Let the Chargers move if they want

san diego chargersI don’t know what the hell is wrong with San Diego Stadium. It is well configured for football (better than baseball), seats something like 70,000, has plenty of luxury seats, and after all the rancor over giving the Padres a new park, along with the way the Chargers basically ripped off the City of San Diego on the last stadium deal — I don’t have a lot of sympathy for the team’s desire to build a new stadium.

Let Alex Spanos move the team to Los Angeles. I’ll become a 49ers fan. At least they win, usually.

However, this story almost sounds like a good compromise.

The San Diego Chargers want taxpayers to pay half the cost of a $400 million stadium that would be built on the current 166-acre Qualcomm Stadium site.

As part of the deal, the city would get a good portion of the stadium property back to develop and collect revenue from — potentially worth more than $100 million. When you factor in the other potential economic factors, it almost sounds plausible … until you consider the times we live in and you think, the Chargers must be crazy to think this deal would ever fly.

Councilwoman Donna Frye, whose district includes Qualcomm Stadium, said, “When we are facing a $100 million deficit (in the city), facing layoffs and cuts in basic public services, given those financial realities, to say their timing is poor is likely the understatement of the century.”

If the Chargers want a new stadium (for God knows what reason), they’re going to need to big up a bigger portion of the tab. And in the era of salary-cap-ensure profitability, that’s not too much to ask.

As part of any deal — I hasten to add — if the city pony’s up even $1, the Chargers should be obligated to San Diego for another 25 years, at least.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged by . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply