Originally Posted by mongoXZ
On today's Union-Tribune:
Officials would like to attract NBA team
By Tanya Sierra
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
May 16, 2007
NATIONAL CITY – Now that the Chargers won't be relocating to National City, city officials are shifting their efforts to building a sports arena near the waterfront.
Advertisement City officials have been talking with Ernie Hahn II, who operates the San Diego Sports Arena, about bringing an arena to the 67-acre site the Chargers were considering.
Although no one would discuss details, Hahn said they would like the venue to house a National Basketball Association team.
The city's arena plans are preliminary. Officials need to secure financing, get buy-in from the Port of San Diego, which owns a majority of the site, and develop a land-use plan for the bayfront.
“There's always a struggle when you don't have a franchise, a team,” said National City Redevelopment Director Brad Raulston. “There's this chicken and egg between the team and the building. You need to have a building to lure the team.”
Officials say they prepared to develop the site as part of their stadium proposal. They surveyed residents and business owners and met with representatives of waterfront companies.
“The site has transportation advantages, a good location, and we understand the concerns of the maritime folks,” City Manager Chris Zapata said. “Coupled with the questionnaire, we realize there has to be a balance that is industry-and visitor-serving.”
Hahn started looking for new arena sites in 2003. He considered National City and Chula Vista, and said National City has the will and creativity to make an arena possible.
“I think they've got a very proactive management team from the mayor's office all the way down to redevelopment, which is always a positive,” Hahn said.
Although Hahn said he is focused on improving the San Diego Sports Arena, he's open to meeting with National City officials.
Last week, after Mayor Ron Morrison announced the city was dropping its bid to host a Chargers stadium, he said “discussions with a number of people” about a sports arena were under way.
Other than Hahn, city officials would not reveal names.
“There have been discussions and people are interested, but nobody is comfortable with going public on bringing a team to town,” Raulston said.
Past local sports arena proposals – in Chula Vista in 1973 and in downtown San Diego and Sorrento Valley in the early '90s – have failed.
In 2003, Hahn's Arena Group 2000 hired Raulston to help search for a new arena location. Raulston said that even without an arena, National City is poised to change its marina district.
“We need to figure out a way to make it more efficient, more lucrative and more recreational,” he said.
Raulston said an arena requires 5 to 7 acres, far less than a football stadium.
Members of the Working Waterfront Group, a coalition of maritime-industrial businesses, opposed a stadium at the site because they say it would harm their businesses. They also disapprove of an arena, said Sharon Cloward, executive director of the San Diego Port Tenants Association.
“We don't have enough land down there now,” Cloward said.
Morrison said the site is one of the last sites in the county that can accommodate an arena because of its freeway and public transportation access. He said he wants a comprehensive plan for the entire waterfront.
“We do not want the waterfront association or the maritime groups to think we're digging into their territory,” he said. “We're not. We want to make it better for them.”
|
Prev
How can people blindly say that "oh no lindbergh is fine for generations" Where is Jerry Sanders, where is the County Supervisor?? This is there damn job to get things like this figured out. 
Linear Mode
