QUALCOMM JOINS WITH BOLTS TO LIFT BLACKOUTS FOR THREE GAMES

          The Chargers are teaming up with Qualcomm to buy enough
     tickets to lift a local TV blackout on three of six
     remaining home games, according to Ray Huard of the SAN
     DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE.  Qualcomm and the team will give their
     tickets to county schools, to be used as rewards to
     students.  Mayor Susan Golding: "This solves a lot of
     potential problems for this year."  But the UNION-TRIBUNE's
     Huard notes, however, that the ticket-buying deal "still
     leaves the city on the hook for the controversial ticket
     guarantee that is at the heart of the stadium deal."  Under
     the guarantee, the city must give the Chargers a rent credit
     when fewer than 60,000 general admission tickets are sold
     for home games.  Golding's Press Secretary Todd Harris said
     that the guarantee "already has cost the city $705,900 in
     rent credits" through the Chargers first two home games. 
     With the new ticket deal, officials "estimate" that the city
     will wind up deducting $1.2M by the end of the season from
     the estimated $5.7M the Chargers will pay in rent (Ray
     Huard, SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 10/23).