The Padres have "agreed to make firmer financial
commitments to City Hall in an 11th-hour bid to prove" that
the downtown ballpark-redevelopment project "is on track and
should proceed," according to Philip La Velle of the SAN
DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE. The commitments come on the eve of an
April 1 City Council vote to determine whether the Padres
"have made 'sufficient assurances' of progress" on the $1B
project. Padres President Larry Lucchino said that the new
commitments "involve broader hotel development plans ...
plus accelerated financial assistance from the Padres to the
city for development work to be done this year." Mayor
Susan Golding: "I really believe the Padres have made a
significant effort to meet what we want them to meet." The
three commitments Lucchino noted were increasing the number
of new hotel rooms the team would build from 746 to 850,
"making a serious bid to become the developer" of a 1,006-
room waterfront hotel near the S.D. Convention Center, and
"advancing an undisclosed sum of cash to the city for
ballpark development costs." La Velle writes that the
Padres' commitment to build 850 hotel rooms "is the most
significant because it goes directly to the city's debt-
service needs" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 3/30).
