CEFCU ('sef-kyü) Stadium, formerly known as Spartan Stadium, is an outdoor athletic stadium on the
west coast West Coast or west coast may refer to:
Geography Australia
* Western Australia
*Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia
* West Coast, Tasmania
**West Coast Range, mountain range in the region
Canada
* Britis ...
of the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, located in the
Spartan Keyes
Spartan Keyes is a neighborhood of central San Jose, California, located just south of Downtown San Jose. Spartan Keyes is home to a notable community of artists, art studios, and galleries. The neighborhood is home to the south campus of San Jo ...
neighborhood of central
San Jose, California
San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...
. Owned by
San José State University
San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sys ...
, the venue is the longtime home of
Spartan football; it also hosts the university's commencement ceremony on Memorial Day weekend, and occasional
high school football
High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, part ...
games. Known as Spartan Stadium for over eight decades, it was renamed in
2016
File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...
.
CEFCU Stadium was the home of the
San Jose Earthquakes
The San Jose Earthquakes are an American professional soccer team based in San Jose, California. The Earthquakes compete as a member club of the Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). Originally as the San Jose Clash, the franchise ...
(originally San Jose Clash) of
Major League Soccer
Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...
from the league's inception in 1996 through the 2005 season. Other tenants have included the original
San Jose Earthquakes
The San Jose Earthquakes are an American professional soccer team based in San Jose, California. The Earthquakes compete as a member club of the Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). Originally as the San Jose Clash, the franchise ...
of the
North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League may refer to:
*North American Soccer League (1968–1984), a former Division I league
*North American Soccer League (2011–2017)
The North American Soccer League (NASL) was a professional men's soccer league b ...
from 1974 to 1984, the
San Jose CyberRays
San Jose CyberRays was a professional soccer team that played in the Women's United Soccer Association. The team played at Spartan Stadium on the South Campus of San José State University in San Jose, California. Stars included U.S. National ...
of the
Women's United Soccer Association
The Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) was the world's first Women's association football, women's soccer league in which all the players were paid as professionals. Founded in February 2000 in sports, 2000, the league began its first se ...
from 2001 to 2003, and the
San Francisco Dragons
The San Francisco Dragons were a professional field lacrosse team based in San Francisco and San Jose, California. From 2006–2008, they played in Major League Lacrosse and they ceased operations before the 2009 season due to the economic situati ...
of
Major League Lacrosse
Major League Lacrosse (MLL) was a men's field lacrosse league in the United States. The league's inaugural season was in 2001. Teams played anywhere from ten to 16 games in a summertime regular season. This was followed by a four-team playoff f ...
in 2008.
Soccer Bowl '75
Soccer Bowl '75 was the championship final of the 1975 NASL season, played between the Tampa Bay Rowdies and the Portland Timbers. The match took place on August 24, 1975 at Spartan Stadium, in San Jose, California. It was the first North Ameri ...
was also held at CEFCU.
During the winter and spring of
2009
File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...
, the stadium's natural grass playing field was removed and replaced with
FieldTurf, a new generation of
artificial turf
Artificial turf is a surface of synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass. It is most often used in arenas for sports that were originally or are normally played on grass. However, it is now being used on residential lawns and commer ...
with a crumb rubber and sand infill. This improvement has resulted in significant savings to the university in water use, fertilizer, seed, and labor. This project was completed in time for the May 2009 commencement ceremony. It was replaced with
AstroTurf
AstroTurf is an American subsidiary of SportGroup that produces artificial turf for playing surfaces in sports. The original AstroTurf product was a short-pile synthetic turf invented in 1965 by Monsanto. Since the early 2000s, AstroTurf has m ...
Rhino Blend in
2017
File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...
. The playing field is aligned north-northwest to south-southeast, at an approximate
elevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...
of above
sea level
Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...
.
The stadium also received significant upgrades to the scoreboard and sound system in 2011 and 2020. This included installation of an
HD video
High-definition video (HD video) is video of higher resolution and quality than standard-definition. While there is no standardized meaning for ''high-definition'', generally any video image with considerably more than 480 vertical scan lines (N ...
screen
Screen or Screens may refer to:
Arts
* Screen printing (also called ''silkscreening''), a method of printing
* Big screen, a nickname associated with the motion picture industry
* Split screen (filmmaking), a film composition paradigm in which mul ...
by
Daktronics
Daktronics is an American company based in Brookings, South Dakota that designs, manufactures, sells, and services video displays, scoreboards, digital billboards, dynamic message signs, sound systems, and related products. Founded in 1968 by ...
at the south end of the stadium in 2011, and a new, much larger video board at the north end in 2020.
Stadium history
Opened in 1933 as a 4,000-seat facility, CEFCU Stadium has been renovated and expanded over the years. The most recent additions came in the 1980s when the capacity of the stadium was expanded from 18,000 to approximately 31,000 by adding boxes and an upper deck on the west side.
