San Jose Earthquakes Quietly Build South Bay's “Other Stadium”

Earthquakes' new $60 million stadium will begin rising this summer

The second of two football stadiums to be built in Silicon Valley is under construction.

It's under the radar -- but that's OK with the San Jose Earthquakes.

The Earthquakes -- who play the football known as soccer in the United States -- are building a new home of their own next to Mineta San Jose International Airport, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

Much of the attention is focused on the San Francisco 49ers' new home in Santa Clara, a $1.3 billion "palace."

By contrast to the partially-publicly-funded Levi's Stadium, the Quakes' as-yet unnamed home is privately-funded and will cost $60 million, according to the report.

Construction on the 18,000-person, dedicated soccer stadium has taken longer than anticipated. The site -- where military fighting vehicles were once constructed -- has "huge underground vaults" made of concrete that needed to be demolished and hauled away.

Once built, the new stadium will give the Quakes a home of their own for the first time, and will also anchor soccer fields and office space.

There's no doubt there's interest: a Guinness World Record 6,256 people helped turn over the first shovels of dirt at the new site -- enough people to make half of a capacity crowd at the team's current home at Santa Clara University, the newspaper noted.

The stadium is also a part of a huge construction boom in Bay Area stadiums. Levi's Stadium is 40 percent complete, and the Golden State Warriors are trying to build on the San Francisco waterfront. The Raiders and A's also want new digs, the newspaper noted.

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