Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 03/07/2026 01:32:00

The bar behind the northeast goal is the largest outdoor bar in North America - a detail that says everything about how this stadium was designed. PayPal Park, at 1123 Coleman Avenue beside San Jose's Mineta International Airport, opened on 27 February 2015 as Avaya Stadium, the 100-million-dollar soccer-specific home of the San Jose Earthquakes. The design brief was intimacy: HOK gave the 18,000-seat bowl a canopy roof and some of the steepest-raked seating in Major League Soccer, with suites and club seats at field level and a two-acre fan zone wrapping the double-sided scoreboard end. The tenants have doubled: the Earthquakes - a 1996 MLS founding club with Cup titles in 2001 and 2003 - were joined in 2024 by Bay FC of the National Women's Soccer League, making the ground one of the few in America hosting top-flight men's and women's clubs. The concert era only just began: the stadium was built for live events but never permitted for them until 2026, when San Jose approved up to 15 shows a year; BelicoFest, a musica mexicana festival on 29 August 2026, was announced as the first-ever concert on the site. The timing is deliberate: the permit landed ahead of a blockbuster stretch for the South Bay - Super Bowl LX and FIFA World Cup matches at nearby Levi's Stadium - with the city betting the stadium can hold some of that visitor wave. Practical notes: the Santa Clara Caltrain and Amtrak station is walkable and the airport approach path passes directly overhead - pyrotechnics are banned for flight-safety reasons; supporters' sections behind both goals bring the noise, and the steep rake means even top rows feel close. The construction saga explains the 2015 date: groundbreaking came in October 2012, but crews discovered buried debris on the former FMC industrial site that pushed completion back years - the club played on at Buck Shaw Stadium in Santa Clara while the bowl slowly rose beside the airport.