San Diego Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium in San Diego, California, United States. It opened in 1967 as San Diego Stadium; it was renamed Jack Murphy Stadium for sportswriter Jack Murphy from 1981 to 1997. From 1997 to 2017, the stadium's naming rights were owned by Qualcomm; it was named Qualcomm Stadium. The naming rights expired on June 14, 2017, and were purchased by San Diego County Credit Union, renaming the stadium to SDCCU Stadium on September 19, 2017; those naming rights expired in December 2020. Demolition of San Diego Stadium began in December 2020; its last freestanding section fell on March 22, 2021.
The stadium was the longtime home for two teams of the major professional sports leagues: the San Diego Chargers of the National Football League (NFL) and the San Diego Padres of Major League Baseball (MLB). The Chargers played at the stadium from 1967 through the 2016 season, after which they moved to the Greater Los Angeles area to become the Los Angeles Chargers. The Padres played home games at the stadium from their founding in 1969 through the 2003 season, then moved to Petco Park in downtown San Diego. Additionally, the stadium hosted the San Diego Sockers of the North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1978 through the 1984 season.
San Diego Stadium was the home of the San Diego State Aztecs football team from 1967 through 2019. A college football bowl game, the Holiday Bowl, was held in the stadium every December from 1978 through 2019. The stadium was home to a second college bowl game, the Poinsettia Bowl, from 2005 until its discontinuation following the 2016 edition. In 2020, San Diego State University (SDSU) purchased the stadium site, with plans to develop the area into a noncontiguous campus expansion following the stadium's demolition, now known as SDSU Mission Valley. Snapdragon Stadium opened on the site in 2022 as the new home for the Aztecs football team.
The stadium hosted three Super Bowls: XXII in 1988, XXXII in 1998, and XXXVII in 2003, being the most recent multi-purpose stadium to host the NFL's title game. It also hosted the 1984 and 1998 World Series, the 1978 and 1992 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, and games of the 1996 and 1998 National League Division Series and the 1984 and 1998 National League Championship Series. It was the only stadium ever to host both the Super Bowl and the World Series in the same year (1998), and was one of three stadiums to host the Super Bowl, World Series, and the MLB All-Star Game, along with the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles.
History
In the early 1960s, local sportswriter Jack Murphy, the brother of New York Mets broadcaster Bob Murphy, began to build up support for a multi-purpose stadium for San Diego. In November 1965, a $27 million bond was passed allowing construction to begin on a stadium, which was designed in the Brutalist style. Construction on the stadium began one month later. When completed, the facility was named San Diego Stadium.
The stadium was the first of the square-circle "octorad" style, which was thought to be an improvement over the other multi-purpose stadiums of the time for hosting both football and baseball (the second and last of this style was the since-imploded Veterans Stadium). Despite the theoretical improvements of this style, most of the seats were still very far away from the action on the field, especially during baseball games.
The Chargers (then a member of the American Football League) played the first game ever at the stadium on August 20, 1967. San Diego Stadium had a capacity of around 50,000; the three-tier grandstand was in the shape of a horseshoe, with the east end low (consisting of only one tier, partially topped by a large scoreboard). The Chargers were the main tenant of the stadium until 1968, when the AAA Pacific Coast League San Diego Padres baseball team played its last season in the stadium, following their move from the minor league-sized Westgate Park. Due to expansion of Major League Baseball, this team was replaced by the current San Diego Padres major-league team beginning in the 1969 season. (The Padres moved out of the stadium following the 2003 season.) The original scoreboard, a black-and-white scoreboard created by All American Scoreboards, was replaced in 1978 by one manufactured by American Sign and Indicator, which was the first full-color outdoor scoreboard ever built.American Sign Builds Color Scoreboard This was replaced in 1987 by a White Way Sign scoreboard, in which the video screen is surrounded almost entirely by three message boards. The original video board was replaced in 1996 by a Sony JumboTron, with a second JumboTron installed behind the opposite end zone (third base in the stadium's baseball configuration).
After Jack Murphy's death in September 1980, San Diego Stadium was renamed San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium by a 6–2 vote of the San Diego City Council on January 6, 1981. In 1983, over 9,000 bleachers were added to the lower deck on the open end of the stadium raising the capacity to 59,022.
The most substantial addition was completed in 1997, when the stadium was fully enclosed, with the exception of where the scoreboard is located. Nearly 11,000 seats were added in readiness for Super Bowl XXXII in 1998, bringing the capacity to 70,561. Also in 1997, the facility was renamed Qualcomm Stadium after Qualcomm Corporation paid $18 million for the naming rights. The naming rights belonged to Qualcomm until 2017, after which the rights were purchased by San Diego County Credit Union. In order to continue to honor Murphy, the city named the stadium site Jack Murphy Field. However, as part of the naming agreement Jack Murphy Field was not allowed to be used alongside Qualcomm Stadium. Some San Diegans, however, still refer to the stadium as "Jack Murphy" or simply "The Murph". Before his death in 2004, Bob Murphy still referred to it as Jack Murphy Stadium during New York Mets broadcasts, even after it was renamed. However, this renovation relegated the Padres within their own stadium, as the city gave the Chargers full financial control of the 113 luxury suites. The stadium was temporarily renamed "Snapdragon Stadium" for 10 days in December 2011 as a marketing tie in for Qualcomm's Snapdragon brand. The legality of the temporary name change was challenged at the time, since it was agreed to unilaterally by San Diego's mayor, without approval from the City Council and against the advice of the City Attorney. The Aztecs' new stadium, built in 2022 after the demolition of SDCCU Stadium, has the permanent name of Snapdragon Stadium.
