Pechanga Arena

If someone in your group calls this place the Sports Arena, they are not wrong, just a few name changes behind. The arena on Sports Arena Boulevard has answered to five names since it opened.

Five names, one building

Bob Breitbard, a former San Diego State football player, built it for $6.4 million. It opened on November 17, 1966, with more than 11,000 people watching the San Diego Gulls win a hockey game, and a team called the Gulls still plays here. The city has since designated the building a historical resource, in part for how it turned the Midway into an entertainment district.

A long concert history

Concert setups here hold somewhere between about 9,000 and 15,000 people, depending on where the stage goes. That size has drawn a long run of big names over the decades. Led Zeppelin played in 1969. Elvis Presley came in 1970 and again in 1976. Queen played four shows that sold out, Bob Marley and the Wailers played in 1979, and Nirvana played here in December 1993. Bad Bunny sold it out in 2022.

Concerts share the calendar with Gulls hockey, ice shows and the circus, and the music side spreads across our rock, Latin, pop and hip-hop pages.

Parking and the bus

The arena sits in the middle of its own surface lot at 3500 Sports Arena Boulevard. Parking fees are posted on each event page, and you can pay ahead or by card at the lot entrance. The businesses around the arena tow cars left in their lots, so stick to the arena's lot.

The Trolley does not stop at the door. Ride the Blue or Green Line to Old Town Transit Center, which also has Coaster and Amtrak service, then catch MTS Route 8 or Route 9 to the arena stop. The ride from Old Town is short.

Next door

SOMA is next door on the same stretch of Sports Arena Boulevard, so check whether both have shows on your night and leave extra time if they do. The Midway is part of our Point Loma and the Coast area, which also covers Humphreys out on Shelter Island.