Due to what could only be considered fateful scheduling, it turned out that I stayed in the San Jose area last Thursday, with my hotel about 20 minutes away from Avaya Stadium. Somewhat surprisingly, tickets were still available from retail channels, perhaps due to friendly fatigue, early kickoff time or the opponent.

After parking in a dusty lot, most stylistically similar to a border crossing (but more inviting than the meth labs in Chester, PA), I made my way to fan festival to spend some time engaging with my favorite brands until the game started. Soon after arriving, I was heartbroken to find my favorite #brand in attendance, Continental Tire, had run out of their commemorative All Star Game giveaway scarves much earlier.

Instead, I spent most of my time engaging with Wells Fargo, who had provided an area where fans could complete a variety of tasks for their corporate overlords. The activities included posing for pictures with MLS Player and friendly Ambassador Quincy Amarikwa, answering MLS trivia questions, posting #sponsored #hashtag content on social media and soccer skills challenges. A dribbling station featured a cutout of Nick DeLeon that guests had to run around. In a throwback to the midfields of Bennyball 1.0, the cardboard Capitalino offered no impediment to opposition attack. After each task was completed, fans could swipe a "credit card" to acquire points (in a excellent integrated indoctrination to using a Wells Fargo credit card). Similar to popular pizza-rodent-themed arcades, these points could be traded in for "prizes." With my excellent command of MLS trivia ("good guesses") and willingness to debase myself for giveaways, I was rewarded with sunglasses, MLS All Star socks and a foam cutout of David Villa. (My choice was from Villa, Wondo, Kaka and Dempsey cutouts, so it was what it was and that was "certainly not Wondo.")

After that, it was about time to head inside. Knowing that Avaya Stadium was the Mecca of #brand #engagement and the Fan Engagement Wall, its Kaaba, I made my way through the concourses, briefly (perhaps) catching a glimpse of The Soccer Don (G) himself. Nestled in the back of the facility, I found The Wall smaller than my heart told me it would be. Unfazed, I grabbed my Apple iPhone 6 Powered by AT&T and hastily dispatched a Tweet into the ether: "I AM EXCITED ABOUT BRANDS #MLSAllStar." Alas, the fickle algorithm powering the screens did not believe a simple human could contain such enthusiasm for corporate entities (or capital letters) and denied my wish to #engage on The Wall. Crushed, I purchased a celery-and-white San Jose Clash 20th anniversary scarf to dry my tears and climbed the steeply raked stairs to my seat.

With warmups out of the way, the game was nearly at hand. The opening ceremony consisted of a deeply embarrassing DJ set, culminating in an enormous cloud of vape smoke and a C130 flyover. If pressed to recount the game, I actually am not sure I have much to say — it just kind of happened, as is often the way when Arsenal are involved. For the first thirty minutes, the legit legends got a runout on the MLS side — the fantasy lineup of Villa, Pirlo, Kaka and Drogba seemed to be having fun and showing that they still have a bit of what made them special. It was enjoyable in the way that these games are meant to be fun and a celebration — it isn’t for everyone, but in attending two MLS All Star games (2012, 2016), I’ve been able to see a number of historic names getting the chance to play together when the stakes are modest. It isn’t profound, but it’s a fun sporting memory. I’ll demur from making too much commentary on the game and leave it to the more serious evaluation that takes place on the site. For the resident Birnie Bros, I thought our team’s representative played well — he mostly stayed as the final defender and seemed adept at positioning himself to prevent his marked attacker from having many options. My view was that the second goal was more down to Kendall Waston, but the MLS site seems more interested in pinning it on the whole defense.

Getting out of the stadium devolved into a Fury Road-esque spectacle after understandably frustrated fans took off through an adjacent vacant lot in search of access to outside roads rather than waiting to escape through the limited exits. Overall a fun experience, disappointments involve not finding Jimmy Conrad and not spending more time with the Fan Engagement Wall.

Avaya Stadium

It’s probably worth talking about another recently-built stadium in relation to Buzzard Point’s potential features.

Anyways, let’s take a step back and just talk about the stadium. My mind says that Avaya Stadium has been mentioned as being similar to the impending DCU stadium and cited as a pretty generic venue in its own right. After visiting it, I’m not necessarily sure that’s 100% accurate.

In general terms, it’s a single tier stadium with the banks of seats covering 3 sides of the field. Initially I thought the open end would be irritating, but being next to San Jose airport ended up being fun to watch planes take off and land — sort of like watching soccer inside a Ridge Racer video game.

The rake of the seats is fairly steep and this enables pretty good views from wherever you are (excluding a few weird obstructed view seats related to roof supports). I sat in the second-to-last row in a corner section and this was the view. After a cross country flight (and short night of sleep), I wasn’t very excited about the steep stairs by the third time going up and for fans who might have more years of cheering under their belt, it might get to be a bit annoying. The section aisles were pretty well done, easy to navigate and railings split frequently, leaving plenty of room to cross over. Even the seats themselves and legroom were very spacious. There’s a concourse at the top of the bank of seating where you can walk around most of the stadium and still see in — it might be nice to have an escalator or two to allow higher rows to fill from the top. (If I have my renderings right, this was offered early on in DCU stadium but not in current plans.)

The concourses felt like they were very narrow, but that might have been more a result of a full house and a few security issues, such as Arsenal apparently entering across the concourse, thereby requiring a section to be blocked off. This was an area that added a surprising dose of personality to the stadium. There is extensive use of reclaimed redwood throughout and it looks rather nice. One area under the stands has a collection of opponent/player country scarves on display, which was a simple touch but actually ended up saying a lot. If we are worried about DCU’s stadium also being generic, the concourse design would be an exceptional place to have a theme that stands out — you don’t notice the exposed underside as much as you might think once inside.

Also on field level are the suites — these looked absolutely amazing for views and space, sure to please corporate clients or lucky fans in the pricier seating. I don’t believe that the first row of the normal stands was too negatively impacted by the suites being beneath it. I didn’t walk down to it, but it was back some and raised while still being close to the field. On the open end of the stadium, the outdoor bar is at field level and provides a nice view from the endline — I was impressed with how many people the section managed to fit in.

Parking was terrible with main lots filled and a dusty dirt lot providing the auxiliary space — the stadium’s location appeared to have some ties to bus/light rail, but I’d estimate most fans drove. I’ll cut it some slack as there appear to be developments going on next door, so this is likely to improve with time. The limited exits caused a major bottleneck that the stadium should try and rectify, though. Buzzard Point’s access to Metro will be invaluable in this regard.

In summary, I had a very pleasant visit to Avaya Stadium — it reminds me of Volkswagen Arena (VfL Wolfsburg) where the building is just a stadium rather than an amusement park. The outdoor bar and open end were a nice addition to give a bit of character, but it is football first and foremost. Within the league, it’s probably among the nicer venues I’ve been to. (That list also includes games at RFK, PPL Park, CenturyLink Field, BC Place, Rio Tinto and Gillette Stadium and exterior visits to BBVA Compass and Stade Saputo when nearby.)