With the departure of the Padres to Petco Park following the 2003 season and even beforehand, there was much talk of replacing the increasingly obsolete (by NFL standards) stadium with a more modern, football-only one. Also, the NFL had demanded a new stadium if San Diego was to host another Super Bowl; however, the city struggled to fund such a new stadium. On January 12, 2017, the Chargers announced they were moving to Los Angeles and now play at SoFi Stadium with the Los Angeles Rams. In 2018, San Diego State University announced the construction of a new Aztec Stadium (later renamed Snapdragon Stadium, which would be completed in 2022) on an expansion part of campus on the site of the stadium and parking lot.
On December 27, 2019, the stadium hosted the San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl, a college football bowl game between Iowa and USC (Iowa won the game), this was the final sporting event ever played at the stadium. Demolition of the stadium commenced in December 2020.
Super Bowls (NFL)
DateSuper BowlNFC ChampionPointsAFC ChampionPointsAttendanceJanuary 31, 1988 XXII Washington Redskins 42 Denver Broncos 1073,302January 25, 1998 XXXII Green Bay Packers 24 Denver Broncos 3168,912January 26, 2003 XXXVII Tampa Bay Buccaneers 48 Oakland Raiders 2167,603
All-Star Games (MLB)
DateAll-Star GameWinnerRunsLoserRunsAttendance July 11, 1978 1978 (49th) National League (NL) 7 American League (AL) 351,549 July 14, 1992 1992 (63rd) American League (AL) 13 National League (NL) 659,372
Configurations
In order to accommodate the dimensions of both football and baseball fields, the stadium was constructed with half of the lower (Field Level) level seating built of permanent concrete (in the southern quadrant of the stadium), and the other half of portable modular construction using aluminum or steel framing.
When the stadium was configured for baseball, the portable sections would be placed in the western quadrant of the stadium along the third base-left field side. Open bullpens were located along both foul lines just beyond the ends of the Field-level seats. In the Padres' final five seasons at the stadium from 1999 to 2003, the home plate area took on the shape of home plate itself (as opposed to the standard circle); this feature is seen in Detroit's Comerica Park today.
In the football configuration, the portable seating sections were placed in the northern quadrant of the stadium (covering what is used as left field in the baseball configuration) to allow for the football field to be laid out east–west (along the first base/right field foul line, with the western end zone placed in the area occupied by the portable seating sections in the baseball configuration, and the eastern end zone along the right-center field wall).
Doorways were cut in the walls of the stadium in order to allow access to these seats from the tunnel below the Plaza level in both configurations (in baseball configuration, the football doors could be seen above the left field inner wall; in football configuration, the baseball doors were visible above the west end zone, opposite the scoreboard). These doors were rolling metal overhead doors, with the field side painted to match the surrounding walls facing the field.
Seating capacity
+ Baseball Years Capacity 1967–1972 50,000 1973 44,790 1974–1975 47,634 1976 47,491 1977–1978 48,460 1979 51,362 1980 48,443 1981–1982 51,362 1983 51,319 1984 58,671 1985 58,396 1986–1988 58,433 1989–1990 59,022 1991 59,254 1992 59,700 1993 59,411 1994 46,510 1995 47,972 1996 49,639 1997 59,771 1998 67,544 1999–2002 66,307 2003 63,890
+ Football Years Capacity 1967–1981 52,596 1982–1983 52,675 1984 60,100 1985–1991 60,750 1992–1996 60,836 1997–1998 71,350 1999–2017 70,561
Tenants
Padres
From their inception in 1969 until the end of 2003, when they moved into Petco Park in the downtown area, the National League's San Diego Padres called the stadium home.
The field dimensions varied slightly over the years. In 1969, the distance from home plate to the left and right field wall was , the distance to the left- and right-center field power alleys was , and the distance from home plate to center field was . A wall, whose top was the rim of the Plaza level, surrounded the outfield, making home runs difficult to hit. Later, an eight-foot fence was erected, cutting the distances to 327, 368, and , respectively. In 1996, a note of asymmetry was introduced when a high scoreboard displaying out-of-town scores was erected along the right-field wall near the foul pole and deemed to be in play, and so the distances to right field and right-center field were and , respectively, while the remaining dimensions remained the same.
Orel Hershiser broke Don Drysdale's scoreless inning streak at Jack Murphy Stadium on September 28, 1988, as the Los Angeles Dodgers played the San Diego Padres. Rickey Henderson collected his 3000th major league base hit at Jack Murphy Stadium on October 7, 2001 as a Padre, in what was also the last major league game for Tony Gwynn, the eight-time National League batting champion and Hall of Famer who played his entire career with San Diego. It was also before a Padres game where comedian Roseanne Barr gave her infamous rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" in 1990.
Chargers