In 1998, the field was widened and other renovations were carried out for the San Jose Earthquakes soccer team in accordance with official
FIFA
FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...
regulations. As a result of these renovations, parts of the stands closest to the playing field were removed, thus lowering available seating for all sports to 30,456. Seating capacity remained at 30,456 until 2019, when it was temporarily reduced to 21,520 as part of a massive east-side stadium renovation project. The project is scheduled to be completed in August 2023.
In August 2016,
Citizens Equity First Credit Union
Citizens Equity First Credit Union is a federally insured credit union based in Peoria, Illinois, commonly referred to by its registered trademark, CEFCU.
CEFCU was founded in 1937 to serve the employees of Caterpillar Tractor Company. It began a ...
purchased sole naming rights to Spartan Stadium for $8.7 million. The deal between CEFCU and San José State University will last for 15 years. SJSU was the first university in the
California State University
The California State University (Cal State or CSU) is a public university system in California. With 23 campuses and eight off-campus centers enrolling 485,550 students with 55,909 faculty and staff, CSU is the largest four-year public univers ...
system and second university in the state of California to strike such a deal. The CEFCU sponsorship deal marked the third such arrangement among the 12
Mountain West Conference
The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations o ...
football members. The $8.7 million payout will primarily be used for athletic scholarships, athletics operations, and athletics facilities.
Spartan Athletics Center and East-side Renovations
A CEFCU Stadium east-side building addition is currently under construction at a projected cost of $57.6 million. Known as the Spartan Athletics Center, the 55,000 square-foot, multi-story facility will house a new football operations center, locker rooms, offices, meeting and training rooms and a sports medicine center. The facility will also include soccer team offices and locker rooms, as well as dining and hospitality facilities, event spaces and premium viewing areas. Along with construction of the SAC, a major renovation of the stadium's entire east side is currently underway.
The east-side stadium renovation has temporarily reduced seating capacity at CEFCU Stadium from just over 30,000 to 21,520. Approximately 9,000 seats were removed from the stadium in 2019 to make way for the new building. This includes virtually all of the east-side stadium seating and some of the north end zone bleachers. The north end zone bleachers were removed to make way for construction of a new state-of-the-art video scoreboard and outdoor bar and lounge area. The new scoreboard was completed in 2020. SAC construction and the east and north-side stadium renovations are projected to be completed in August 2023.
Other uses
The now defunct NCAA
Silicon Valley Football Classic bowl game was held at CEFCU Stadium from 2000 to 2004.
CEFCU Stadium has hosted numerous FIFA events. Most notably the stadium was used as one of the venues for the
1999 Women's World Cup.
The stadium also hosts the commencement ceremonies of San José State University every spring, as well as musical concerts throughout the year. CEFCU Stadium is only one block from
San Jose Municipal Stadium
Excite Ballpark, previously known as San Jose Municipal Stadium or Muni Stadium, is a baseball park in San Jose, California. It is the home of the Minor League Baseball San Jose Giants, an affiliate of the San Francisco Giants. The team plays in ...
, home of the
San Jose Giants
The San Jose Giants are a Minor League Baseball team of the California League and the Single-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants. Located in San Jose, California, the Giants play their home games at Excite Ballpark.
Games
San Jose Giants ga ...
, the Low-A
minor league baseball affiliate of the
San Francisco Giants
The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Yor ...
.
International soccer matches
Gallery
Image:SpStadium.jpg, Spartan Stadium, San Jose, California — 1933
File:Spartan Stadium Proposed Expansion.jpg, Proposed Expansion — 1960s
Image:SS pan.jpg, Spartan Stadium – San Jose State vs. Boise State — 2008
Image:Spartanstadiumnight.jpg, Spartan Stadium – Aerial view at night — 2008
Image:Spartan stadium DSC0768-Edit.jpg, First season using new "FieldTurf" playing surface, San Jose State vs. Utah – 2009
Image:SJSU Marching Band performs at 2015 homecoming.jpg, The Spartan Stadium field in 2015
File:CEFCU Spartan Stadium.jpg, Aerial view from the southwest, 2017
See also
*
List of NCAA Division I FBS football stadiums
This is a list of stadiums that currently serve as the home venue for Football Bowl Subdivision college football teams. These include most of the largest stadiums in the United States.
Conference affiliations reflect those in the current 2022 ...
References
External links
SJSU Spartans.com– official athletics site
{{Authority control
College football venues
1999 FIFA Women's World Cup stadiums
San Jose State Spartans football
American football venues in California
Soccer venues in California
San Jose Earthquakes
Defunct NCAA bowl game venues
Former Major League Lacrosse venues
Former Major League Soccer stadiums
Sacramento Mountain Lions stadiums
Sports venues completed in 1933
Sports venues in San Jose, California
United Football League (2009–2012) venues
North American Soccer League (1968–1984) stadiums
1933 establishments in California