San Diego Mayor Susan Golding yesterday announced that
the city and telecom company Qualcomm "have a deal" to put
Qualcomm's name on Jack Murphy Stadium, according to Barry
Bloom in the SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE. The deal includes an
$18M cash payment to the city in exchange for Qualcomm's
name on the stadium for the next 20 years. The City Council
will take up the proposal today. The $18M will go directly
to pay for "improvements and cost overruns" that were added
to the original $60M stadium deal last summer, but deleted
last month under threat of a referendum. Golding said that
both the Chargers and Padres have "waived their rights" to
the stadium name and have "agreed to the deal."
NUTS AND BOLTS: The Qualcomm deal "sets in motion
changes" in the city's "existing agreements" with the
Chargers. The Chargers will now pay $3.5M more in rent over
the next ten years than the team would have paid under the
original agreement signed in '95, and with Qualcomm's $18M
contribution, the per-ticket surcharge will drop to $2.
Because the Chargers have already raised general admission
ticket prices, the club stands to "reap" extra profits from
the increase. Also being able to use cash instead of bonds
for the $18M will mean a savings of $34M in interest
payments. Finally, the Chargers agreed to give Qualcomm a
luxury skybox free of charge for 20 years. Qualcomm, in
turn, agreed to purchase 268 Chargers general admission
season tickets over the next five years. The Padres have
also waived their 65% "cut" of advertising rights on the
stadium name over the next three years "in exchange" for the
city' assistance in "eventually helping the team fund a
baseball-only stadium" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 2/25).
