After years of playing at Aztec Stadium, the team had a new facility to play at. The Aztecs played their first game at the stadium on September 15, against Tennessee State. San Diego Stadium had a capacity of 50, multicolored seats upon opening. The three tier grandstand was in the shape of a horseshoe, with the south end open. In , over 9, bleachers were added to the lower deck on the open end of the stadium raising the capacity to 59, The most substantial addition was completed in , when the stadium was fully enclosed, with the exception of where the scoreboard is located.
The naming rights will belong to Qualcomm until In order to continue to honor Murphy, the city named the stadium site Jack Murphy Field.
Bob Murphy before his death in , during New York Mets broadcasts still referred to it as Jack Murphy Stadium, even after it was renamed. Qualcomm Stadium satellite view in March , with the trolley line at the bottom of the image.
For 10 days in December , the stadium was temporarily renamed Snapdragon Stadium as a marketing tie-in for Qualcomm's Snapdragon brand of products. Qualcomm's naming rights of the stadium expired on June 14, The stadium was the first of the square-circle "octorad" style, which was thought to be an improvement over the other cookie cutter 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. It is one of the few "cookie-cutter" stadiums to still remain active, along with Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium. 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.
Doorways are 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 are visible above the west end zone, opposite the scoreboard. These doors are rolling metal overhead doors, with the field side painted to match the surrounding walls facing the field. The baseball field dimensions had varied slightly over the years.
In , the distance from home plate to the left and right field wall was feet, the distance to the left- and right-center field power alleys was feet, and the distance from home plate to the center field was feet.
Finally, there would be small bleacher sections near each end zone, placed near ground level so as not to obstruct the view of fans in the far ends of the new extended portions of the lower deck. Since the Chargers left San Diego in , the Aztecs are essentially the only tenant now. It has also hosted the Holiday Bowl since , and the Poinsettia Bowl since After arrangements to build a smaller replacement football stadium were made, demolition on the half-century old stadium began in December , and was finished in March CLICK on the camera icons below to see each photo, one by one.
Courtesy of Marc Myers. Courtesy of Marc Chavez. NOTE: The diagram thumbnails have been continually replaced since , so the images seen in the older blog posts do not reflect how the full-size diagrams looked at that time.
Roll your mouse over the adjacent thumbnail to see a pre version. Have you been to this stadium? If so, feel free to share your impressions of it with other fans! Registration is required. Also, I welcome submissions of original stadium photos that fans have taken, and will make sure they get properly credited. Just send me an e-mail message via the Contact page. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your agreement to the Terms of Use. Contact Terms. Jack Murphy Stadium: Chronology of diagram updates NOTE: The diagram thumbnails have been continually replaced since , so the images seen in the older blog posts do not reflect how the full-size diagrams looked at that time.
Vox populi: Fans' impressions Have you been to this stadium? Old Stadium Memories. Today, the news media was given a final tour of SDCCU stadium before the wrecking ball hits in a few months.
Kind of sad for me. Spent so much time there as a kid, doing this! In , it became the only stadium to ever host both the Super Bowl and World Series in the same year. Canepa is now a columnist at the UT and perhaps has seen more games at the old stadium than anyone.
I spent a lot of time in that place. Almost over 50 years -- oh, my goodness! Wait for it!
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