With the Chargers gone, San Diego State University tried a new play Tuesday to keep its football program in Mission Valley.

Campus officials told Mayor Kevin Faulconer at a noontime meeting that they want to buy or lease 47 acres of Qualcomm Stadium property for both stadium and academic purposes.

The campus had been quietly sharing the concept privately for months but went public with the details for first time this week.

Athletic Director John David Wicker estimated that the campus could build its own football stadium, costing up to $150 million, within three years.


“We’re comfortable that we can go out and build that stadium and finance it,” he said.

On the broader land needs of the campus, Wicker said, “We want to make sure we sit down with a partner that is interested in what’s best for San Diego State but what’s best for the community as well. Let’s make sure we take this piece of property that we get one chance to develop and let’s develop it correctly.”

The move was in response to the billion-dollar SoccerCity ballot initiative now circulating among city voters.

In a two-page position paper, the university laid out a seven-point plan to get an Aztec football stadium and room for campus — an approach that is “imperative to the future success of SDSU and San Diego.” The proposal covers 230 acres in and around the Qualcomm property.


“Mayor Faulconer appreciated meeting with San Diego State University to hear their thoughts on Mission Valley,” said mayoral spokeswoman Jen Lebron. “As a proud Aztec (alumnus), the mayor plans to keep an open dialogue with SDSU as well as meet with other stakeholders as he continues to review the initiative.”

The Manchester Financial plan calls for rehabbing Qualcomm Stadium and adding housing and commercial development park space that spills out from the reopened east side of the stadium. (HKS)

The paper does not address the financing of a new stadium but indicates that SDSU would move forward on its own if necessary.

“The Mission Valley site is so much more than a multiuse stadium,” the university said. “It is a 230-acre opportunity for America’s Finest City to reimagine the heart of the city as the economic engine that powers its future.”


The plan envisions:

Aztec stadium: 12 acres purchased or leased from the city for a stadium of 35,000 seats with rights to expand to 40,000. There is no mention of sharing the facility with Major League Soccer or any noncollegiate user.

12 acres purchased or leased from the city for a stadium of 35,000 seats with rights to expand to 40,000. There is no mention of sharing the facility with Major League Soccer or any noncollegiate user. Campus expansion: 35 acres purchased or leased from the city “for future university expansion.”

35 acres purchased or leased from the city “for future university expansion.” Parking: 10,800 spaces, based on the 40,000-seat size that would be ready at the time of the stadium’s opening with half adjacent to the stadium, 25 percent within a two-block radius and the remainder throughout the project.

10,800 spaces, based on the 40,000-seat size that would be ready at the time of the stadium’s opening with half adjacent to the stadium, 25 percent within a two-block radius and the remainder throughout the project. Stadium control: SDSU or the “appropriate collegiate event host” would control all rights to “other collegiate sporting events.”

SDSU or the “appropriate collegiate event host” would control all rights to “other collegiate sporting events.” Developer: The university said it does not intend to be the sole owner or lessee of the site. “Any partner must agree to move forward with design and construction of a multiuse stadium within 90 days of land transfer” and it fails to do so, SDSU can proceed with design and construction on its own.

Wicker characterized the position paper as a “needs” list and did not differ from discussions the university has had over the previous year with FS Investors and others about Mission Valley.

“Now it’s incumbent upon the mayor and other people to figure out how to get what San Diego State sees as its needs in Mission Valley,” he said. “I don’t know what different paths forward there might be, whether it’s related to current initiative, whether it’s related to other partners we have talked to, or whether it’s San Diego State being able to do this on its own.”

The university does not specify how it would use the non-stadium property, only that it has 238 acres at its location on Montezuma Mesa, about 10 percent of UC San Diego’s 2,140 acres on Torrey Pines Mesa.


“Land to grow in Mission Valley is necessary to expand research, tech transfer, collaboration space and other future needs, so SDSU can continue to ascend toward our goal of becoming a top-50 public research institution,” the campus said.

