Professional Soccer Finally Gets a Permanent Home in the Bay Area

After decades of no-frills soccer venues, the San Jose Earthquakes and their scrappy fans finally have a permanent home in the new $100 million Avaya Stadium.

Among those thrilled with the 18,000-seat stadium are the Quakes' Latino partisans -- about a third of the team's fan base.

On Saturday, Amado Flores will be among the lucky fans -- attendance will be capped at 10,000 -- to see the first preseason game at the new facility when the Quakes play the L.A. Galaxy.

"You don't even care for the price," said Amado Flores, a native of Mexico and  a San Jose soccer fan through the franchise's many incarnations since the 1980s. "You just go to get in and make some noise, and feel like to be in Mexico only for a few minutes."

The opening of Avaya Stadium brings an end, mostly, to the franchise's wanderings. Past Quakes teams have played most of their home games at San Jose State's Spartan Stadium and, since 2008, at Santa Clara University's 10,000-seat Buck Shaw Stadium.

"It's important to have a permanent place. At this new site we have a stadium, a practice stadium, a locker room, front offices," said Jed Mettee, the team's vice president of marketing and communications.

In an effort to expand the franchise fan base, the team has made occasional big-game appearances at Levi's Stadium, Candlestick Park, Stanford Stadium, AT&T Park and the Oakland Coliseum. Mettee said the team will still do that at times.

Mettee said there will now be more exhibition games at Avaya Stadium.  In May the U.S. Women's National Team will play Ireland there.

Avaya Stadium was privately financed by the ownership group, including Lew Wolff and John Fisher -- also owners of the Oakland A's. Santa Clara-based Avaya, a business services company, bought naming rights in a 10-year deal at $2 million a year.

The new stadium now sits on land that has gone through some changes. It was once home to FMC Corp., a diversified manufacturing company that, among many other products, built the Bradley Fighting Vehicle for military customers.

To highlight that connection with the site's past, the Quakes plan to display one of the vehicles in the stadium's main entrance.