There was a diplomatic truce Tuesday in the bitter ballot battle over the Chargers' downtown stadium initiative.
A city council member under fire for his opposition to the team’s field of dreams met with leaders of the team's fan groups.
The two sides still don't, and won't, see eye-to eye.
But Chris Cate and the Bolts-backers heard each other out in a civil, hour-long meeting -- and agreed to circle back when the votes are in on the Chargers' Measure C eleven weeks from Tuesday, to see if there's common ground going forward.
“You know, we really pushed Chris Cate to be ready for alternatives, to offer solutions that haven't really been there before,” said “Save our Bolts” organizer David Agranoff. “So November 9th when the dust settles, we just hope Chris can come back to the table."
The summit took place at a Mira Mesa restaurant.
NBC 7 wasn’t invited to sit in and record it, and afterwards Cate declined an on-camera interview, saying off-camera only that the meeting was “productive”.
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He's been bombarded with complaints from Chargers fans who the team urged to call him at city hall and ask why he's against their $1.8 billion stadium/convention venue project in East Village.
Cate says the city's $1.15 billion dollar portion figures to be under-funded by hotel room tax increases, leaving the shortfalls to be backfilled by money that otherwise would go to public safety and services.
That's also the view of the Taxpayers Association, "No on Downtown Stadium" coalition and local tourism industry.
“He said he would meet with the Chargers -- but he also said that ship has sailed at this point, and the time for negotiation is going to have to wait until after the election,” said Jason Riggs, chairman of the San Diego Stadium Coalition. “So our ultimate goal is to get this thing passed in November, and then maybe all these guys will sit down and negotiate in good faith."
But for now, they're talking past each other -- trading campaign snark, rolling out different sets of numbers and assumptions.
On Wednesday, the Bolts will show how they came up with theirs.
And, it might figure, the opposition will quickly go into knockdown mode.
