Escondido Mayor Lori Holt Pfeiler's November lobbying junket to the Chargers-Broncos game has been hailed as a success by Pfeiler and the Palomar Medical Center officials who decided to send her, but other members of the City Council have criticized the trip.
Pfeiler said this week that she made headway on both fronts while watching the Nov. 22 game from a luxury box with Susie Spanos, wife of team President Dean Spanos, and while having dinner on Nov. 21 with other members of the Spanos family, which owns the team.
"It went great, and I think there was an excellent rapport," Pfeiler, who flew to Denver on one of the Chargers' chartered jets, told the North County Times.
Some city leaders criticized the trip. Read more in the full article.
San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders and County Supervisors Dianne Jacob and Ron Roberts met earlier this month to discuss a possible plan to build a new stadium downtown. They met for an hour and said in a statement said this was the first of many meetings to to come.
Escondido had been lobbying the team to consider the area southeast of where Interstate 15 intersects with Highway 78. In early November, five North County cities agreed to work together to help Escondido biuld a new stadium to keep the team in San Diego County. Then, Escondido Mayor Lori Holt Pfeiler said she would hold off while San Diego discussed options with the team.
The Chargers have been looking for a new site for their stadium for years.
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In October, Mayor Jerry Sanders and Chargers President Dean Spanos met privately for the first time since the two sides began talks at the beginning of the year.
Right now, the old Wonder Bread factory in the 100 block of 14th Street in the East Village is a possible spot for relocation. Redeveloping the Qualcomm stadium site was scrapped in June. Then, again in August when the Chargers sent a letter to a developer saying they really meant no.
Here's another reason San Diego may be revisiting the idea of a downtown stadium. Voters in the City of Industry approved selling $500 million in bonds that includes money for a planned $800-million NFL stadium. While the Minnesota Vikings, Oakland Raiders, Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars all have been linked to Los Angeles -- a market that the NFL wants to reclaim -- the Chargers could also be a viable candidate should their local stadium search turn sour.
