San Jose and would bring in millions of dollars in tax revenues. The development would also provide new research and development, retail, and hotel jobs to the city. The iStar site would be developed with a mix of residential and commercial uses, while the Airport West site would be developed by Wolff with two hotels, as well as residential, research, and retail developments.

On April 15, 2008 it was revealed that a tentative deal to sell the Airport West site to the group headed by the Earthquakes ownership had been reached. The ownership group would pay $132 million dollars for 66 acres of the Airport West site, land San Jose purchased for $81 million dollars in 2005. The deal was approved after the May 21 vote by the San Jose city council.[5][6]

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Preceded by
Buck Shaw Stadium
2008-present
McAfee Coliseum (big game venue)
2008-present
Home of the
San Jose Earthquakes

Planned 2010
Succeeded by
none