Qualcomm Stadium
August 20, 1967 - the San Diego Chargers take the field to play their first game in the newly completed San Diego Stadium. Formerly the Los Angeles Chargers, owner Barron Hilton had been convinced by local sports writer Jack Murphy to move his team from the LA Coliseum to San Diego. Unfortunately, San Diego had no major league Stadium when the team moved here in 1961. ... more »
August 20, 1967 - the San Diego Chargers take the field to play their first game in the newly completed San Diego Stadium. Formerly the Los Angeles Chargers, owner Barron Hilton had been convinced by local sports writer Jack Murphy to move his team from the LA Coliseum to San Diego. Unfortunately, San Diego had no major league Stadium when the team moved here in 1961. Thus, Murphy's next challenge was to convince the City to build a stadium for their team. This was accomplished when Proposition 1 passed by a wide margin and $27.75 million was authorized to build a new state-of-the-art multi- purpose stadium with 53,000 seats.
In 1984, the Stadium was expanded to nearly 61,000 and 50 suites added at cost of $9.1 million. In 1997 a major expansion costing $78 million was undertaken with the following taking place: 10,500 seats were added bringing the total seating capacity to 71,500; 34 suites added for a total of 113; Club Level seating added with 4 lounges; upgraded food service; two new video screens and a practice facility for the Chargers.
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Naming of the Stadium
The original name of the Stadium was San Diego Stadium when Jack Murphy died on September 24, 1980 then Mayor Pete Wilson and the City Council voted to rename the Stadium San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. Some citizens were opposed to naming the Stadium after Jack Murphy and in 1984 the issue was put before the voters. The voters approved leaving the name San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.
Once again in 1997, the name changed. QUALCOMM a local San Diego Telecommunication Company agreed to pay the City $18 million to complete the expansion project. In return the name of the Stadium change to QUALCOMM Stadium. QUALCOMM has the naming rights until the year 2017.
---www.sandiego.gov/qualcomm « hide
