Introduction
On this post of AntSol Travel, my family & I are heading from my parents house in Vista to San Diego County’s newest sports venue, Frontwave Arena in Oceanside! Not for a sports game, but for a country concert, KSON’s All American Summer Concert. How is the new venue, the concert, and the transportation options getting there? Coming up next, on AntSol Travel!
AI & Research Disclaimers
Please note that most articles cited are from the San Diego Union Tribune. They do have a paywall past a certain numbers of articles read.
Artificial Intelligence is minimally used in the production of this blog post. It only have been used for the post’s grammar edits and excerpt with Jetpack AI. At AntSol Travel, we want AI to mainly to used to help refine the creative process when it comes to the editing portion of the process. AI should not be the core part creative process.
- Introduction
- AI & Research Disclaimers
- Pre Frontwave Arena
- Genesis of Frontwave Arena & El Corazon Park
- Transportation Options to Frontwave Arena
- About KSON’s All American Summer Concert
- Arriving to Frontwave Arena
- Concession Stands
- Watching the Show!
- Heading Home
- Conclusion
Pre Frontwave Arena
Northern San Diego County is considered the suburbs of San Diego where many people commute to downtown for work and most universities, which is an hour or more via car on Interstate 5 or NCTD Coaster commuter train. Major league sports are mostly based in the city of San Diego city limits such as the Padres baseball at Petco Park, and San Diego FC men’s soccer & Wave women’s soccer at Snapdragon Stadium.
Along with sports at the aging Pechanga Arena that opened in 1966 that hosted the NBA Clippers basketball team when they moved to San Diego from 1978 to 1984, then moved to Los Angeles.
My parents went to a concert there last year and my sister went to a San Diego Gulls hockey game, a minor league team for the Anaheim Ducks, and they all said that the arena was not looking good. Along with a long commute for concerts & events for my parents. Is there a closer sports arena to Vista & the growing northern San Diego County?
Genesis of Frontwave Arena & El Corazon Park
The Frontwave Arena is part of the SoCal Sports Complex at El Corazon Park with twenty soccer fields, an aquatics center, senior center, and new apartment development. Plans were in the works since 2021 for the development of the El Corazon Park area by local developer, Sudberry Properties. The land used to be a sand mine by the U.S. Silica Company that they gave to the city of Oceanside for free in 1994, however, the city had to stabilize themselves of the sandy mining pit to be usable for development. Due to that, it is a bit steep up the hill from the Sprinter station, but is a plateau when you are up the hill.
Josh Elias, the founder & CEO of Frontwave Arena, wanted to make it easier for the population of northern San Diego County residents to have easier access to sports & concerts instead of driving to San Diego. That gave rise to the idea of Frontwave Arena in Oceanside, a 7,500 seat arena for minor league sports & smaller arena concerts that was opened in October 2024! The arena has premium food & beverage options with affordable tickets to the games & events, along with sixteen box suites, balcony, and bar areas. Naming rights were sold to local credit unions, Frontwave Credit Union, based in Oceanside.
Frontwave Arena hosts the relocated Ontario Clippers, the G League development team for the Los Angeles Clippers, now called San Diego Clippers as a tribute to their six years in San Diego. Along with San Diego Shockers of the Major Arena Soccer League that played at Pechanga Arena since 2009, and the San Diego Strike Force of the Indoor Football League that also played at Pechanga Arena since 2019.
With how fast the northern San Diego County is growing in population of over a million, including my parents relocating from the San Francisco Bay Area to the city of Vista, and over 50,000 active duty military personnel at Camp Pendleton & their families, Frontwave Arena was a no-brainer to build for smaller sports & events. I am surprised it took this long to do so.
Transportation Options to Frontwave Arena
Parking
Driving in by car, get to Oceanside and take CA Highway 78 east towards Escondido, and exit off at El Camino Real towards the north, right on Oceanside Blvd., and left on Rancho Del Oro. Parking varies but the main parking lot costs $22.
NCTD
You can take the NCTD Breeze bus or Sprinter train to Rancho Del Oro station, and walk .75 miles to Frontwave Arena. On Fridays & Saturdays, there are additional trains for both directions of the Sprinter. However, make sure to check NCTD Alerts on Twitter (X) for updates as there can be cancelled trips due to “unforeseen circumstances”.
According to the San Diego Union Tribune, NCTD Sprinter’s Siemens Desiro hybrid light rail body on heavy rail chassis, powered by diesel. The trains are having so many mechanical issues, only five of twelve trains or less run regularly, which can be part of the “unforeseen circumstances” which the system opened in 2008. When I took the Sprinter back in 2022, there were two trains per set, however, mainly only running one train at a time every time I took it there after. Please get new train sets NCTD.
About KSON’s All American Summer Concert
For the concert, we went to KSON’s All American Summer Concert, an annual multi artist concert by KSON, the local County music station in San Diego. According to the 2019 summer concert guide by the San Diego Union Tribune, KSON held it at the Lakeside Rodeo Grounds in Lakeside, located 21 miles northeast of Petco Park, which can be a huge drive to get to from Vista.
Their website mentions that it sold out quickly last year. If it was held at the rodeo grounds last year, it was much smaller than the new 7,500 seat Frontwave Arena, which the floor seats could make up for the displaced by the stage. The day before the concert, there were plenty of seats available. Yikes, this might be a huge loss for KSON but it is their first time in a larger venue for their concert series.
