Two San Diego County supervisors since late '09 “have been quietly meeting with San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders about using county tax dollars to build a new Chargers stadium in downtown San Diego's East Village,” according to Chris Nichols of the NORTH COUNTY TIMES. The Chargers and city officials hope “to place a measure on a countywide ballot in 2013, asking voters for permission to use public funds for the project.” San Diego County Supervisor Ron Roberts said, “We're in the discussions, we're interested. We've told the city, if they can show us how this would develop new revenue streams (for county government), we have a strong interest." Chargers Special Counsel Mark Fabiani said that the team and the NFL “could together pay $400 million for the project.” The rest would come from "public sources, including the city's potential sale or lease of the Qualcomm Stadium site” (NORTH COUNTY TIMES, 3/4). Sanders said that building a waterfront stadium “could cost $2.5 billion, more than twice as much as an inland site, and require the approval of 23 agencies.” Sanders said, “I don’t have enough time in my lifetime to get that done.” He said that the preferred plan “is to build a new Chargers stadium on the city bus yard site … and add in entertainment facilities, which he estimated at $1.1 billion.” Sanders: “That catalyzes the east end of downtown, much like Petco [Park] did for the Gaslamp Quarter." As for Qualcomm Stadium, Sanders said that the “162 acres could be sold for no more than $150 million, not $500 million as some estimates have suggested, because of existing pollution problems” (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 3/3).
ON THE WATERFRONT: A UNION-TRIBUNE editorial stated the proposal championed by Sanders for a new stadium “is also flawed.” Its location “is uninspired from an urban planning point of view, and cramped.” Combining the Convention Center expansion, the stadium, arena and other development “would enable a larger, better-designed project on a truly unique waterfront property.” The waterfront proposal could also be financed “using the special hotel tax and many of the same revenue sources likely to be proposed by consultants currently preparing a stadium financing plan for Sanders for the MTS bus yard site” (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 3/4).
