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Each year the city of San Diego and Qualcomm Stadium
are host to two college football bowl games: the
Poinsettia Bowl that matched Navy or an at-large
team against an opponent in the Mountain West
Conference and the Holiday Bowl that matches teams
from the Pac-12 and Big Ten conferences.
Home of the San Diego Chargers for more than three decades,
Qualcomm Stadium looks much different than it did when it opened.
In the early 1960s sportswriter Jack Murphy began to build up
support for a multipurpose stadium for the area. When built, the
stadium would become home of the Charges and a MLB team, that the
city hoped to attract. The Chargers were established in 1960 and
moved to San Diego from Los Angeles in 1961. From 1961 until 1966
the Chargers played at Balboa Stadium. In November 1965, a $27 million
referendum was
passed allowing construction to began on the stadium. Construction
began one month later. When completed, the facility
was named San Diego Stadium.
The
Chargers played the first game ever at the stadium on August 20,
1967. San Diego Stadium had a capacity of around 50,000
multicolored seats when it opened. The three tier grandstand was
in the shape of a horseshoe, with the south end open. The team was
the main tenant of the stadium until 1969, when MLB granted the
area a team, the Padres. After the death of Jack Murphy in 1981,
San Diego Stadium was renamed in honor of him. The stadium
remained basically the same until 1983. Over 9,000 bleachers were
added to the lower deck on the open end of the stadium raising the
capacity of Jack Murphy Stadium to 59,022. Sixteen years later the
most substantial addition was completed at Jack Murphy Stadium. In
1997, Jack Murphy Stadium was fully enclosed, with the exception
of where the scoreboard is located. Nearly 11,000 seats were added
in readiness for the Super Bowl in 1998, bringing the capacity to
over 71,000. Also
in 1997, the facility was renamed Qualcomm Stadium after Qualcomm
Corporation paid $18 million for the naming rights. All of
the multicolored seats have been replaced with new blue seats.
Qualcomm Stadium has several amenities including over 100 luxury
suites, over 7,000 club seats, and the Charges Gold Club which is
available to Charges season ticket holders, and allows service at
their seats, and access to air conditioned lounges.
The Chargers are now the main tenant of the
stadium, as the Padres have moved into their own ballpark, Petco
Park. Currently, the Chargers are looking into possibly building
their own stadium in the San Diego area.
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