SAN DIEGO — The first ever kickoff at Snapdragon Stadium is just one day away! San Diego State’s Director of Collegiate Athletics, JD Wicker walked around Snapdragon Stadium with CBS 8 to show some of the features and locations of the stadium.
The Aztecs will host the first game at Snapdragon Stadium against the Arizona Wildcats at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, September 3. Tune into CBS 8 for the game and for a pregame show at 11 a.m.
Field Club
This is where the team will run out onto the field, so if you're a ticket holder in the field club, you get to hang out in the club, enjoying good food, good beverage. Then right before kickoff, the team is going to come out of the roll up door, they'll come out of what's called the hype tunnel you know, neon, lights, music, all the things for them, roll up door comes out, and then they'll come out in congregate in this area and get fired up everybody will be cheering for him and then they'll take off onto the field for kickoff. Then we'll do the same thing at halftime.
One unique part of the new stadium is where the postgame press conference room is located. Wicker said, “There is soundproof glass, so you know, you can't yell questions, but you'll be able to watch the postgame press conference. And we'll pipe the sound out into the field club. So again, just another opportunity for fans to engage in the game and in the experience.”
Fans proximity to the field
With all new stadiums today, you're really looking to build the fan experience. Also the opportunity for the team to get the fans right there. It’s important for the fans to feel like they're really part of it as well. And you've seen a couple other stadiums do this.
Student section and compatibility for soccer games
Our students are going to be in this north end, and we've got a specially designed section for them. It's called safe standing. There's a rail that I can actually lean against with a seat behind it. That's also important as you think about supporter sections for soccer. That's what you see in MLS. That's what you see overseas. So again, we've done something we've said all along, we want to build a stadium for the community of San Diego. So we've got something that's great for our students, but then it's great for soccer as well, you know, to help encourage and bring those types of games into the building.
Sycuan Piers
This will be really the signature element of the building. We will have palm trees behind it. Again, it was one of those things we talked about the community of San Diego we wanted to hit a coastal theme.
The north end of the stadium, the landscaping is a little more arid, so think East County. Over on the east side, there's a little more vegetation, think North Park and areas like that.
We challenged the architect with the piers saying we want you to build something that is 60% stadium and 40% San Diego. They looked at the coastline and said you have piers going into the water. We're going to design a pier that goes into the stadium towards the field. It will be the signature element of our building and something no one else has.
WATCH RELATED: Talking with SDSU Director of Athletics JD Wicker ahead of opening of Snapdragon Stadium