New stadium in LA

[Bolt-O]

Mission Valley Or Mission Impossible?
Jay Paris

The Citizens Stadium Advisory Group has spoken: Mission Valley is its site of preference.
And we kiss the Chargers good-bye.
Downtown was where it was at but San Diego’s powers-that-be didn’t quite get that.
We guess San Diego Mayor Doug Manchester and City Councilman Steve Cushman couldn’t be convinced to drop their resistance of a stadium/convention center project across from Petco Park.
My bad — Manchester isn’t the mayor, but he pulls the considerable strings of the hoteliers.
My bad II — Cushman isn’t a city council member, but he carries the convention center banner.
Instead they trumped the real mayor, Kevin Faulconer, and a city council which doesn’t have much pull.
Hey, Mission Valley is cool and we dig going there, too.
But how is the city, and maybe county, going to convince voters that a stadium there is more than a stadium.
I get it. You dress it up with entertainment development around it and man, it worked great for L.A. Live.
San Diego, though, has that already and it answers to the Gaslamp Quarter.
Mission Valley, right now, is a traffic-chocked corridor that is pain to any that travel it.
So plop more retail, more condos and a new stadium in it and the results is gridlock.
What Wednesday’s move does is break free the Chargers’ ties to San Diego. It gets the vans rolling and will the team’s preference be Bekins or Mayflower.
Don’t think so?
Mark Fabiani, the Chargers’ mouthpiece whom some suggest is paid by the spoken word, has no comment.
Oy Vey!
While the Chargers have been quiet on the free-agent front, maybe they just got closer to Carson.
That’s a city, not a player.
+ Contact Jay Paris at jparis@bcaradio.com.

[6025]

I used to hate Jay Paris but that was funny.

[Faded blues]

Paris can't suck it

Most football stadiums are built outside major urban areas.

Gotta beleive the good news is that county cAn do a bridge loan and sdsu can get involved.

It may not be sexy but it's doable and an arean downtown makes more sense for hockey bball

[Beerman]

Sorry, but this was stupid. They needed to make the stadium convention center in downtown work. They are as good as gone. Fucking idiots, the lot of them. The hoteliers are being short sighted. The convention center guy is pig headed and apparently content to not get anything done at all. Stupid on so many fronts.

[Foxbatkllr]

I think Mission Valley is the right choice. Downtown is way too political and was never going to work. Look at the hold ups the convention center expansion has suffered and that expansion is almost unanimous in approval by most people.

[SDFan]

Paris is almost as big a dick as that other hack that went to LA. Downtown was NEVER the right choice! Multiple attempts were shot down even before this last combined convention center/stadium half-cocked idea. It would have been nothing more than a trophy edifice for Spanos and the NFL on occasion. The team themselves focused on Mission Valley first, but they just had the wrong proposal and the political and economic conditions weren't right at that time. All the right players are involved now, including the county and the pieces are falling into place nicely. Spanos maintained all along he needed an upgraded house to compete and that is possible at Mission Valley, but a pipe dream downtown. Fuck the hoteliers and obstructionists and just build it now.

[UtahBolt]

Trouble is I think the only thing keeping Spanos in the SD sphere is if they chose to move forward with a downtown site. Now that the committee is going the other way, I am sure the front office have one foot out the door. MV does make more sense...but that does not matter if Spanos thinks less money is to be made there.

[Wheels]

The team has claimed to be agnostic about the site. Maybe that's a lie, but it seems like they would try to persuade the committee to choose one site over another if the other site was a deal breaker. I truly believe Dean wants the Chargers to stay in SD, and I also think so far nothing great has materialized for LA. Right now, not counting Kreonke's plans, SD seems closer to a stadium than LA.

[KNSD]

The last step in all of this is convincing the Chargers to settle for a stadium that is reasonable rather than the Taj Majal palace other teams have put up in recent years. The $1.2 to $1.8 billion number floated by the Chargers is the biggest show-stopper out there.

[Jules]

This is a job for David & Hillary.


Love it or list it?

I'd watch it.

[Wheels]

Agreed. Whenever they're discussing numbers on sports radio, nobody ever questions why it's so high.

[TTK]

Spanos will take whatever they can get here. Fabiani has said it many times and I think that's the one thing he's telling the truth about because Carson is a total bluff.