Fifty Shades Of Grey: Chargers Stadium Edition

What's really going on behind closed doors?

NBC 7’s Derek Togerson takes a look at the frustrating search for a new NFL stadium in San Diego in this commentary

A lot of people ask me, and anyone else in the local media, about the Chargers and their stadium situation. What’s going on? Are they staying or going? I feel bad because I honestly don’t know. Nobody knows, not even the people involved.

It’s like Joe Pesci’s character from “JFK” said when he was trying to explain the assassination plot to Kevin Costner and his team:

“It’s a mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma. The shooters don’t even know. Don’t you get it!?!?”

What’s going on between the local government and the Chargers is like a real-life version of that song “Dueling Banjos” (there are going to be a lot of popular culture references in this, so please bear with me) except now we’re wondering if anyone is going to be able to deliver us a stadium or not.

The CSAG comes out with a really enthusiastic stadium plan … The Chargers say thanks but no thanks, it’ll never work.

San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer comes out and says a negotiating meeting went really well … Chargers Special Counsel Mark Fabiani comes out and says there will be nothing on a ballot in 2015.

We don’t know where the truth lies. Things can’t be as rosy as the politicians are saying they are. But, they also can’t be as gloomy as the Bolts are implying. So the question we’re left with is; who’s sharing information that is closest to reality? That is an awfully large gray area. Perhaps even 50 shades-worth of gray and it’s no coincidence that this whole situation has been one big tease after another.

The late, great comedian George Carlin had a bit about state license plates. Of the many that caught his eye were New Hampshire’s “Live Free Or Die,” and Idaho’s “Famous Potatoes.” The comedy master boiled them down thusly:

“I guess those are the two extremes in thought. It would seem to me that somewhere in between Live Free Or Die and Famous Potatoes … the truth lies.”

Like Carlin, I’d like to think it’s probably a little closer to “Famous Potatoes,” which in this case would be the gentler outlook of the local politicos. To know, or even pretend to know, what’s actually going on behind the closed doors in these meetings is impossible. They could be diligently working their way towards a stadium deal that is viable for everyone involved. They could be binge-watching Daredevil on Netflix. Who really knows?

Sure, we can speculate all day. We can read in to statements and body language and tone and timing but we will never know the true motivation for most of what is going on. One side is not right and one side is not wrong. Neither side is being completely forthcoming with information, or even interpretations of information, and leaves us on the outside living in the gray.

Sometimes that can be exhilarating. Other times it can be nauseating. Somewhere in the middle of those extremes, the Chargers stadium situation lies.

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