SDStadium.org Blog

Mayor Discusses Stadium Trip, Vision for San Diego Entertainment District
By Jason Riggs

Yesterday, Mayor Sanders spoke at the Riford Club in La Jolla to a crowd of about 100 people in a small gathering that was open to the public.

Sanders began the discussion on the effort to build a new stadium in Downtown San Diego by recapping the history and timeline behind Petco Park’s development.

“We spent about $192M in public funds on [Petco]” said Sanders. “Every dollar that was put into that has been leveraged by seven dollars in private investment. So that’s where you see all of the new hotels downtown, all of the new condos, all of the returning sales tax, all of the returning property tax, all of the tourism and transient occupancy tax… that was a great investment.

Baseball though, has 81 home games a year and that really energizes the entire area. Pro Football only has 10 [home] games a year. The Aztecs probably have five or six home games a year. There are two bowl games. So, it’s not a great investment if you do that by itself. It’s a pretty expensive proposition.”

However, he went on to point out how Qualcomm stadium is also an expensive proposition for taxpayers. “Right now, Qualcomm stadium costs the city between $10M and $12M each year just to keep it open.” Adding, “It’s a 42 year-old facility and it’s falling apart.”

Sanders also discussed how he saw tremendous economic prosperity among the cities he visited last week, derived largely through their stadium/entertainment district redevelopment projects.

So, the solution appears to involve liquidating or somehow utilizing the Qualcomm property while redeveloping a blighted section of Downtown.

According to Sanders, “We have to find a way to make it a venue on the East end of Downtown…. a lot of people won’t walk there now during the day and nobody walks there at night. We think it makes all of the sense in the world to have an entertainment center between the Convention Center bridge, to Petco and over the Stadium so that we activate that every single night.”

Finally, the Mayor noted that he is looking at this as a pure business decision and in fact he “hasn’t been to a Charger game in at least 15 years.” He also said that this will be a County issue and will require cooperation from people and groups well beyond the City of San Diego.

In terms of timing, he said that his team is working on a timeline for a 2012 ballot initiative and details would be forthcoming.

San Diego Mayor Gets Serious About a Stadium
by Jason Riggs

Last week, Mayor Jerry Sanders embarked on a three-city stadium tour in Kansas City, Denver and Indianapolis to see how public/private partnerships are structured in other parts of the country for infrastructure-related projects. The trip marks a significant milestone in the City’s effort to build a stadium in San Diego by providing a clear signal that the Mayor and the City intend to get down to the serious detail-work of creating a plan for pushing this effort forward.

For years, Mayor Sanders was reluctant to get involved in this effort for fear of the potential negative impact on other options that have been explored in other San Diego regional cities over the past decade. Now, with the Chargers entering their tenth year of entertaining various stadium efforts throughout San Diego County while another stadium effort is at least getting traction 120 miles to the north, it’s time for action. The Mayor knows that the final saga in the County’s effort to construct a stadium here will unfold over the next 12 – 18 months. .

The Chargers and the City will likely work to present a public initiative to voters in 2012 that will outline the details of a Convention Center Expansion/Stadium dual project. As unlikely as such a marriage might sound to some of the critics and naysayers, it’s an excellent idea for a number of reasons.

There are still many questions surrounding the Convection Center expansion funding. A significant delta exists between the needed funds and proposed revenue sources as pointed out by this Voice of San Diego Article.

Additionally, a Stadium, Sports District and an expanded Convention Center would attract many more revenue sources including restaurants, housing and retail development than the Convention Center expansion alone. .

What still remains to be seen is how a stadium or any other downtown project will move forward with all of the flux surrounding State redevelopment funds and agencies. So, many will reserve judgment until a plan is presented to the public detailing how various funding mechanisms will be derived. .

However, if the City, the Chargers, Developers and the Taxpayers can arrive at the right agreement, we could have a new multi-purpose year-round facility that would generate billions of dollars in redevelopment and tax revenue for a relatively small investment of public funds. It could be a significant windfall for the San Diego regional economy..

We should all applaud the Mayor for taking the time to study similar models and conduct the in-person due diligence necessary to make such a critical decision for a multi-million dollar investment. It’s a refreshing development and with a little forward thinking, the rest of San Diego will see what Mayor Sanders saw when a stadium financing plan is presented to the public in the coming months.

The proposed downtown Chargers stadium, debated endlessly by fans and critics, hasn't been formally proposed, much less financed.

But that hasn't kept two Australian architects, specialists in hotel, office and residential projects, from independently coming up with their own idea that's just going public.

"We feel we have an idea that will inspire San Diego to embrace a stadium downtown," said Paul De Bartolo, 33...

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