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It Will Take More Than Just a ‘Team’ Effort for New Stadium

With a newly elected city mayor in place, the San Diego Chargers are preparing the next in what is now a long series of proposals to build a new stadium.

The team by year-end aims to submit a proposal that could combine elements of earlier plans, which entailed selling or leasing city-owned property to private developers, then using the proceeds to finance a stadium. Voters would have the final say, likely through a November 2016 ballot issue.

“We are only at the very earliest stages of discussions with the staff of San Diego’s new mayor, so it is premature to set forth any specific timelines,” Chargers special counsel Mark Fabiani said in an email. “The next regularly scheduled general election ballot that we might be able to qualify for is November 2016, so that would be the natural date to aim for.”

City officials also emphasized that talks are in progress and that nothing has been decided regarding a next step.

“Discussions with the Chargers are ongoing,” said Craig Gustafson, press secretary and media relations director for Mayor Kevin Faulconer. “We look forward to seeing a formal proposal. Any deal would have to, as the mayor has said, protect San Diego taxpayers.”

Site for New Stadium Still a Hurdle

The cost for a new stadium has been estimated at about $1 billion, with the Chargers expected to contribute $400 million, including $200 million in the form of a loan from the National Football League.

To fund the city’s portion of the tab, Fabiani said current talks are exploring the use of revenue derived from commercial development of the city-owned Qualcomm Stadium site in Mission Valley, as well as the city-owned sports arena site in Point Loma. Also on the table is a city-owned building in East Village that formerly housed a Wonder Bread baking facility near Tailgate Park, as well as a nearby Metropolitan Transit System bus yard. Fabiani said the general idea is to assemble such publicly owned properties and bring in private developers to build projects that would generate enough revenue to finance about 65 percent of cost for a new stadium.

The types of commercial or residential projects that would go on those properties have not been decided. Nevertheless, officials have said development of the Qualcomm Stadium and bus yard sites would both require extensive environmental cleanups.

The exact site for a new stadium has also not been finalized, although Chargers and city officials have said they prefer that the venue be built downtown. The Chargers in 2011 released design concepts calling for placement of the stadium on an 11-acre site in East Village, most of which is occupied by the MTS bus yard.

The state’s elimination of community redevelopment agencies in 2012 scuttled plans to seek voter approval to use redevelopment money, possibly combined with bond financing, to build a stadium on the bus yard site, at a cost estimated at that time of $800 million.

Team Spent Millions Seeking Solution

Chargers officials said the team has spent about $15 million so far on various designs and feasibility studies related to proposed stadium scenarios.

Fabiani noted that the Chargers in 2005 submitted “an extensive plan” to redevelop the Qualcomm site, which was rejected by the city. Three developers submitted proposals in 2006 to redevelop the sports arena site, which were also rejected.

The Chargers have since funded feasibility studies related to the former power plant site in Chula Vista, as well as the Oceanside municipal golf course site. Those locations are currently not in play.

Most recently, the city and California Coastal Commission rejected a plan by the Chargers and investment firm Colony Capital LLC for a mixed-use facility in East Village that would have combined a stadium with an events center and convention space. City and state officials instead backed existing plans for a $520 million expansion of San Diego Convention Center.

The Chargers have said publicly that they want to remain in San Diego, but the debate over how to keep them here now goes back more than a decade.

In 2003, a Citizens’ Task Force organized by then-mayor Dick Murphy recommended the city and Chargers focus on negotiating an agreement leasing the 166-acre Qualcomm Stadium site to the Chargers.

The task force proposed that the Chargers pay 100 percent of the costs of building a new stadium, and that the lease would require the Chargers to build a riverfront park and an “active recreation park,” as set forth in the Mission Valley Community Plan. The Chargers, the task force said, could seek additional entitlements to develop portions of the site for commercial and/or housing uses, and that any tax revenue generated from new development could be used to pay for infrastructure, parks and bond debt.

The city this year is embarking on an update of the community plan for Mission Valley, which is expected to take considerable time because of ongoing issues involving traffic congestion and related environmental concerns among residents.

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