Better late than never. On March 3rd, a demolition ceremony will be held at the site of the future San Jose Earthquakes stadium. The 15,000-seat venue, whose design is not yet finalized, is will replace SCU’s Buck Shaw Stadium, which was only meant to be a temporary home. Most of the site known as FMC/Airport West is already cleared, save for a large plant that is a remnant of its history as a large defense contractor facility. I’m not up enough on the history of the FMC plant to know if this building is where the once ill-fated Bradley Fighting Vehicle was built.
Old plant sits on stadium footprint
The site already has the Quakes’ practice field. Other redevelopment nearby has already been completed, including a shopping center with a Lowe’s and In-n-Out. It is also near the Santa Clara Caltrain Station, the far-off Santa Clara terminus for BART, and coincidentally, Stephen Schott Stadium on the SCU campus.
Practice field
No date for groundbreaking has been given, and it could happen at any point given the mild, construction-friendly weather we typically experience every year. In the past I have posited that the construction schedules of the Quakes’ stadium and an A’s stadium may be linked as part of a package deal. Now I’m not so sure since MLB’s schedule seems to be in flux.
2010 rendering
Despite the fact that the design is not finalized, I don’t expect it to vary too much from the renderings released last year. The only major changes could be if the bowl were fully enclosed or a bunch of suites were added at the last moment, and I don’t think that the financials have changed enough to merit such changes. Then again, if Quakes president David Kaval has sold the concept well, I may be eating my words in short order. Either way, I expect that the stadium should be ready by the beginning of the 2013 season. No pressure, of course.
newballpark.org 
Can’t wait to catch Earthquakes and A’s games both in San Jose on the same day.
http://www.sjearthquakes.com/news/2011/02/earthquakes-set-begin-demolition-potential-stadium-site
A little more info from the Quakes ML. Demolition should take 12 weeks and they hope to have the stadium completed and open some time during the 2012 season but opening day 2013 is the likely date IF they are unable to find another naming rights sponsor. But either way it looks like ground breaking will be in the slightly over 12 week range after March 3rd barring any problems.
great news, but 15,000 capacity is kinda weak! hopefully they can expand in the future
R.M.,
The Quakes SSS and Cisco Field construction schedules could still be linked, with construction of the ballpark (with same construction company) beginning right after the SSS is complete. SSS completed in 2013, company and workers migrate south to Diridon to start ballpark construction for completion by 2015. Agree with you 100% pjk! And to believe I used to “go at it” with Quakes fans in the past over soccer vs. baseball…BOTH IS BETTER!
It’s really 15,000 plus 3,000 for “big” games so it’s a bigger stadium than it’s base capacity would suggest. Plus while they’ve said they have no plans to expand it, the open end leaves an obvious location for a very easy expansion should they need it in the future. What I’m more hopeful for than more capacity is a few suites to sell to some rich Silicon Valley big wigs. Both for their own merits, and as a taster of the idea in some rich folks minds for Cisco Field.
In case anybody cares, there’s Lowe’s hardware store and an In*Out Burger right next door to the soccer stadium. Down the street about a quarter mile is a Costco, Starbucks and McDonalds. (Hope Lowe’s doesn’t complain about parking like they did with some other team’s stadium plan).
The plan is to head down down Coleman from the soccer game into Market Street. Park there and then walk 10 minutes to the A’s game. Vice versa if the A’s play first. Maybe they’ll someday have some sort of access from the nearby Santa Clara CalTrain station one stop to Diridon, right next to the ballpark.
If efforts to keep the A’s out of San Jose succeed, the plan will most likely go like this: Catch a Quakes game; drive across the street to SJ Airport; Catch an American Airlines flight to San Antonio to see the A’s.
“If efforts to keep the A’s out of San Jose succeed, the plan will most likely go like this: Catch a Quakes game; drive across the street to SJ Airport; Catch an American Airlines flight to San Antonio to see the A’s.” Ouch….LOL!
Why are all of the green handles, pro SJ?
@David – Anyone can register and get a handle via the login link. I don’t advertise this, but since you asked…
You mean like this?
Back to the Quakes stadium. On another board I’m hearing they’re doing preliminary work starting this week (pulling out live wires etc…) and that the demo company expects demolition to take about 10 months total. However I’m assuming that total will be for the demolition on the entire FMC (Airport West) property which is substantially larger than just the small corner being used for the soccer stadium.
“The plan is to head down down Coleman from the soccer game into Market Street. Park there and then walk 10 minutes to the A’s game. Vice versa if the A’s play first. Maybe they’ll someday have some sort of access from the nearby Santa Clara CalTrain station one stop to Diridon, right next to the ballpark.”
The Santa Clara station that CalTrain is trying to close?
It won’t be closed forever.
It still remains to be seen if Caltrain will end up closing any stations. To do so would be counter intuitive since they’d essentially kill their own business if they did so deepening the hole they’re already in… What we really need is BART to swoop in and take over mgmt of Caltrain from it’s dysfunctional overlords.
Most likely, some of the stations will be mothballed probably for a few years. Including recently rebuilt stations like Hayward Park and Lawrence Station. Having the A’s and Giants at opposite ends of the Caltrain line (not counting the lightly used stations south of Diridon) makes so much sense it’ll probably never happen.
Speaking of MLS, those who are wondering whether games will appear on Fox Soccer Channel this year should wonder no more: http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/mls/story/Major-League-Soccer-FOX-Soccer-extend-TV-broadcast-deal-for-another-year-021811
http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/2011/2/18/2001433/fox-soccer-channel-MLS-broadcast-31-regular-season
There will be a lot more Friday games this season, as opposed to last.