Mixed Feelings Shadow Chargers Stadium Project Process

The afterglow of seeing a memorable Super Bowl here on NBC last night might have inspired many local viewers to daydream about San Diego hosting another one – and maybe more -- someday.

But such thoughts may well be pipedreams because a new stadium for the Chargers is an NFL prerequisite.

Early indications are there's no real consensus about getting a stadium built with public money, property or tax incentives – and there may be more of a sense that there's no urgency to it.

Is that asking for bluffs to be called? Can Mayor Faulconer’s nine-member Citizens Stadium Advisory Group flip the dynamic of that script?

"I'm fairly optimistic because this time, they seem to have put together a panel of knowledgeable people -- across the board knowledgeable,” said Rancho Santa Fe resident Lindy Bowman. “It seems like a group that could work together."

But skeptics said it's too NFL-centric, too "business establishment" and too politically conservative.

And they object to it not being required to meet in public, according to a legal analysis by City Attorney Jan Goldsmith.

Others are accusing the mayor of walking back his promise of openness and transparency.

On Monday, Councilmembers David Alvarez and Todd Gloria called on Faulconer to have his advisers allow public participation and regular accountability in the process of their meetings, research and deliberations on the framework for a potential 2016 ballot measure.

"This is the kind of deal that really needs to be vetted, especially since economists agree generally that there's no way the city will make any money off of this,” said Liam Dillon, who covers local government and civic issues for The Voice of San Diego. “So this is a money-losing proposition that's being cooked up in a back room. That's not really a good way to try to pass a ballot measure."

It’s widely believed that such a measure probably would have a much better chance of passing with a simple majority if the project doesn't involve taxpayer subsidies that would raise the voter approval bar to 66.7 percent, and if it’s located on the current Mission Valley site of Qualcomm Stadium, which the NFL and many other interests see as a dinosaur on the edge of structural extinction.

"We may be out of the recession, but there's a lot of people hurting,” downtown resident Frank Noble told NBC 7 in an interview Monday. “And I don't think anybody wants to pay additional taxes for a stadium that's used 16 to 20 times a year."

The Chargers argue that their proposed hybrid stadium-convention facility in East Village would be filled with events as big as NCAA Final Four basketball championships, national political conventions and you-name-it.

But the team's competing for financial leverage with a convention center expansion push across Harbor Drive.

There’s no shortage of mixed feelings about the project.

Said Encinitas resident Reed Wirick: "Given that the games get blacked out a decent amount, it's hard to make a case of broad public support of that kind of expenditure. That being said, the baseball stadium's obviously done a good deal to revitalize the downtown."

There’s little doubt that the Chargers' envisioned stadium-convention complex would provide more "synergism" throughout East Village, the Gaslamp Quarter and downtown as a whole.

Beyond that are considerations such as civic pride, being a “major league city” and the spectator draw of athletic entertainment to 'monetize' on various levels.

Those elements count for something with a lot of folks.

“I’ve seen some numbers that said people aren't in favor of bringing the stadium downtown as opposed to leaving it in Mission Valley,” said Imperial Beach resident Sherry Thompson-Taylor. “I saw the NFL say it's one of the oldest stadiums in the country. So I'd like to see us have a premier place for the players to play."

Still, the team’s large contingent of transplants and loyalists to other NFL franchises among its fan base is a vexing problem in and of itself.

When the Bolts are winning, the bandwagon's crowded.

When they're not, fans can be fickle and fair-weather -- especially taxpayers and voters in the city of San Diego, where roads are crumbling and water mains are bursting.

The mayor's stadium group will hold its first meeting late Friday afternoon, and informed observers expect that an executive with the Sycuan tribe and ties to the state university system will wind up chairing it.

Dillon thinks its lack of organized labor representation figures to be a drawback in the long run: “You’d think you’d want to get them on board as early as you can, and right now they’re in the dark – just like the public and the city council and everybody else except for the folks who are in that smoke-filled room.”

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