SDSU Football Team Gets $2-Million Home

When Denny Stolz became San Diego State’s football coach, he said he wanted a place his program could call home.

He got his wish Monday.

Athletic Director Fred Miller announced that a $2-million facility for the athletic program will be built from financial and material donations. Construction of the 26,000-foot facility, which will include a 9,000-square-foot weight room, football offices, a players’ lounge and a locker room will begin in February. The target date for completion is mid-August.

“This is a very unique day for the Aztecs,” Miller said. “Our community has locked arms to provide San Diego State with a state-of-the-art facility. We put in a master plan to redo this entire side of campus (where the athletic facilities are), and the community has stepped forward to get us started.”

Miller said 52 San Diego-area companies are supporting the effort. The group includes 27 member companies of the Assn. of General Contractors, who will help build the facility, 21 members of the Building Trade Council, who help supply materials, and four San Diego area design companies, who are helping design the facility.

Miller also said San Diego State will allocate $50,000 in contingency funds in case all that has been promised is not donated or unless some minor adjustments need to be made.

“Putting together the plans for a facility like this for our football program was No. 1 priority,” Miller said. “You look around the country and any major college Division I football program will have a facility like this.”

Said Stolz, who in his first year as Aztec head coach led the team to the Western Athletic Conference title and a berth in the Holiday Bowl: “It’s hard to operate from a position of weakness, so sure it helped to have such a successful season. I had a lot of confidence in Fred’s ability to put something like this together. There’s no question this is a very significant move in terms of improving the Aztec football program.”

The building will be adjacent to Choc Sportsman Track and between the current locations of the athletic weight room and football coaches’ offices.

“The impact this will have on the future of SDSU athletics is immeasurable,” Stolz said. “It really gives our program additional momentum to move ahead. The incredible thing about all of this is the way the community has come together to get this done.”