Pro: Dean Spanos on why San Diego Chargers need new stadium

Con: How a Chargers stadium jeopardizes San Diego Comic-Con

Poll: Does mayor’s endorsement sway your vote on stadium plan?



By DEAN SPANOS


Thirty-two years ago, my family completed its purchase of the San Diego Chargers, and I remember my father explaining that a sports team is not a “conventional business.” He said it’s about helping bring people together and it would take a long time for us to realize what a great opportunity this could be for everyone.

Dec. 20, 2015: The Chargers played the Miami Dolphins. This was a game many thought would be our last in San Diego. I saw loyal fans and lifelong friends disheartened as they contemplated our uncertain future.

It was a difficult time. There did not appear to be a viable option in San Diego, but I knew in my heart that San Diego should be our home as my father and family have envisioned.


With that thought in mind, this past April, we embarked on a plan to secure San Diego as our home — without question — for future generations.

This plan calls for a citizens’ initiative to build a world-class, multi-use facility that will expand the convention center and create a new stadium for the Chargers and its fans. This will be a home for new shows, exhibitions, international soccer matches, collegiate basketball championships, extreme sports competitions, concerts, political conventions and so much more.

But this idea is not new. It originated when voters approved Petco Park and was brought to life in 2009 by then-Mayor Jerry Sanders. The vision was for a vibrant sports and entertainment district unique to San Diego.

Chargers Chairman Dean Spanos and San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce President shake hands after the business group endorses the team’s proposed downtown stadium ballot measure. (Roger Showley/U-T )


The site encompassed 14 acres in the southeast corner of downtown, bounded by 12th to 16th and Imperial to K: the remaining vestiges of blight in the old redevelopment area of center city and comprised mostly of a parking lot and bus maintenance yard.

It is that site upon which we propose to build a new asset for San Diego: with rooftop garden, community park and 385,000 square feet of convention space. It will be a spectacular site for football and America’s national holiday: the Super Bowl.

But this will be much more than a stadium. It will be a vibrant part of the neighborhood, energized at ground level by coffee shops, retail spaces, a museum and an incubator for startup businesses: all paid for without any reliance on the city general fund.

× See what a downtown Chargers convadium might look like.


The initiative — which received the signatures and support of over 110,000 San Diegans in record time — is known today as Measure C and will appear on your November ballot.

Simply put, the initiative does two things.

First, it creates a new visitor’s tax of four cents on the dollar per hotel stay to pay for the new combined convention center and stadium, and two more cents to fund Tourism and Marketing District regional promotions.

If you remember just one point, please remember this: if you are a resident of the city of San Diego, and you don’t ever stay in a hotel room in the city, you will not pay one cent for the development or operation of this facility.


Former Chargers running back LaDanian Tomlinson speaks to Chargers fans and supporters of a new stadium near NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, left, Chargers owner Dean Spanos and at right, Fred Maas, special advisor to Chargers’ Dean Spanos. (John Gastaldo )

Not one cent.

Only hotel guests will pay.

This is not a novel approach. It has been used successfully to build stadiums across the country: the Saints, Colts, Seahawks, Cardinals and others have used similar mechanisms.


But we don’t expect our visitors to shoulder this burden alone (although, I must confess that we take some pleasure knowing that Raiders, Broncos and Patriots fans will help pay for this).

Oakland Raiders fans cheer during an event with the team’s players on Nov. 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte) (The Associated Press )

The Chargers and the NFL will contribute $650 million in private investment to complete this new facility — one of the largest contributions ever made by the NFL and a team in a market like ours.

And we have included $350 million of hotel room tax for integrating the convention center into the stadium, which not coincidentally, is the same amount the city and county were proposing in general fund dollars pledged to the NFL last year.


The second feature of the measure is the vision for a new governing structure — or Joint Powers Authority — to oversee the design, construction, operation and maintenance of the facility, along with the creation of a dedicated funding mechanism to collect taxes from visitors to pay the bonds and other project costs.

Under our plan, no general fund dollars will be used to fund any part of the development project or its operation — and we never want to divert valuable city resources for police, fire, 911, libraries, streets or other important city services.

And if we’re successful, the initiative could relieve existing obligations at Qualcomm Stadium that stress those services and relieve the city of its current general fund subsidy of the existing convention center: together totaling at least $18 million per year.

The process of qualifying this proposal was arduous and complicated. That’s why the San Diego Chamber of Commerce took months analyzing its components and impacts before endorsing it.


I urge you to please go to our website — VoteYesonC.com — to read the initiative, and let us know your feedback.

Thank you for considering this measure, voting Yes on C, and for your loyal support of the Chargers over the past 55 years.