Former City Manager Jack McGrory, who sits on the board of SDSU’s Campanile Foundation fund-raising arm and attended the meeting along with Wicker and Megan Collins, President Elliott Hirshman’s chief of staff, said the university’s general ideas encompass student and faculty housing and lab and science space. He said the campus anticipates growing from its 35,000 enrollment to as much as 50,000 over the next 30 years.

“We’re leaving it up to the mayor’s leadership on this,” McGrory said. “We’re not in discussions or negotations with FS. “We’re responding to a request from the mayor as to what the SDSU position is on the redevelopment of Qualcomm and this is what we expect to see in a redevelopment.”

However, McGrory said SDSU’s wishlist could be accommodated within the SoccerCity plan, which its sponsors have said is flexible enough to modify as market conditions dictate — as long as the total development limits are not exceeded.


“It’s pretty clear what we need and it’s up to the city and FS to figure it out,” McGrory said.

The proposal is the third this year to propose a reuse of Qualcomm since the Chargers relocated to Los Angeles.

La Jolla-based FS Investors is circulating a voter petition to lease the property for 99 years and buy 79.9 acres at fair market value. The proposal, prepared last year, unveiled in January and backed by more than 3,000 pages of legal language, specific plan details and environmental and traffic analysis, calls for a stadium of 18,000 to 32,000-seats, expandable to 40,000, to host a new MLS team and SDSU football; 4,800 housing units, including 800 aimed at students and 480 for low- and moderate-income households; 3.1 million square feet of commercial space, two hotels with a total of 450 rooms; and 55 acres of park land, including 34 acres for the long-planned San Diego River Park; and 16,400 parking spaces.

Qualcomm Stadium would be demolished and 16 acres set aside immediately west for an NFL franchise to buy within five years and build a new football stadium. SDSU is asked to contribute $100 million toward a $200 million, 22,000-seat joint-use stadium, which it would receive as a donation in five years.


FS did not pursue a more traditional planning process because it says it is under tight deadlines to submit a stadium plan to Major League Soccer, which aims to award two expansion franchises by the end of the year. FS has the exclusive bid to locate a stadium in San Diego. Eleven other cities are in the running for both the immediate expansion and two more in a second phase. MLS currently has 22 franchises and two approved but not yet active.

“We have negotiated in good faith with the university for two years, and we are disappointed that our $100 million gift and our previous agreements with the university have led to further moving of the goal posts,” said FS Investors partner Nick Stone. “Despite this, we stand ready to work with the mayor to ensure that the taxpayers’ needs are respected and that the university is also accommodated in a reasonable manner.”

Stone also said the taxpayers would lose if much of the land is removed from the tax rolls, and San Diego soccer fans would lose because the plan would “kill any Major League Soccer effort” locally. After less than a week, he said, the signature gathering has “exceeded even our wildest expectations” and expressed confidence that an MLS franchise and a river park will come to pass.


Manchester Financial Group, headed by developer Doug Manchester, proposed an even bigger development earlier this month: retention and remodeling of the Q at a cost of a projected $600 million; a new sports arena; 37 acres for 6.4 million square feet of market-rate housing, office and retail space, including 8,000 housing units; a 6.9-acre park linking into a reopening of the eastern end of the Q that would tie into the San Diego River park; and 11.6 million square feet of residential and academic space on 46 acres. SDSU, the NFL, MLS and any other sports would share the new Q.

SDSU’s lease at Qualcomm Stadium extends through the 2018 football season, and Wicker said he presented the city several months ago with a proposal for a two-year extension that has not been acted on.

Could the Q be shuttered before that?

“I have had discussions with the COO of the city and sat down with the mayor today,” Wicker said, “and we were given no indication that Qualcomm would close prior to the 2018 season. After that, there’s still an open dialogue on what that looks like.”


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roger.showley@sduniontribune.com; (619) 293-1286; Twitter: @rogershowley