Solving the Stadium Situation
The work is complete, up next is the presentation, then the toughest part, hammering out a deal for the new NFL Stadium for the Chargers, the Aztecs, the Bowl Games, and many other things.
The Mayor’s Stadium Task Force is about to turn over a 105-page proposal to the Mayor. He in turn will meet with his negotiating committe from Peabody for a review. They will then present the concepts, the package and ideas on a lease to Dean Spanos, the Chargers owner.
Sources say the package is worth $850M, and it is destined strictly for the Stadium. The ideas floated about the Q-Village and the state-funded River Walk, will come at a later date, with different financing proposals.
The Task force told me ‘this is a helluva deal for the city and the Chargers’. They say the financing is ‘locked in’. And more importantly, their framework will not necessitate any type of a public vote. Not a two-thirds votre, not even a 50% plus one vote.
They won’t say where the money is coming from, won’t say details of the County loan are part of the package, won’t say what role Citi Group, brought on as financers, hopes to play.
What sources will say is that they met in 120-different meetings in a 3-month span. What they will say is they have overcome the past public apathy, that this could never get done, because of Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s belief the project was doable.
There is a feeling however, they wish the Chargers had supported the CSAG group’s work. The 9-member committee was not paid, gave up months of their own life and work projects, to do this on behalf of the city.
I ask the question, is anyone out there, aside from me, offended, that Dean Spanos would spend millions of dollars on the Carson project, but did not even have the decency to donate money for the task force for operating expenses, considering they were doing this Stadium drive on behalf of his franchise.
I would hope somewhere here down road, Dean Spanos will say thank you to that group for what they committed to. Especially since they overcame all the historical political problems, the sniping of mouthpiece Mark Fabiani, and arrogance of an NFL owner, who says one thing (stay in town) but does something else (work for a payday in LA).
So we sit and wait to see the specifics. Hoping for the best, a new Stadium for American’s Finest City, hoping we don’t have to deal with the worst, the owner moving in the middle of the night to LA, beca
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