NBC 7's Gene Cubbison has this analysis on the Chargers stadium dilemma:
It's now official — the San Diego City Council really, really wants the Chargers to stay.
But with the Los Angeles market eager for an NFL team, time to keep the Bolts local may be running out.
On Thursday came a formal city council resolution of undying commitment to working toward a stadium solution with the Chargers.
But there was no mention in all the phrases beginning “whereas” and the “be it resolved” of how much and under what conditions they're ready to commit.
In this high-stakes scrimmage, will Mayor Kevin Faulconer's "read-and-react" game plan sway a team that's being lured toward Los Angeles?
"You can't do that on this issue — you're going to have to, at some point, stand behind an idea of what you want to happen,” said Voice of San Diego editor Scott Lewis.
“Even if that idea is 'Sayonara, have fun in L.A.' or the idea is 'Let's build a stadium in downtown or Mission Valley, and let's get this thing done.' I think he's just trying to have it both ways, and now he's paying from both sides."
And, as hard questions linger in San Diego about who pays what for a new stadium, those questions already are pretty much answered about the project St. Louis Rams Stan Kroenke and his investment partners are planning in Inglewood.
The city council approved the venture in a multibillion-dollar renewal effort called "City of Champions Revitalization Initiative.”
Meantime, downtown San Diego’s East Village target site carries a 5-to-7 year timeline to get rid of the Metro Transit System bus yard, according to an MTS memorandum.
That would appear to leave Mission Valley’s Qualcomm Stadium site as the faster track to redevelop — assuming a laundry list of issues can be resolved.
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"I think what the Chargers have made clear in the past number of weeks is that they're fed up,” Councilman Todd Gloria said in an interview Tuesday. “I think fans are fed up and they're getting incredibly nervous and expecting some leadership."
At City Hall, following a pep talk by Faulconer, the Council voted 8-0 (with one absentee) on a resolution proclaiming the Chargers "a source of civic pride and inspiration", and declaring the city "fully committed" to keeping them.
Die-hard Bolts fans who attended the Council session can't imagine what the city would be like without the team.
"It would be like, even a death in the family — you really don't get over with it, but you learn to live with it,” Serra Mesa resident Butch Dye, sporting a Bolts #32 (Eric Weddle) jersey, told NBC 7. “I think that's what could happen. But it won’t happen because the Chargers are gonna stay."
Said Lemon Grove resident Don Holdren: “To me, with all the friends and fan base I know, we’ll no longer be Charger fans. It’s a terrible thing, but us sharing a stadium with the Raiders is like sleeping with the enemy. And I don’t see it happening.”
