The Padres announced yesterday that "work on the
downtown ballpark will stop" on October 2, but City Hall
"treated the news as a negotiating ploy," according to
Millican & Huard of the SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE. Padres
execs "characterized the decision to suspend" construction
as a joint announcement with the city, its partner in the
redevelopment project, but city officials "were nowhere to
be found" at the news conference. Team execs said that
"work will be halted because money advanced by the team and
city soon will be exhausted and no comprehensive financing
plan is in place." Padres President Larry Lucchino: "We
don't see any immediate cash infusion." City Council member
Christine Kehoe, on Lucchino: "I don't know if Larry's
having a breakdown or what. We are nowhere near OK'ing or
agreeing to a work shutdown." Lucchino said that the team
and the city "will pay for work" through October 1 and "will
settle all outstanding invoices." The city "was to issue"
up to $299M of tax-exempt bonds in January to cover its
share of the construction and related financing costs, but
the bond sale is stalled due to an investigation of council
member Valerie Stallings' trading shares of Neon Systems, a
software company headed by Padres Owner John Moores.
Millican & Huard conclude, "That cloud and pending lawsuits
challenging the project have made it all but impossible to
sell the bonds" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 9/20).
