Chargers season-ticket sales are "about" 17,000 short
of the 60,000 per game guaranteed by the City of San Diego,
according to Barry Bloom of the SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE.
Through Thursday, the team had sold 42,767 general admission
season tickets at the 71,600-seat Qualcomm Stadium. As part
of a lease signed in May '95, the city guaranteed an average
of 60,000 general admission seats per game for the first 10
home games for 10 years, beginning this season. The city
"must reimburse the Chargers for each attendance shortfall
at the end of each month." Chargers President Dean Spanos
said that "a winter of controversy surrounding the [stadium]
expansion ... had hampered the Chargers' ticket-selling
efforts." Spanos: "Everybody is sort of optimistic. We're
catching up quickly." But Bloom reports that ticket sales
"efforts" by the Chamber of Commerce and the San Diego Int'l
Sports Council "have not been very fruitful." Bloom adds
that if no more tickets are sold for the rest of the season,
the shortfall would be 127,864 tickets, meaning the city
would owe the Chargers $5.1M for the season. Deputy City
Manager Bruce Herring: "I'd say we're watching it closely.
We're hopeful that this campaign is successful. We're not
worried yet" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 7/18).
