SAN DIEGO (CBS 8) - A plan is being kicked around to bring Major League Soccer to the Qualcomm stadium site and on Friday night fans packed a viewing party to celebrate the beginning of the 2017 season.
Boisterous backers of the plan to redevelop the Qualcomm site into a major league soccer venue believe if they build it, the fans will come.
To make their point, nearly 1,000 fired-up footy fans packed Brian Malarkey's Green Acres campus pointe in La Jolla Friday to show their support for MLS in San Diego.
The plan would turn the Qualcomm Stadium site in Mission Valley into a new destination for San Diegans, providing a place to live, work, dine, shop, and attend sporting events in a new stadium, including professional soccer, college football, and concerts.
The plan's features include 55 acres of parkland, including an expanded San Diego River Park and six community recreation fields; a state-of-the-art stadium for professional soccer and collegiate football that could serve San Diego State, and also be the new home of high school football and soccer championship games; a sports and entertainment district with restaurants, shops, bars and live music; and a transit-oriented, mixed-use development that would include 3,520 market-rate residential units, 800 student-focused residential units and 480 affordable housing units.
The commercial area of the development would include 2.4 million square feet of office space, 740,000 square feet of commercial space, and two hotels with the potential for up to 450 rooms.
Nick Stone of FS Investors, which has already filed for an MLS franchise in San Diego, said it would require San Diegans support at the polls in the form of a citizens initiative, but "not a penny, not a single penny of taxpayer dollars."
The plan would be 100 percent privately funded without the use of taxpayer money and be acquired from the city at fair market value, according to the investors.
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