SAN JOSE — It started almost 2 1/2 years ago when 6,256 soccer fans grabbed blue-bladed shovels to break ground at a long forgotten lot just west of Mineta San Jose International Airport.
The resulting European-style soccer stadium that lurches 75 feet skyward in sight of Interstate 880 and Highway 87 could become the envy of teams around the country — and a mecca for the region’s growing base of futbol aficionados.
On Saturday, the San Jose Earthquakes will christen Avaya Stadium, a privately funded, 18,000-seat venue that club officials hope transforms a once-niche sport into something that rivals baseball, basketball and football.
“It allows us to create a lifestyle around soccer in a real way,” Earthquakes President Dave Kaval said.
Avaya is making its debut six months after the opening of $1.3 billion Levi’s Stadium with much less fanfare. A crowd limited to 10,000 season-ticket holders is expected for the 2 p.m. Major League Soccer preseason exhibition season finale against the rival Los Angeles Galaxy.
The official unveiling of the $100 million facility is scheduled for March 22, in the Earthquakes’ sold-out home opener against the Chicago Fire. Its debut will mark the league’s 20th anniversary season, assuming an ongoing labor impasse gets settled.
The event this weekend offers Quakes officials an opportunity for a “soft launch” — a smart play in the aftermath of the 49ers’ experience at Levi’s involving shoddy grass, transportation nightmares and issues with certain seats getting overexposure to the sun.
It’s also a chance for the team’s most loyal fans to experience what folks around MLS already are calling America’s best soccer stadium.
“People had a notion at the beginning it was going to be sufficient but not magnificent,” Kaval said. “What we created is really going to be a gem for the Bay Area.”
Team owners Lew Wolff and John Fisher originally planned to spend $60 million to build a no-frills facility. But, Wolff said, Fisher agreed to almost every extra that has turned Avaya into a place of envy.
The European-style stadium includes a canopy roof and the steepest-raked seating in the league in order to optimize viewing.
Other features include what is purported to be the largest outdoor bar in North America on the stadium’s open north side. The horseshoe stadium also has a 2-acre fan zone and a double-sided video scoreboard.
Avaya, a Santa Clara-based technology company that is paying $20 million over 10 years for naming rights, has provided a Wi”‘Fi enabled stadium where fans can use mobile devices to scan tickets, order concessions and view stats and information about their favorite players.
The Earthquakes are close to reaching their limit of selling 12,000 season tickets for the eight-month campaign that begins March 7. Single-game tickets cost from $20 to $143, in comparison to the 49ers’ prices of $85 to $200 per game. Also, season-ticket holders were not required to spend thousands of dollars on so-called personal seat licenses like 49ers fans.
“It’s not a stadium for the 1 percent — it’s a stadium for everyone,” Kaval said.
Team officials expect game-day traffic to marginally impact airport commuters because most travelers enter and exit Mineta International from the opposite site.
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority has scheduled event bus service from downtown San Jose and from the Santa Clara Caltrain station.
“We don’t foresee any impact on the airport whatsoever as long as passengers access it via 101,” said Steven Brewster, spokesman for the city’s transportation department.
Team officials say they have ample parking on vacant land just north of the stadium that eventually will be developed as a mixed-use project. The proposed business complex will share parking with the soccer team because the Earthquakes play mostly on weekends.
The 75-acre lot eventually will include four artificial turf soccer fields owned by the city and managed by the Earthquakes. Along with recreational use, the new fields also will allow the team to base its youth academy next to its headquarters at the stadium.
Avaya is the league’s 15th soccer-specific facility. The Columbus Crew built the first stadium in 1999, followed in 2003 by the Galaxy’s 28,000-seat venue in Carson.
“When we started the league, ultimately this is where we knew we had to go,” MLS President Mark Abbott said.
It also helps further put the Bay Area on the soccer map. For example, Avaya is playing host to the U.S. women May 10 in a World Cup send-off match against Ireland.
Wolff and Fisher, who also co-own the Oakland Athletics, knew they needed to build a soccer-specific stadium when the Earthquakes re-entered MLS in 2008. The team had left San Jose for Houston after the 2005 season because of an inability to build a permanent home. That team played at San Jose State’s Spartan Stadium from 1996 until it departed.
The new Earthquakes rented Buck Shaw Stadium at Santa Clara University for the past seven years. Buck Shaw was the league’s smallest venue, with 10,500 seats. It made the Earthquakes look minor league in a major pro sports market.
But at a time the owners have been unable to find a stadium solution for the A’s, they fulfilled their promise to the soccer community.
“We haven’t had anything ever like this for soccer,” said goalkeeper David Bingham, a former Cal star. “It’s going to surprise a lot of people.”
Contact Elliott Almond at 408-920-5865. Follow him at Twitter.com/elliottalmond.
Avaya Stadium
by the Numbers
$100 million overall cost
18,000 seats
5,500 parking spaces
3,500 feet of reclaimed redwood
3,174 tons of steel used (90 percent recycled)
2,000 square feet devoted to the bar
1,500 project workers
576 club seats
194 beer taps
149 toilets
17 cushioned field-level seats
16 suites
Source: San Jose Earthquakes
