The path from proposal to opening day took eight years and survived a financial crisis along the way. The San Jose Earthquakes first brought their stadium plan to the city council in June 2007, proposing to build on the Airport West site, a former FMC Corporation industrial facility. Owner Lewis Wolff structured the deal so that the city contributed nothing; the ownership group purchased the land and funded construction entirely out of pocket, even committing to maintain the stadium for 55 years. When crews began demolition in 2011, they discovered three underground concrete bunkers and several hundred concrete pilings left behind by FMC, relics buried beneath the soil that pushed the opening from 2014 to 2015. The groundbreaking finally came on October 21, 2012, the first steel beams went up in November 2013, and the final beam was hoisted into place on March 28, 2014. By the time the stadium opened on February 27, 2015, the Earthquakes had proven that a privately financed soccer stadium was possible in a city where public subsidy was not on the table.

At approximately 18,000 seats, PayPal Park holds the distinction of being Major League Soccer's most intimate venue. The architects leaned into this constraint rather than fighting it. The stands feature some of the steepest-raked seating in MLS, angling spectators sharply downward toward the pitch so that even upper rows feel close to the action. Suites and club seats are located at field level rather than suspended in the sky, reversing the typical stadium hierarchy. Behind the northeast goal, a two-acre fan zone houses what is billed as the largest outdoor bar in North America, turning the end line into a gathering place where the boundary between watching and socializing dissolves. A double-sided video scoreboard hangs above, and a canopy roof shelters the seating bowl. The three shades of blue in the seat pattern nod to the Earthquakes' current identity, while scattered red seats pay homage to the club's earlier years in the North American Soccer League.

PayPal Park has evolved well beyond its original mission as an Earthquakes venue. In 2016, it hosted the MLS All-Star Game, pitting the league's best against Arsenal of the English Premier League, with Arsenal winning 2-1 before a packed house. The U.S. Women's National Team played a World Cup send-off match here in May 2015, defeating Ireland 3-0 before heading to Canada. The stadium was designed with rugby in mind as well; its first rugby match, a 2015 World Rugby Pacific Nations Cup double-header featuring the United States, Samoa, Canada, and Japan, proved the field could handle the sport's demands. In 2023, National Women's Soccer League expansion club Bay FC signed a five-year agreement to make PayPal Park their home while planning a stadium of their own. The venue then hosted a sellout crowd for the 2025 NWSL Championship. From ultimate frisbee championships to Premier Lacrosse League weekends, the stadium has become one of the Bay Area's most versatile sporting grounds.

The stadium's identity has shifted three times in less than a decade, each change tracking the volatile economics of Silicon Valley corporate sponsorship. It opened as Avaya Stadium in 2015, named for the local telecommunications company that paid for the rights. When Avaya filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2017, the company initially tried to keep the naming deal, but by December it asked a federal judge to reduce its commitment. Avaya eventually exited the agreement entirely, and the venue spent 2020 as the no-frills Earthquakes Stadium. Then in April 2021, the Earthquakes announced a new ten-year partnership with PayPal, the fintech giant headquartered just miles away in San Jose. The deal brought more than a name; PayPal Park was outfitted with PayPal and Venmo digital payment technology, nudging fans toward a cashless experience. Whether the PayPal name outlasts its predecessors remains to be seen. In a valley where companies rise and fall with startling speed, the stadium endures regardless of what is printed on its facade.