Stadium train moving down two tracks in Chula Vista
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Wednesday, Mar 19, 2008
By Mark Fabiani , Chargers.com
After receiving a 5-0 vote from the Chula Vista City Council -- and three long ovations from the public attending the February Council meeting -- the San Diego Chargers embarked upon a two-track plan to move forward the concept of a new stadium in Chula Vista.
The first track, according to Chargers Special Counsel Mark Fabiani, involves “conducting a comprehensive financial analysis of the two possible Chula Vista sites to determine whether it is possible to privately finance the $1.2 billion project.”
The two sites under consideration in Chula Vista are the 130-acre parcel along the Chula Vista bay front -- now home to a large power plant -- and an approximately 500-acre site on the city’s east side, near the existing Olympic Training Center. The financing study is being paid for entirely by the Chargers and managed by Patrick Gibbons of GCI Advisors, Inc.
The second track of the Chargers’ effort, says Fabiani, “will determine whether it is likely that the State of California will announce at some point in the foreseeable future a firm shutdown date for the bay front power plant.”
Without such a concrete shut down date, which can only be provided by State power regulators, the bay front site is not likely to be viable for any other use, including for use as a stadium site.
The Chargers have now been working on a new stadium plan for more than six years, and according to published reports, team President Dean Spanos has spent more than $10 million on the task.
The Chargers’ fundamental plan has remained consistent over the years: Find a way to privately finance the entire stadium project by adding substantial investments by the Chargers, the Spanos family, and the NFL to the profits that would be generated by a development project related to the stadium.
“The team’s original proposal to redevelop the existing Qualcomm site is unfortunately no longer viable,” said Fabiani. “The Qualcomm Stadium site was initially thwarted back in 2005 by the economic and political crisis in the City of San Diego and the poisonous opposition of City Attorney Mike Aguirre.
“Now, in addition to all of the problems in the City of San Diego, the dramatically escalating cost of construction has resulted in a doubling of the amount of money necessary to complete a stadium project. And it is simply not possible to generate that much additional revenue from the small 60-acre parcel that the Chargers were considering at Qualcomm.”
Over the last six years the Chargers have also engaged in formal discussions about potential stadium sites in National City and Oceanside, as well as in informal discussions with many private developers and other smaller cities around San Diego County.
“We’ve examined every possible option,” concluded Fabiani, “and we are now down to our last two potential sites, the ones in Chula Vista. We are working as hard as we can to make one of those sites work for the public and for the Chargers.”
Mike Nowak, Chargers.com
Special Counsel Mark Fabiani recently said the Chargers are continuing to work feverishly on a new stadium for the region and “are now down to our last two potential sites, the ones in Chula Vista.”
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