Spanos is chairman of the San Diego Chargers.

Fans hold up items to be signed by Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers after the rally. (John Gastaldo )






How a Chargers stadium jeopardizes San Diego Comic

By CHRIS CATE, APRIL BOLING and JULIE MEIER WRIGHT

With San Diego as its backdrop, Comic-Con continues to thrive. It has grown into an international event, a focal point for everything comic-related including Hollywood blockbusters. More than 135,000 people attended this year’s event, which brought us a regional economic impact of $136 million.

Thousands of complimentary tweets from Comic-Conners, including A-list celebrities, confirmed what many San Diegans know: Comic-Con is nothing short of gold for San Diego!

Why would we ever do anything that risks San Diego’s relationship with Comic-Con and the tens of millions of dollars it brings to our city every year?


The first people in line for the exhibit hall cheer as they come down the escalator during Comic-Con’s Preview Night at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego on Wednesday. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune )

Unfortunately, that is exactly what we would do if voters support Dean Spanos’ plan to raise our taxes by more than $1 billion to build a new NFL stadium and convention center annex.

Comic-Con has been very clear — it does not support an annex several blocks away from the Convention Center — but that is what Mr. Spanos is asking voters to approve this November. He attached the annex to his stadium plan to try and build support for the stadium, but the annex does not give Comic-Con and other large conventions what they want: an on-site expansion of the existing Convention Center.

Rendering of proposed expansion of San Diego Convention Center (/ Fentress Architects )


“We want to set the record straight that we do not support those other, noncontiguous plans even if proponents of those plans try to convince the public otherwise,” Comic-Con said in July. Other major conventions that also bring jobs and revenue to San Diego share this view.

The hotel tax revenue Comic-Con generates pays for street repairs, police officers and other services in every San Diego neighborhood.

That’s what the hotel tax does. It’s the third largest source of revenue for the city. It pays to repair streets, hire 911 dispatchers, fund after-school programs, and on and on. We have a responsibility to protect this valuable funding source. We should not do anything that jeopardizes this revenue stream and that includes raising it to pay for the lion’s share of a $1.8 billion stadium project.

× Sights and sounds Comic Con 2016 Day 1


Dean Spanos’ plan would cut San Diego’s tourism marketing budget in half while increasing our hotel tax by more than 50 percent to 16.5 percent, giving San Diego one of the highest hotel taxes in the country. Conventions operate on a budget and some would simply relocate to cities that don’t break their budgets. Tourism marketing — our investment in attracting conventions and tourists — should not be sacrificed to pay for a stadium that brings the city little to no economic benefit.

If we lose conventions, we all pay. Some of the 183,000 tourism jobs in San Diego would be lost, and city services would be cut. When tourism declines, so does revenue for city services.

San Diego Chargers special counsel Mark Fabiani, left, leads Chargers owner Dean Spanos and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell from a VIP tent behind the stage of the Chargers Citizen Initiative rally held in a parking lot behind Petco Park Saturday morning. (John Gastaldo )

The claim by Dean Spanos, Mark Fabiani and their surrogates — that the stadium tax is not a tax on San Diegans — is simply not true. All of us would pay.


A new independent analysis of the Chargers tax measure says the public’s cost would be at least $2.3 billion, more than double the $1.1 billion the Chargers estimated.

If the hotel tax increase fails to meet expectations, because of lost conventions or an economic downturn, the city would have to cut services to pay the stadium bonds. It also could raise taxes or default on the debt it would incur under the Spanos plan.

The Chargers’ preferred site for a new NFL stadium is just east of Petco Park. (K.C. Alfred )

There also is the very real threat of an immediate hit to the city’s general fund if voters approve the stadium tax because the initiative does not include covering the loss of more than 1,000 parking spaces at Tailgate Park that Padres fans utilize. The city’s lease with the Padres says the city would have one baseball season to replace the parking spaces if Tailgate Park is developed. This would likely require the building of a new parking structure near Petco Park, costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars that is not in the budget. That’s only one of a number of costly infrastructure issues that has not been addressed.


All of us want to see the Chargers remain in San Diego, but not at any cost.

If you want to help us protect Comic-Con, tourism, jobs and neighborhood services, please join our diverse and growing coalition at nodowntownstadium.com.

Cate represents San Diego’s 6th City Council District. Boling is former chair of the San Diego Convention Center Board. Meier Wright is the former president and CEO of the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation and former California Secretary of Trade & Commerce.

Bersain Gutierrez, dressed as Superman, poses in front of the convention center before Preview Night at Comic-Con International held at the San Diego Convention Center Wednesday July 20, 2016, in San Diego. (Denis Poroy/Invision/AP )