On the eve of a major Monday meeting for City Council, explosive allegation are surfacing from Soccer City supporters. They believe San Diego State University's lead negotiator Jack McGrory possibly squashed a deal between them and the university.
"The current spokesperson actually has an apparent conflict of interest," said Soccer City supporter Nick Stone.
He's part of FS Investors, the group backing the Soccer City plan.
"It's a pretty real conflict of interest in working with the only other plan that's been presented to date," Stone said.
McGrory is a part of MJ Management. He is a former faculty member at SDSU. He's also a member of the school's fundraising arm.
"Right now the university is clearly not on board with our plan and you can't help but wonder why. This conflict of interest appears to be so relevant," said Stone.
McGrory is listed on a March letter from Papa Doug Manchester of Manchester Financial Group. It's a letter outlining plans for a NFL stadium project in what is now Qualcomm.
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"What needs to be cleared up is at no point have I had a business relationship with Papa Doug Manchester," McGrory announced Sunday afternoon.
"They are engaging in politics that I really haven't seen before in San Diego," said McGrory. "This is about as low as you can go."
He said the SDSU pulled out simply because the plan didn't work for them.
"The losers on this will be the taxpayer," said Stone. "The university is calling for continued $12 million in funding subsidies for that stadium."
McGrory countered, "The more people study it, the more they realize this is a complete land grab and they're going to try to trample anyone who gets in their way because they've got a great deal."
Support from SDSU would be big for the Soccer City initiative, but ultimately this comes down to City Council and whether it has the votes to overrule the mayor's budget for this special election. Also at play is Monday's discussion on whether to add convention center expansion on that ballot. Soccer City Supporters see that as a good barometer for the Soccer City vote on June 19.
