Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SAN DIEGO (AP) — San Diego State said Thursday that its proposed new 35,000-seat football stadium could be expanded to 55,000 seats if the NFL ever returns to the city.
SDSU has proposed building a $250 million stadium to replace aging SDCCU Stadium, formerly known as Qualcomm Stadium.
The new stadium would be part of a campus expansion via an initiative on the November ballot that seeks to buy the site from the city.
A competing initiative calls for a $4 billion development that would include a stadium for a possible MLS team.
The NFL's Chargers relocated to the Los Angeles area before the 2017 season.
While SDSU's plan includes an expandable stadium, the competing plan, called SoccerCity, would set aside a plot of land for five years that could be used for an NFL stadium. After that it would revert to other development.
SDSU athletic director J.D. Wicker said he has no expectation that the NFL will return, "but I want to be prepared to allow that opportunity."
It would be a longshot that an NFL team would want to share a stadium controlled by a college. If the stadium were to be expanded for an NFL team, that team would be responsible for the cost, which Wicker estimated at between $750 million and $800 million.
___
More AP college football: http://collegefootball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP\_Top25
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
