are the chargers leaving SD? What is the update?
By Ronald W. Powell
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
December 16, 2007
The Chargers are huddling with Chula Vista officials to see if they can agree on a site for a new stadium by the end of this month.
Graphic:
Stadium options
in Chula Vista
If they don't, it's not clear what the team will do next. Many believe the Chargers might leave the San Diego region, since they scouted other locations in the county before narrowing the search to Chula Vista.
And despite pressure from some prominent business executives, team officials have ruled out a deal with the city of San Diego – specifically a plan to rebuild at the Qualcomm Stadium site, where the team has played for 40 years.
“The numbers at Qualcomm just don't pencil out today,” said Mark Fabiani, the Chargers' general counsel and spokesman. “Real estate prices have gone down and construction costs have gone up. What's the breakthrough idea that makes that site work?”
In 2002 the team introduced a development plan that would have worked at the Qualcomm site, Fabiani said. The plan included more than 6,000 condominiums, offices, retail space, a hotel and road improvements – all on the 166-acre property. Any profit would have paid for a new $400 million stadium. The team dropped the proposal in 2006.
OVERVIEW
Background: A 19-month search around San Diego County has led the Chargers to two possible sites for a new stadium – both in Chula Vista.
What's changing: Chargers executives are planning to meet with Chula Vista officials this week to discuss the pros and cons of the proposed sites, as well as information the team received from residents in two town hall meetings and several other community forums.
The future: Team executives say they want to choose a site this month. If neither Chula Vista site is selected, the team's future in the county is in doubt because Chargers officials have ruled out a deal with the city of San Diego.
Today a new stadium at the Qualcomm site would cost $1 billion, and the road improvements, which the team previously calculated at $175 million, have more than doubled in cost, he said. The escalating prices of concrete, structural steel and other building materials account for much of the increase. Added to that, the market for condominiums has gone cold, eliminating the underpinnings of the team's strategy for generating revenue.
“I don't know what kind of development you could build (at Qualcomm) to support the kind of debt you would have,” said Fabiani, who is planning to meet with Chula Vista officials this week. “These are huge numbers. It's not theoretical.”
Others, however, are still working to keep the team in San Diego if the South County effort collapses. County Supervisor Dianne Jacob and several San Diego business executives have been pushing for a Qualcomm plan.
Jacob said San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders and Council President Scott Peters have shown no interest in working with the Chargers, but she has not given up on the Qualcomm idea.
“If Chula Vista is no longer an option, I hope the city of San Diego will come to the table,” she said.
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San Diego businessman Ted Roth also supports a Qualcomm deal, although he said the Chargers are sincerely considering a move to Chula Vista. But in case the effort comes up empty, he is working to remove what he considers a major roadblock to the team making a U-turn for “the Q” – City Attorney Michael Aguirre.
Team executives have repeatedly blamed Aguirre for sabotaging their Qualcomm plan. Aguirre maintains that the city's previous agreements with the team were bad deals for taxpayers and that he is trying to be fiscally responsible.
“I think you need to listen to what the Chargers are saying,” said Roth, an investment banker and former chairman of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce. “I don't think they can enter into any negotiation involving the city because they think he (Aguirre) will be subversive. He'd find a way to kill anything they'd negotiate.”
Aguirre is up for re-election next year, and Roth said the Chargers issue is one of the reasons he is pushing for his defeat.
But it will take more than Aguirre's ouster to revive a deal in San Diego, Fabiani said.
While the city attorney is a key figure, “the one that counts is the mayor,” Fabiani said. “If the mayor is not pushing for it (a stadium deal), it won't happen.”
Sanders said in 2006 that his priority is mending the city's fractured finances – including the employee's pension system, which has a $1 billion deficit. Since then, Sanders has disengaged from the stadium search.
“I'm not getting involved because I want to give Chula Vista every chance to succeed,” Sanders said.
The Chargers have a lease with the city of San Diego to play at Qualcomm until 2020 but can leave before then. However, a financial clause in the lease is a huge incentive to keep the team here for at least two years.
If the team leaves at the end of the 2009 season, it must pay off the entire debt for the city's 1997 expansion of Qualcomm Stadium, which would total $56.2 million. But if the team leaves after the 2010 season – when the balance will be more than $55 million – it will only have to pay $24 million.
That would leave the city with a debt of more than $30 million, an old stadium, and no National Football League team.
The City Council approved the bond payoff plan in July 2004 when it renegotiated the Chargers' contract to play at Qualcomm Stadium.
Team executives say they aren't looking outside the county. But if they do, a handful of cities, including Los Angeles, San Antonio and Las Vegas, are in the market for a team.
Andrew Zimbalist, who writes extensively on the business of professional sports, said he believes the league's owners want to keep a franchise in the San Diego market. But that doesn't mean they would stop a move.
“If they can find a good city and a good stadium deal, the NFL might allow them to move as long as the team pays a relocation fee,” which can be tens of millions of dollars, said Zimbalist, a professor of economics at Smith College.
Fabiani said the team is focusing on Chula Vista because its elected officials are willing to negotiate. The city also has two sites to choose from – the current South Bay Power Plant on San Diego Bay and a 500-acre vacant parcel on the city's east side.
If the eastern site is chosen for the stadium, a public vote would probably take place in November. The bayfront site is more problematic, since the power plant would have to be demolished first, and there is no set date for that.
San Diego businessman Malin Burnham, who has been part of the group pushing the Qualcomm site, said he believes a joint powers authority should be formed to help fund the stadium. The authority would include the county, the city of San Diego, the Port District, the city of Chula Vista and perhaps other local governments.
County Supervisor Ron Roberts said he supports forming a joint powers authority, which in other cities has imposed car-rental and other taxes to help pay for sports facilities. Roberts said the local authority would decide what form of assistance, if any, should be provided.