Despite complaints from nearby residents about potentially disruptive noise volumes coming from the stadium, San Jose city leaders have denied their appeal of PayPal Park\u2019s concert permit, allowing the venue it to host up to 15 concerts per year.<\/p>\n
At a Planning Director\u2019s meeting in November, the city greenlit an application from the San Jose Earthquakes to host music events. Residents challenged the decision, arguing that the city\u2019s environmental process was flawed and failed to incorporate stricter monitor requirements like those required in Santa Clara.<\/p>\n
While San Jose has asked for more frequent noise reports, the City Council on Tuesday unanimously sided with the city\u2019s planning staff who concluded the permit changes would not result in significant impacts than what was previously allowed when the stadium plans were approved more than a decade ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cI recognize that this is an impact to our neighbors in the Newhall Neighborhood, but we have to recognize that this has also been subject to a process,\u201d District 6 Councilmember Michael Mulcahy said. \u201cThere\u2019s no question this is going to have an economic impact on our city in a very positive way. Concerts will add a whole other element to our ability to create an experience economy, which many of us are working hard to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
While PayPal Park \u2014 formerly known as Avaya Stadium \u2014 is known as a sports venue, the Earthquakes\u2019 ownership had always intended for the 14.5-acre site to host other entertainment options.<\/p>\n
However, residents raised concerns from the start.\u00a0Many noted that they were not opposed to an entertainment venue at the site\u00a0but rather questioned whether the Earthquakes were being asked to do enough to limit the impacts.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are already disproportionately impacted by cumulative noise generated by San Jose airport, Union Pacific freight trains, BART construction and Interstate 880,\u201d resident Matthew Bright said on behalf of the Newhall Neighborhood. \u201cI\u2019m also a fan of live music, and I get it. Many of you are hungry, maybe even hangry, for big beefy concerts in San Jose, but every one of us knows the truth. Eating raw or undercooked meat is a great way to get sick, so let\u2019s discuss why you can and should send this proposal back to the kitchen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bright and other Newhall Neighborhood residents also called the noise study flawed and noted that, for as much as San Jose officials talk about making decisions based on data, Santa Clara\u2019s real-time noise monitoring requirements for Levi\u2019s Stadium were significantly more strenuous.<\/p>\n
Land-use consultant Erik Schoennauer, who represents the Earthquakes, defended the noise testing completed at the stadium last April.\u00a0He noted that the tests evaluated different genres and songs, including Banda, pop star Mariah Carey\u2019s track \u201cEmotions\u201d and rapper Travis Scott\u2019s song \u201cFE!N.\u201d He also said noise sensors were placed throughout the neighborhood to accurately measure sound from different vantage points.<\/p>\n
Following the review, speaker volume levels were restricted to what was approved in an environmental impact report from 2010.<\/p>\n
Schoennauer also touted the stadium\u2019s economic benefits that have\u00a0surpassed some estimates even without live music.<\/p>\n
In 2008, seven years before the stadium opened, the city estimated that it would yield $62 million per year in benefits, factoring in spending at hotels and local eateries.<\/p>\n
During the 2024 calendar year, Schoennauer said the venue hosted 60 events, resulting in $76 million in direct spending and $111 million in economic impact, while supporting the equivalent of 950 full-time jobs.<\/p>\n
In addition to live entertainment events generating tens of billions of dollars statewide, a study by Oxford Economics also showed that for every $100 spent on concert tickets, it would lead to an additional $334.92 in spending.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a competitive region,\u201d San Jose Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Leah Toeniskoetter said in support. \u201cIf we\u2019re not hosting these events, they\u2019re going elsewhere. PayPal Park is already a community gathering space. Allowing 15 concerts enables us to really activate this asset in our backyard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Silicon Valley is fresh off hosting the Super Bowl, the area could be ripe for opportunity as the NCAA Men\u2019s Basketball Tournament and FIFA World Cup are still coming to the area this year.<\/p>\n
Schoennauer said now that Major League Soccer has planned to switch its scheduling to align with the international soccer calendar, the prime summer months will be available for events.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a perfect opportunity to take advantage of our weather and have outdoor concerts at a time when the stadium will not be used and realize economic benefit throughout the summer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite complaints from nearby residents about potentially disruptive noise volumes coming from the stadium, San Jose city leaders…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[184,387,7,409,2644,967,181,23,205,100,13,88,90,89,198,200,420],"class_list":{"0":"post-193572","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-bay-area","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-city-politics","12":"tag-concerts","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-latest-headlines","15":"tag-local-news","16":"tag-local-politics","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-san-jose","20":"tag-san-jose-headlines","21":"tag-san-jose-news","22":"tag-santa-clara-county","23":"tag-south-bay","24":"tag-things-to-do"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}