Deadline passes to put San Diego stadium-financing measure on January ballot
San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer speaks about the city’s efforts to build a new stadium for the Chargers during a Jan. 30 news conference.
The deadline set by the city of San Diego for preparing a Chargers stadium-financing measure for a January ballot passed Friday without cooperation from the team.
Mayor Kevin Faulconer said that the idea of such a January special election is now dead. The next possible time for a stadium measure would be the regularly scheduled elections in June or November, he said.
“City and county leadership remain ready to negotiate a fair stadium agreement,†Faulconer said.
That the deadline passed without the Chargers returning to the bargaining table is not surprising.
The team’s representatives broke off negotiations in June, asserting that the city’s hurry-up environmental impact report for a stadium in Mission Valley was fatally flawed and would never withstand a legal challenge.
The city’s environmental impact report “is not like fine wine, which gets better with age,†team spokesman Mark Fabiani said Friday. “It’s more like spoiled milk, which just looks and smells worse the more time you spend with it.â€
Faulconer and other officials have proposed a $1.1-billion stadium on the city-owned site where aging Qualcomm Stadium, where the Chargers will open the 2015 season Sunday against the Detroit Lions, is located. But without the Chargers agreement about how much money the team is willing to contribute, a ballot measure is seen as folly.
The Chargers and the Oakland Raiders are planning a stadium for joint use in Carson. But the barons of the NFL have yet to approve either team’s desire to relocate.
St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke has shown interest in Inglewood. But that idea also has not been approved.
Faulconer and other stadium boosters hope the NFL, in effect, orders the Chargers ownership to negotiate with the city and county leadership. A contingent may attend an NFL meeting in coming weeks.
“We will continue to work directly with the NFL ahead of the upcoming ownership meetings to show them that San Diego has all the ingredients necessary for a fair deal for taxpayers, the team and the league,†he said.
Fabiani said officials are trying to distort the facts.
“The allegation that we didn’t negotiate is made by politicians looking to cover their own backsides,†he said. “The Chargers have been working for 14 years to find a solution in San Diego. These politicians have been working on this issue for eight months.â€
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