SAN JOSE, CALIF. — The Seattle Sounders will get their first look at Avaya Stadium on Saturday, and they’re willing to take their chances that they’ll like it more than the San Jose Earthquakes’ previous homes.
The Sounders went 1-4-1 in their six visits to Buck Shaw Stadium, the tiny home the Quakes rented from Santa Clara University, and 0-1 at Levi’s Stadium, the glitzy home of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers.
“We haven’t won there, regardless of what stadium it is: Levi, Santa Clara,” captain Brad Evans said.
“So you hope to get a result. … They’re comfortable in that place. It’s going to be a very difficult task. Their crowd is going to be phenomenal as usual up there. It’s going to be tough.”
As happy as the Sounders may be to give a new location a try, they can’t be as happy as the Earthquakes themselves. After enduring their entire Major League Soccer existence at other people’s stadiums — San Jose State’s, Santa Clara’s, Stanford’s, the 49ers’ — they finally have a place of their own.
“It has been completely transformative to have the new venue for the Earthquakes,” president Dave Kaval said. “… To finally have your own home ground that is really focused 100 percent on soccer and the Quakes is just a breath of fresh air. And the fans have totally got behind it. We’ve sold out every game of the season so far. We have 12,000 season ticket holders. We have a wait list 3,000 long.”
Another sellout is expected at 7:30 p.m. Saturday for the Sounders’ inaugural visit.
Despite suddenly having more eager fans than seats, Kaval believes the stadium’s 18,000 capacity is about right, especially with the Los Angeles Galaxy clasico remaining at Stanford, and one game a year continuing at Levi’s Stadium, where the Quakes and Sounders drew 48,000 last season.
What Avaya lacks in capacity it makes up for in other amenities: bars big and small, field-level suites, a steeply pitched seating bowl, banners celebrating the franchise’s soccer history, a huge video board at the open end of the U-shaped stadium, and a standing-only supporters area just behind the goal at the closed end.
The location isn’t downtown — as MLS has come to prefer — but rather a commercial area bordering the airport. But even with San Jose’s skyscrapers well off in the distance, Kaval says the location works in a variety of ways: plenty of parking, convenient to freeways, and with casual food options nearby, including an In-N-Out Burger across the street.
There’s also the air traffic, which is has become as much a part of the Earthquakes’ game-day experience as the train whistles at Mariners’ home games.
“I think people love it,” Kaval said. “It’s funny because they land in the direction where in the open end of the stadium you see the planes going by. The funny thing is, (landing planes aren’t) very loud, and so it’s almost like out of a silent movie. … But you also get the sense that you’re somewhere there’s a happening. There’s stuff going on. There’s the movement, the excitement of the airplanes landing.”
The coming and going of jets so close to the open end would be the signature element of almost any other stadium. But not here. Avaya’s true distinction is a bar acclaimed as the largest outdoor bar in North America.
“More than 300 linear square feet bar space,” Kaval said. “All the redwood that clads the bar is from Moffett Hangar, which is an old historic building. The wood is over 1,800 years old — it was reclaimed old-growth redwood. And then we have this beautiful Portuguese terrazzo stone. … Incredible location and somewhere where people congregate: thousands of people packed in and around the bar watching the game. When a goal is scored in that end, people go crazy. It’s just one of the great views. When Fox comes or ESPN, they love getting that footage because it’s so authentic and so exciting to see all the people celebrating in a real way. It’s a definite signature item of the stadium.”
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