“Just a part of me wanted to keep some memories,” Luis Valdez said as he pointed his camera at a statue of Jack Murphy.
Valdez walked the perimeter of the stadium that once held the sports writer’s name as gigantic jackhammers pounded at large chunks of the parking lot.
The Murph… the Q… SDCCU Stadium is slowly being taken apart. Large yellow machines are grading the stadium’s northwest parking lot. They’re preparing it for a future football stadium for San Diego State University.
“Our goal is to recycle about 80-percent of the parking lot and existing stadium,” said SDSU Associate Vice President for Mission Valley Development Gina Jacobs.
“I just don’t want to come back and find it gone and then all I have is memories,” said Valdez.
Some of his earliest memories include San Diego Padres games with his dad.
“I lost my dad to COVID back in April so just coming here and reminisce about coming here to games with my dad, with my brother and my mom, it was just important for me to do today,” Valdez told NBC 7.
SDSU is working on new memories for local sports fans. However, Jacobs said the university is trying to make sure die-hard sports fans can take a tangible piece of the old stadium home. She said they are working on a plan to sell the stadium’s seats before it is torn down.
“Oh, that would be wonderful,” said Valdez. “Yeah, I would jump in on that opportunity.”
“I wouldn’t say we’d be able to get it done for Christmas this year, but hopefully early next year we’ll have a plan together,” said Jacobs.
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“They’d just like to keep some of that history in their living room,” added Valdez. “Anything that comes to San Diego, I’m all for it.”
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Jacobs said the actual stadium will begin to be torn down next year. It won’t be imploded.
“Just to see the dirt getting moved back there and the equipment on site, it’s really just super exciting for everybody,” she said.
