page_title: Earthquakes Stadium
section_title: Initial planning
hierarchical_section_title: Earthquakes Stadium / History and details / Initial planning
caption_attribution_description: English: Future home of the SJ Quakes. Location
context_page_description: Earthquakes Stadium is a soccer stadium in San Jose, California, United States, and is the home of Major League Soccer's San Jose Earthquakes. The stadium is located on the Airport West site that is located to the west of San Jose International Airport.
  Earthquakes Stadium officially opened on February 27, 2015, and has a capacity of approximately 18,000. It was initially sponsored by Avaya, which is headquartered nearby in Santa Clara. The stadium features a canopy roof and some of the steepest-raked seating in Major League Soccer to provide a better view. Additionally, the area behind the northeast goal houses the largest outdoor bar in North America, a 2-acre fan zone and a double-sided video scoreboard. The suites and club seats are located at field level. The stadium is part of a mixed-use residential, retail, R&D, and hotel development.
  The stadium was constructed privately with no public money provided by the city of San Jose. Additionally, Lewis Wolff, owner of the San Jose Earthquakes, offered to pay for the maintenance of the stadium for a 55-year time span.
context_section_description: The proposal for the new stadium for the Earthquakes was brought before the San Jose City Council in June 2007. The proposal called 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 iS tar 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. 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 on the land would then be sold and the proceeds would be used to construct the soccer-specific stadium on the Airport West site (formerly the site of an FMC Corp. facility) at no cost to the city. Additionally, Wolff and his partners will be funding and building the mixed-use development adjacent to the stadium out of pocket.
  On April 15, 2008, it was revealed that a 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 for 66 acres (270,000 m²) of the Airport West site, land San Jose purchased for $81 million in 2005. The deal was approved after the May 21 vote by the San Jose city council. The purchase price was renegotiated between the city and ownership group in April 2009 to account for the lost value of the land due to the economic climate change since the original deal was struck. Additionally, the Earthquakes and their partners have reduced the purchased land size from the full 75 acres (300,000 m²) of the Airport West site to a smaller 65-acre (260,000 m²) parcel further reducing their purchase price to $89 million.
  Lewis Wolff's ownership group's purchase of the Airport West site from the city of San Jose also alleviated the city of $7.5 million in tax service the city was paying on the site annually. The Airport West site had previously been purchased by the city for a possible expansion to the San Jose International Airport infrastructure. However, as of November 2007, the airport had 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 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.
  In a San Jose Mercury News article in August 2009, Lew Wolff backed off from publicly claiming a definite 2012 opening date for the stadium until a naming rights sponsor could be found and signed.
  The first official public renderings of the stadium were released to the public on September 19, 2009 by team owner Lewis Wolff. The rezoning of the property was approved March 16, 2010 to allow for the construction of the stadium.
  In April 2010, the Earthquakes completed construction and opened the Nutrilite Training Facility, including a training field adjacent to land intended for the new stadium.
  In November 2010, Earthquakes ownership requested the City of San Jose for another amendment to the purchase option for the stadium site. The amendment reduces non-refundable option payments to the City by $2 million to $5 million as well as extends the option period from 2013 to 2015. If Earthquakes ownership closes on the property earlier, a reduction of $4 million in non-refundable option payments will occur. If the economic climate continues to preclude the implementation of the stadium, the option includes provisions for the City to consider allowing retail on the stadium site.
  O
caption: Stadium site before construction.
exif: {}