Chargers Special Advisor Fred Maas on Friday told protesters of the team's potential new venue it is "more than just a football stadium, that it was not a series of 30-foot walls that blocked you off from downtown and the rest of San Diego," according to Rachel Crader of the SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE. Chargers President of Football Operations John Spanos at a luncheon Friday presented the Family Health Centers of San Diego a $5,000 donation, while a group of between 15-20 people "stood across the street holding signs saying things like 'No Downtown Stadium!' and 'Neighborhoods not stadiums.'" Maas, President of Business Operations A.G. Spanos and Special Advisor Jeffrey Pollack were also there. When Maas was "given the floor for opening remarks, he addressed the protesters without prompting." Maas said the Barrio Logan area, where the luncheon was taking place, has "become the idea district with artists and entrepreneurs and new businesses and people that are fueling jobs and doing exciting things here. We shouldn't be disconnected from the Barrio, we should include them. It is an integral part of what we're doing." Maas stressed that a new stadium downtown would "enliven the neighborhood each day of the year." Mass added that the team "planned to include a Comic-Con museum in the design as well as a gallery specifically for Barrio Logan artists." Maas told the protesters, "I don't mean this in a disparaging way, but really just in a statement of reality -- today your neighbor is a bus facility with up to a thousand buses a day. ... I think I speak for everyone here to say that's not exactly the most attractive neighbor." Maas: "If not something like this, if not something of this magnitude, if not something this special with the kind of sensitivity that we hope to suggest and propose in the project, that will never be replaced. It will always be a neighbor here" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 7/16).
VOTER POLLING: In San Diego, Dan McSwain wrote the Chargers have "almost no chance in November of convincing voters to raise taxes" for nearly $1.2B in public debt to "help the team build a downtown stadium and convention center." Maas said that the team "has spent well north" of $5M on its initiative, with the hiring of a "nationally prominent crew of campaign consultants." McSwain: "The obstacles seem extreme." A poll last week by SurveyUSA showed 40% of likely voters said that they were "certain of voting against the Chargers initiative," with just 30% sure they would vote in favor. The team is "betting heavily on technology" by using "data mining and other techniques." Political consultants have "'coded' about 600,000 voters in San Diego, enabling field workers to reach them using everything from knocking on doors to obscure social media channels." Maas said, "We're trying to be very smart and very targeted" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 7/17).
PLEDGE TO THE PEOPLE: In San Diego, Kevin Acee wrote the Chargers' one "gigantic cloud can at least be dissipated." The team has to "pledge that if it is determined the cost of their stadium-convention center project puts even a cent of the city's general fund in peril they will not go forward." Acee: "The pledge from the Chargers must come now." Not taking this step "leaves too much open for interpretation." What the pledge by Chair Dean Spanos would do is "provide some guard against the city being on the hook for more than it can handle" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 7/16).
