Inside Sac State’s Football Stadium Fumble

Is Sac State's New Football Stadium at Cal Expo Already Dead? In early September 2025, Sacramento State President Dr. Luke Wood announced that the school had set a goal of opening the new stadium at Cal Expo before the 2026 football season. I can say with some confidence that it is not happening. In fact, no Sac State football stadium is likely to happen at all. The idea was nothing more than bluster and hot air from an entity that is nothing but bluster, hot air and, well, bad decisions. So, what the hell happened here, though? How did Sac State flame out of a second stadium idea in essentially 12 months? Really, Cal Expo died in October 2025. No progress has been made, and nothing tangible has happened. In fact, only one update has occurred since the original announcement way back in September 2025: Sac State Athletic Director Mark Orr told the Bee, “the school is still considering long-term options at Cal Expo.” That was March. It’s now June. When Cal Expo and Sac State officials took a victory lap over their “agreement” last year, it was nothing more than a decision to talk about a plan. It was nothing more than an agenda item for the Cal Expo board of directors, who are required to do things very publicly as a state agency. Sac State tipped off the press to their Cal Expo plan and presentation; this routine meeting becomes a big to-do despite the fact that this is a routine procedural move that’s roughly as binding as adding something to your cart in an online store. For Dr. Wood and AD Orr, this was done solely to obscure the fact that no progress had been made on that on-campus stadium. Because late Summer, early autumn 2025, they are putting the full-court press in trying to land a conference invitation for football. Sac State is now paying the MAC a lot of money and has stopped caring about a new stadium entirely. About The Touchback #takeitouttothe25 The Touchback is the world's best sports and culture website…or something like that. You'll either really like it or really hate it. But it's worth reading either way.