With just days left before the election, San Diego Chargers owner and chairman Dean Spanos spoke to NBC 7 about the Measure C initiative.
“This has been our focus for the last eight or nine months. We put a lot into it. There’s a lot of public support out there from a lot of different people and we want to see this through,” Spanos said.
The “Vote Yes on C” campaign has ramped up as Election Day approaches. The measure needs a two-thirds majority vote in order to pass, but if they don’t reach that number Spanos says the results will be reliant upon the local support.
“I want to see the outcome. I want to see what the voter support is. That’s important to me. If we get 30-35% support, that says one thing. If we get 55-60%, that says something entirely different,” said Spanos of the likelyhood of a majority vote.
There has been contention between the "Vote Yes on C" group and those who oppose the measure, but Spanos has said, on several occasions, that he thinks their concerns are "misguided."
”I think at the end of the day that their arguments are bogus. They don’t make any sense. They keep saying that money is going to come from the general fund; that the general fund is at risk. That is absolutely not true,” he added.
The “Vote Yes on C” commercials highlight the allure of conventions and sporting events coming the City of San Diego if a new stadium is built.
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Fred Maas, the Chargers special advisor joined Spanos during our interview and said the lines of communication are open with several entities.
“We’ve recently heard from Live Nation, for example, who says there are concerts that could come that are being lost out in San Diego," Mass said. "Obviously, the commissioner of the NFL has been here and said this is the perfect place for a super bowl.”
Maas says nothing is set is stone with any organization but claims the response has been positive. Still, those who oppose measure C, like Councilmember Chris Cate, are not convinced the city and tax payers will be protected enough to reap the benefits.
“This is a risky proposition. Tax payers are going to on the hook for almost $2 billion in debt once we issue the bonds for construction of the project,” Cate said. “At the end of the day I think there should be a better deal in place that should be benefiting the tax payers and the team as a whole.”
Spanos and Cate are obviously on opposite ends of the spectrum. When asked if he would be encouraged to work out a revised version of the measure if the vote gets the aforementioned 55% or greater, Spanos quickly said he was open to a dialogue with the City Council.
“That’s surely an option, obviously. If that’s our worst case, which maybe it might be, that would not be bad," he said.
Cate was also open to sitting down with Spanos and working things out.
“The measure was written in a way that is not beneficial or protective to the tax payers, and that’s what we were concerned about. There needs to be a coming together of both sides to draft an initiative that will close all these loop holes that are within the measure," he told NBC 7.
One thing both sides did agree on was that the Chargers should stay in San Diego; the method however, is still up for discussion and a crucial vote.
