Chargers won't wait to pursue stadium

UNION-TRIBUNE

February 19, 2008

All along, the Chargers have insisted they basically have given up on a new
stadium within the San Diego city limits because of one man - City Attorney
Mike Aguirre. Their figuring, probably right, is that Aguirre would do his
best to swat away any shot.

And Aguirre, as we all know, can swat, although he whiffs now and then, such
as seeking an evacuation during the fires and jumping in like a porch
climber during the La Jolla landslide.

So I'm wondering. This is an election year, and Aguirre is being challenged
by viable candidates. Would the Chargers consider holding back their current
efforts to secure a new joint in Chula Vista and wait for the outcome of the
city election?

The answer, according to Mark Fabiani, the Chargers' stadium point guard, is
a resounding "no." They are going after the two sites in Chula Vista - one
where the power plant (which some day will be demolished) sits near the
harbor, and the other far east of there, where more land is available,
without much access.

Except that Fabiani sounds like a running back that needs to see daylight
sometime soon (Chula Vista has been affable). Thus far, the Chargers haven't
responded to suitors outside San Diego County. That could change. After the
2008 season, according to their sweetheart lease with City Hall, they are
free to move about the country.

Thing is, with the real estate market what it is now, where can they go? The
price of a new stadium, unless it can be paid for in some other way, is
going to be staggering for any city.

What the Chargers want to do is pay for it and use other land for
development, as they wanted to do on the Qualcomm Stadium site. But after
the team was unable to find a development partner, which would have been the
best way to go, City Hall groundhogs crawled back into their bunkers after
seeing six more years of self-imposed fiscal winter.

"We're going to stay with Chula Vista," says Fabiani, who, as a longtime
campaigner, knows politics. "We don't want to lose another year. It's
unlikely he'll (Aguirre) be defeated in the primary. The votes likely will
be split, so it will be Aguirre and somebody else in the (November) runoff."

And Fabiani and team President Dean Spanos don't want to wait that long,
nor - probably - do they completely trust the San Diego electorate. The
franchise has taken the city to the dry cleaners - after the ticket
guarantee fiasco they now basically pay no rent - and this is a town that
can't get a walking bridge built across a public street.

"These are Dean's instructions (regarding Chula Vista)," Fabiani says. "A
lot of people are down on Aguirre right now, but November is a long ways
away. We've got to have some progress this calendar year."

If that sounds like a threat, maybe it is.

"We've got to show forward movement this year," he says. "We can't have
another year with no movement. Again, if I were a betting person, I'd say
we're a lot closer to the end of the process than the beginning of it.

"Dean has shown an incredible amount of patience, and he's not a patient
person, but I'm not predicting that patience is coming to an end."

Still, these are businesspeople. The NFL is a business that just so happens
to involve football.

It's been clear for some time Spanos, given the millions he has spent and
the battles he has fought to find a new site, doesn't want to leave the
area. Never mind he doesn't really have a viable place to go, but he's
developed a strong fan base here.

There's been talk recently of building a stadium at the Port Authority's
10th Avenue Marine Terminal (which would be the best site of all), and
others are suggesting a massive Qualcomm renovation, which would seem
incredibly hard to do.

"The Port idea, although good, is pretty far-fetched," Fabiani says. "The
idea is a double-deck facility, with the first deck still housing the Port
facility. The cost would be gigantic, but downtown would be great, because
you wouldn't need to build any infrastructure or parking garages. There's
tons of parking downtown on Sundays. And it would create more jobs. I think
labor would be interested.

"As for Qualcomm, we still think it would cost as much to renovate the
stadium than to build a new one, and I haven't seen any studies to the
contrary. It's a multiuse facility. You'd have to move stands around."

And, if they decided to do this - the Chargers' original plan was to build a
new stadium adjacent to the old one - where would they play, Mesa College?

"Where do you play and how would you pay for it?" Fabiani says. "I don't
want to pooh-pooh a stadium renovation - if it works."

It won't. The city, losing millions on the site, will not keep Qualcomm for
San Diego State football and bowl games.

"So you get a deal with the city and win an election," Fabiani says. "Then,
like John Moores and the Padres, who won an election, it takes six years to
get it built?"

It's getting serious, folks. Maybe if we all evacuated.


Nick Canepa: (619) 293-1397; nick.canepa@uniontrib.com


Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/chargers/20080219-9999-1s19canepa.html

Archived from group: alt>sports>football>pro>sd-chargers