Excerpts from 2 different articles:

Sacramento State has announced plans to construct a new state-of-the-art football and multi-use stadium that will replace the current temporary stands at Hornet Stadium, providing the University with a venue to leverage its location in one of the top 20 media markets in the nation.

The multi-sport facility will be designed to host football, men’s and women’s soccer, and men’s and women’s rugby. The stadium will also host collegiate, professional and international competitions, NCAA championships, concerts, club sports and other events including Commencement and Convocation.

The campus has secured architecture firm Populous to design the stadium, which will be constructed at the site of the current Hornet Stadium. The stadium will accommodate a minimum of 25,000 attendees and feature a horseshoe design including student sections, premium seating and boxes. Renderings will be released in the coming weeks.

Sacramento State to build 25,000 seat stadium in hopes to join FBS

Sacramento State has announced plans for a new 25,000 seat football stadium as the school looks to obtain an invitation to an FBS conference.

sactownsports.com

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Wood and Orr added that corporate signage would replace the name Hornet Stadium on the venue.

The plan, the two campus leaders said, is to start taking down Hornet Stadium at the end of this football season with the aim of having the new facility ready by the start of the 2028 football season. Sacramento State would continue to play home games at Hornet Stadium, Orr said.

“It’s about time, right,” said Orr, the Sacramento-raised AD who was showing off his Hornets green tie. “It’s about time we build a stadium worthy of its campus and community. It’s time for something new. When President Wood first got here last year, he asked me what we need to be the best of the best in athletics. We need a new football stadium, new facilities, more athletic scholarships. The first step of the plan was to get a football stadium and today, we’re announcing that. That’s a tremendous, tremendous step.”

Officials said Kansas City-based sports architectural giant Populous would design the stadium, which would be built on the current stadium’s footprint and would “accommodate a minimum of 25,000 attendees.” Officials said the design would be in a horseshoe design that would include a “student sections, premium seating and boxes.”

Renderings were not released Thursday but were expected to be shown “in the coming weeks.”

It’s unclear what the price tag on the stadium would be, though Wood told Sac State employees that “there will be many announcements about the stadium in the coming months, including naming partners, co-tenants, entertainment partners, and other sources of funds associated with this capital project,” adding that the school had “multiple funding sources,” from money earmarked for student athletics, donor funds and sponsorships.

What about basketball?

Last year, Wood announced a similar project to replace the Nest, the school’s basketball arena that was 69 years old.

In November, Wood said funding has been approved to create an events center just beyond Hornet Stadium in The Well fitness and health facility that would replace the Nest.

https://www.sacbee.com/sports/college/article293047689.html

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^^ Time will tell whether or not shovels eventually hit the ground and the project completed, but this by far the most smoke and progress ever made toward a stadium project. Also, lots of talk for the past 2 weeks about the Hornets jumping from FCS to FBS and the timing of this announcement seems to support it. Looks like the Mountain West could possibly be a destination, but the SAC-12 has been pushing for PAC-12 membership. The 2028 upgrade timeline probably kills whatever long shot chance they had of achieving that goal, but if they do get these things done -- there should be more than a few conferences interested at that time in a top 20 media market.

We shall see. All I know is, this is GREAT news regardless.

I've been saying it for 25 years now. Sac State is a sleeping giant with the right vision and progress. It's in the heart of a sports-crazed metro area with only one professional team (2 for at least the next 3-4 years) and zero D1 FBS programs in the immediate area. Closest ones are UC Berkeley (80 miles from downtown), Stanford (120 miles from downtown) San Jose State (120 miles from downtown), and University of Nevada Reno (132 miles from downtown).

As we've seen with Sac's current 5-year run in the Big Sky, the valley is chock full of talent. Promoting to FBS with some brand new facilities and continued growth could keep a lot more of our local talent in house, along with drawing in more out of area talent (especially those from SoCal looking to move away from home).

PCAL week 5


Last week 9-5 (not good) Overall 59-19

Gabilan (Soquel on a bye)
As league play starts this week, I see really no major surprises in the Gabilan. I think Salinas and Soquel are the best 2 teams with Palma being 3rd. Aptos, Monterey and Hollister are all bunched together. I would say after preseason Monterey is trending down and Aptos maybe up a little. The battle for 4-6th (and Playoffs) should be very competitive. Alvarez will bring up the rear and probably will not win a league game.

