San Diego developers this week unveiled details for their recently announced plan to renovate Qualcomm Stadium to "meet NFL standards," according to a front-page piece by Roger Showley of the SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE. A renovated Qualcomm would be "paired with a new sports arena to anchor a 22.5-million-square-foot development" with room for San Diego State's “'west campus' and plenty of housing, hotels, shops and office space." Manchester Financial Group President & CEO Dick Gibbons said that the idea is to come up an "affordable way to entice a team with a modernized Qualcomm" and at the same time erase the city’s $15M annual cost to "maintain and operate the 50-year-old stadium." The impetus to prepare the plan is the "initiative campaign being launched" by San Diego-based FS Investors to build SoccerCity -- a "30,000-seat soccer/SDSU stadium, 4,800 homes, 3.1 million square feet of commercial and 55 acres of parkland on the 166-acre site -- a billion-dollar-plus venture." Manchester consultant Perry Dealy said that instead of running with the FS plan, the city "should stop, master plan the site itself and then invite more competition" by issuing an RFP over the next two or three years. The renovation would include a 70,000-seat "remodeled Qualcomm on the central 30 acres of the site that could be completed in three years." The stadium’s reconfiguration, estimated at $600M, would "involve depressing the playing field by 13 feet, ripping out the current portable field-level seats and much of the loge seating." New field-level seating would bring fans "closer to the action and high enough to provide premium views -- and sold at premium prices" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 3/10).
