Groundbreaking ceremonies are set for Monday for the San Diego State Mission Valley project.It will be an historic occasion but even more historic than most people may even realize.
The 3-5-billion dollar project will include an expansion of the campus, housing, retail and a river park.But a new football stadium is what makes this so historic and the history of how it happened goes way back.
The approval by voters of the SDSU West ballot measure in 2018 and the year and a half of negotiations with the city to get the land deal done were the final chapters of the story of what began as SD stadium.
It later was named Jack Murphy Stadium after the sportswriter for the Union Tribune and then became Qualcomm Stadium before ending its historic run in the last couple of years as SDCCU Stadium.
But the first chapter of the stadium began In November 1965, when voters approved a $27 million bond measure for a multipurpose stadium that would become one of the most modern stadiums of its day.
The project was completed two years later. And the then American Football League version of the San Diego Chargers played the first ever game at the stadium on August 20, 1967.
So now, almost 53 years to the day after that first game at the original San Diego Stadium, the ground breaking for a long awaited new stadium is being held Monday, just three days before that historic day when football began there.
And with this already an historic year because of a pandemic that no one thought could ever happen, the groundbreaking for a new stadium will be even more historic, because after losing an NFL team, there have been some in San Diego who thought a new stadium might never happen.
But on Monday, a new chapter in the history of the stadium in San Diego begins.
READ MORE about the groundbreaking.
(Photo reporting partner 10News)