San Diego city officials said Tuesday that the city has
spent $4,845,527 to buy unsold Chargers tickets so far this
season, according to Caitlin Rother of the SAN DIEGO UNION-
TRIBUNE. San Diego Deputy Manager Bruce Herring said that
the city purchased 24,590 tickets for last Sunday's game
against the Seahawks, 14,800 of which were distributed to
students countywide, at a cost of $1,132,762 to taxpayers.
Rother added that the $4.8M the city has spent on unsold
tickets "essentially depletes" the $5M in hotel tax revenue
budgeted to cover the ticket guarantee for the 2000 season
(see THE DAILY, 9/14). When the $5M reserve fund is gone,
the city "will dip into" Qualcomm's $9.1M operating fund to
buy unsold tickets (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 9/27). Rother:
"There is no doubt the cost of the guarantee will exceed
rent revenue again this season. In part, because of an
increase in ticket and parking prices, the team is expected
to pay about $6 million in rent this year, about $300,000
more than last year" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 9/26).
