Sac State could save big on a football stadium at Cal Expo. What’s the cost?
Sacramento State’s new plan to build a football stadium at Cal Expo could save a significant amount of money.
The school and the site of the annual California State Fair announced in August a partnership to explore turning the defunct horse racing grand stand into the centerpiece of a new off-campus home football venue for the Hornets. University President Luke Wood and athletic director Mark Orr said they planned to open the stadium in time for the 2026 season while most large-scale stadium projects take years to complete.
According to state documents, the school is looking for contractors to design and construct the project with an estimated cost of $171,240,000 — markedly lower than the on-campus stadium plan from 2024, which was expected to cost $250 million to $300 million. The new stadium is expected to be paid for with a revenue bond through the California State University system, Wood said.
The documents for the new project say the stadium would seat 22,000 and have new infrastructure, an artificial turf field, modular seating, modular locker rooms with restrooms and showers a scoreboard and a press box. A lighting system for the field was not listed. The design will utilize the pre-existing grand stand which features bars, club areas and roughly 5,000 seats.
“It was never that it wasn’t going to work on campus,” Wood said at a Cal Expo board meeting Aug. 28. “It was more so that Cal Expo provides an opportunity to go bigger. It’s a much larger vision for what we want to do with athletics.”
The new stadium would be roughly three miles north of Sac State’s campus. The site is over nine acres and within walking distance from Cal Expo’s 15,000 parking spots. Wood said the hope is to expand the stadium to 40,000 to 50,000 seats if the school jumps to the FBS.
Under Wood, Sacramento State has made their intentions clear to elevate their football program from the second-tier FCS to top-tier FBS. After going 3-9 in 2024, the NCAA over the summer denied a waiver request from Sac State to jump to the FBS as an independent. The school is leaving the Big Sky to join the Big West in the 2026-27 academic year, however the Big West does not sponsor football making it likely Sac State remains in the FCS as an independent.
Sac State in its first three home games of 2025 has drawn crowds of 12,231 against Mercyhurst, 13,253 against Central Arkasas and 15,016 against Cal Poly. The team is 2-3 and next plays Oct. 11 on the road against Weber State in Ogden, Utah.
This story was originally published October 2, 2025 at 11:03 AM.