Fri 09/27 Monterey (CA) at Alvarez (Salinas, CA), 7:30pm- These were the only 2 Gabilan teams to loose last weekend. Monterey was expected vs Carmel. Alvarez should not be losing to MVC. I like Monterey to bounce back. Monterey 38-7

Fri 09/27 Hollister (CA) at Aptos (CA), 7:30pm- Winner of this game will be in the drivers seat for a playoff birth. Neither one have a good win or a bad loss. Taking the home team Mariners. Aptos 28-21

Fri 09/27 Palma (Salinas, CA) at Salinas (CA), 7:30pm- These 2 schools are literally block’s apart, yet they have a very checkered football history, as that they did not play each other every year until they were in the same league. At that point Palma was the dominant team. But recently Salinas has been, and this Palma team may be a year a way form challenging Salinas. Salinas 35-21

Mission North (Alisal on a Bye)
This division is a toss up. Only 1 team has a winning record, St Francis, but their loss was to a mediocre King City team. Scott’s Valley and Seaside seem to be desperately undermanned. Alisal’s only win is vs an 0-4 Sequoia team. MVC and NMC show flashes of greatness followed by some bad football. And Watsonville has beaten 2 Santa Lucia teams, with a loss to Greenfield. Still two teams from this division will make the playoffs. I am guessing MVC and NMC, but who knows.

Sat 09/28 Monte Vista Christian (Watsonville, CA) vs Watsonville (CA) at Cabrillo College (Aptos, CA), 1:00pm- MVC had a good win vs Alavaraz, while Watsonville took care of crosstown rival Pajaro. I think MVC passing game will be a bit too much for Watsonville. MVC 34-24.

Sat 09/28 North Monterey County (Castroville, CA) at Scotts Valley (CA), 2:00pm- No shame in losing to Soquel, but to surrender over 60 points? Scott’s Valley could be in trouble for the rest of the year. NMC did not look much better vs Palma. NMC 24-6

Sat 09/28 Seaside (CA) at St. Francis (Watsonville, CA), 7:30pm- Seaside will finally play a team with an equal size roster. But St. Francis is used to playing with 20 healthy bodies, Seaside is not. St. Francis 27-17

Mission South (Rancho San Juan on a bye)
Carmel is good and is probably the 3rd or 4th best team in the Gabilan. They played a solid non-league schedule and should dominate this division. They should be the top seed in CCS DIII playoffs. Second place looks like a competition between Soledad and North Salinas. Soledad is one play away form being 3-1 as they let Branham score on Hail Mary. North Salinas has a nice win vs Alisal, but thats about it. PG, King City and Greenfield will battle for the next positions, and I could see them all beating each other. Rancho needs the bye, but they are in trouble as they lost badly to Marina last week. This team may need to go down to the Santa Lucia next year.

Fri 09/27 North Salinas (Salinas, CA) at Greenfield (CA), 7:30pm -North Salinas should win this game fairly easily, but Greenfield’s Defense is pretty tough, and NS offense is not as good as last year. North Salinas 18-14

Fri 09/27 King City (CA) at Pacific Grove (CA), 7:30pm- Maybe if I pick pacific Grove they will lose. PG looked great in the first half last week then almost choked up a 26 point lead to RLS in the 2nd half. KC had a bad loss vs archrival Gonzales. PG 27-24

Fri 09/27 Carmel (CA) at Soledad (CA), 7:30pm-Hear me out, this could be Carmel’s toughest league game. They had an emotional win vs Monterey last week. They have to travel on a Friday night. Soledad has always given them a tough time in Soledad. Carmel also has way too much talent this year to lose this game. But Soledad could make it interesting for a while. Carmel 34-20

Santa Lucia (San Lorenzo Valley on a Bye)
SLV had a huge win vs Greenfield last week. Gonzales was able to take back the Megaphone from King City. RLS fought back from 26-0 to almost beat PG (33-27 final). And Marina beat a “B” league team. Going 3-4 in crossover games with another one very close, is great for this league. I think we will have a 3 team race with RLS, Gonzales and SLV. Right now, undefeated SLV has to be the favorite. Marina, Pajaro and harbor should finish middle of the pack and Santa Cruz towards the rear, but I would not be surprised if the Cardinals pick up at least 1 league win.

Fri 09/27 Stevenson (Pebble Beach, CA) at Harbor (Santa Cruz, CA), 5:00pm -RLS was down 26-0 to PG in the 3rd qtr, before waking up and almost pulling off the upset. Similar situation with their loss to Greenfield. They need to avoid the slow start vs Harbor. RLS 35-14

Fri 09/27 Pajaro Valley (Watsonville, CA) at Marina (CA), 7:30pm – Marina had a great win vs Rancho San Juan last week, PV played Watsonville close but could not score offensively. Taking PV in an “upset”. PV 21-18

Sat 09/28 Gonzales (CA) at Santa Cruz (CA), 5:00pm- last year Santa Cruz did not score any points. This year they are at least scoring, not enough, but it’s a start in rebuilding for this once proud team. Gonzales 35-14