The city’s 59 year old venue is antiquated.
The San Diego Planning Commission has recommended that the San Diego City Council give its approval to the Midway Rising project that could eventually become an arena-village. San Diego needs an arena to have a chance to land either a National Hockey League or National Basketball Association franchise. Different investors in Alpharetta, Georgia are planning to build arenas and are pushing to get an NHL expansion franchise. The NBA may expand by two franchises in the future and there might be an opportunity to land a financially struggling franchise with an expiring arena lease agreement around 2030. Las Vegas and Seattle more than likely will get the two expansion slots if the league gets around to expanding. San Diego has a 59-year-old arena that local elected officials and business leaders think needs to be replaced. A 7,500-seat arena opened in nearby Oceanside in 2024.
National Football League, National Basketball Association, National Hockey League and Major League Soccer owner Stan Kroenke got involved with the redevelopment of the 48.5-acre San Diego Sports Arena site. There was a thought that with Kroenke being involved in building a new arena that there was a possibility that he could get an NBA or NHL team to come to San Diego through either relocation or expansion. The planned new arena in San Diego will seat only 16,000 people for an NBA game and probably about 1,500 people less for an NHL game and that is not going to cut it with either league. The Midway Rising group wants national events, such as the NCAA regional basketball or hockey tournaments, combat sports such as the UFC, or Professional Fighters League, and the Academy of Country Music Awards. It appears Midway Rising is not looking for either an NBA or NHL franchise. But that could change if the building adds seats.
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