Arriving to Frontwave Arena
Driving in, you can purchase general admission parking for $20 at the gate or prepay online for $2 online fee. Parking is on an unmarked dirt lot so you can have plenty of space. Then carefully walk through the lot to Frontwave Arena.
When you approach the steps & ramps to Frontwave Arena, you are greeted by metal wildlife sculptures of giraffes & elephants, as the plaza naming rights were sold to the San Diego Zoo’s Wildlife Park.
For security, they allow clear bags only for bags and have walk-through metal detectors. Check out their website for full details.
After scanning in your ticket, you enter the main concourse area with merchandise stands, concession stands, lounge area, sponsor booths, and restrooms. First, let’s get food & beverages at the concession stands.
Concession Stands
For food, they have Seaside Market for sandwiches, Tanner’s Prime Burgers for hamburgers, Gelati & Peccati for pizza & gelato, and Baja Tacos for tacos. All of the stands had pint cans of Carlsbad Brewing Company’s Indian Pale Ale (IPA) for $10. All the stands had chicken fingers & hot dogs, called the “classic” items at all food stands. For drinks, they had the Modelo Cantina for beers on tap, Coors Light Chill Zone for more beers on tap & mixed drinks, and Pala Starlight Lounge for mixed drinks.
My parents, sister, and I split two orders of chicken fingers and two slices of pepperoni pizza, both from Gelati & Peccati. There were three chicken fingers with a handful of fries, okay for $12. Pizza was a slice from a huge pan pizza for $12.50. It was good but the crust was a bit tough. I also got a Carlsbad Brewing Company IPA and it was pretty good. However, my dad tried it and it had too much hoppy flavor that IPAs are known for. He likes lighter ales more, the opposite beer brewing style to IPAs.
We sat in the middle arena seats at section 115, row 2, seats 3-7. There were people who took seats 1 & 2. That also means that we had to shift our view to the right for the stage. Which was the main drawback for arena & stadium concerts.
Seating consists of standing next to the stage, floor seats, 100s where we were at, and the 200s had suite boxes across from us & regular seats above us. A good portion of seats were sold, however, there were plenty of open seats not sold, so not all 7,500 seats were sold. Now let’s watch the concert! The first three opening artists were all acoustic renditions of their songs.
Watching the Show!
Will Mosley
Opening was Will Mosley, who placed second on the 22nd season of American Idol in 2024, known for his cover of Whiskey & You by Chris Stapleton and has published songs since then with latest single, Mechanic. In the clip, Will was playing “Gone for Good”
Kelsey Hart
Kelsey Hart is a country music singer songwriter who wrote many songs for various country artists including Jake Owns, Trace Adkins, and Dylan Scott since 2017, according to the Grand Ole Opry. He got to perform in person at the grand stage of country music in Nashville, the Grand Ole Opry! He gained notoriety when he started performing himself starting in 2021 with his song, “Life With You” & song in the clip “Burn My Summer”.
The Band Perry
The Band Perry is a trio of siblings with Kimberly, Neil, and Reid Perry from Mobile, Alabama. They got their debut album “If I Die Young” in 2010 with five singles and grew from there. Then they released, “Pioneer” album in 2013 with four singles. They only had two studio albums but mainly published singles after that with 14 singles in total. Playing is “Done” from the “Pioneer” album for a faster paced song.
The Band Perry has been on hiatus since the release of their last single, Nite Swim, and their tour in 2019, as well as the event of 2020. This concert is their first of their concert series in the 2020s. Since then, Kimberly got married to Johnny and they have a two year old son. Kimberly’s brother, Reid is playing, however, the other brother, Neil, is not playing, so Johnny is playing in Neil’s place. Their music is supported by a fiddle player, Tessa.
Scotty McCreery
Headlining is Scotty McCreery, like Will Mosley, went to Hollywood for American Idol for the performance rounds and won in the tenth season in 2011. He got to produce his first album “Clear as Day” and single “I Love You This Big” after winning American Idol. He has a discography of six albums & ten singles. The latest release was with Hootie & the Blowfish in “Bottle Rockets” this year.
His wife, Gabi, loves this song, “It Matters to Her” since it is about her. They have been friends since they were 5 years old, they started dating in the senior year of high school, and got married in 2018. Now with a two year son and another one on the way.
Now for “Bottle Rockets” the collaboration song with Darius Rucker and the Hootie & the Blowfish! Scotty got to know Darius during Darius’ country music days in the 2010s. For this song, Hootie & the Blowfish recorded their segment of the song and mixed it with Scotty’s music.
Heading Home
That was a great concert at a nice & new venue! I definitely recommend a concert or a sports game at Frontwave Arena!
Leaving the parking lot was quick and easy to get out of and head home via CA 57!
On Saturdays, there are additional trains to Escondido at 9:44 pm, 10:44 pm or 11:44 pm. If we walked to the station when we left at 10:50 pm, we would have plenty of time to walk the .75 miles to the station for the 11:44 pm train.
Conclusion
Frontwave Arena is a great addition to Northern San Diego County for sports and entertainment. From the smaller capacity for smaller pro sports & concerts, the local food & beverage options, and easy access from California State Highway 78, makes Frontwave a great place for residents of San Diego County!
AntSol Travel 
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