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Maas will be tasked with rebooting
Chargers' stadium push in San Diego |
The Chargers made a "significant addition" to their effort to get a stadium built in San Diego by hiring Fred Maas to "join the team in its quest to launch a citizens initiative toward a November ballot measure aimed at getting public assistance," according to a front-page piece by Kevin Acee of the SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE. Maas "once headed up the city’s downtown redevelopment agency." Sources said that the team "plans to spend as much as" $10M on the stadium election process, which "begins with the launch of a citizens initiative." Maas was present for a meeting yesterday at Chargers Chair Dean Spanos' home that "included Mayor Kevin Faulconer and was described by participants as the sides touching base and setting up plans for the next steps in the negotiation process." Maas was "hired to help the Chargers reboot a stadium push" in San Diego in the wake of NFL rejecting the team's joint proposal with the Raiders for a stadium in Carson. Spanos in a video on the team website said of Maas, "He’s very familiar with all the political aspects of what goes on in the city, how all that works. His knowledge of San Diego as a whole will help us." Acee reports Special Counsel Mark Fabiani, "whose aggressive style has angered fans and local leaders, continues to work for the Chargers and will be involved in the stadium process." But, as "had been expected, Fabiani’s role has been altered." Though Fabiani has headed the team’s efforts in San Diego and L.A. since '02, Spanos said Maas "is in charge of this particular initiative, this stadium effort going forward" (
SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 2/9).
