For this lifelong San Diego sports fan, there has never been a more satisfying football weekend.

Love and hate, both spiking on sugar highs.

First, State stunned the nationally ranked Stanford Cardinal in spectacular fashion, scoring a winning touchdown in the closing minutes.

Aztec Stadium was rockin’ with 43,040 in the stands, a euphoric portion of whom rushed the field.


(The total would have been 43,041 if we didn’t have a new puppy in the house, a column that will soon write itself on chewed laptop keys.)

As if the red-and-black confection on Saturday night wasn’t sweet enough, the Los Angeles Chargers lost exquisitely to the Miami Dolphins, kicking away the game and spoiling their regular season debut at the soccer pitch in Carson.

State breaks into the national rankings in spectacular fashion while the Chargers are predictably rank.

It just doesn’t get any better.


Now it’s easy to say, to hell with the NFL. Put the League into a museum along with Confederate statues.

Check this out.

USC attracted more fans to the Coliseum for its heart-stopping victory against the University of Texas than the L.A. Rams and the Chargers drew combined.

Rah-rah-sis-boom-bah.


The school spirit just wins, baby.

The beauty of college football is that, like college basketball, the game (and the typical player) is fresher, less jaded, more exciting.

And the teams aren’t hostages, moving away from fans on a blackmailing owner’s whim.

College teams belong to their community, not to a cynical syndicate of tycoons.


As high-energy as this year’s Aztecs are on the field, San Diego should also be aware of a potent political team that will be running through the stadium tunnel in the near future.

For a couple of weeks, I’ve been aware of a group of heavy hitters quietly raising money for a citizens’ initiative that would require the city to sell Mission Valley stadium land to State at market value.

The formal elements are familiar — a river park, football/soccer stadium, academic buildings and student housing, a hotel.

The immediate goal is to make sure that SoccerCity, when it appears on next year’s June or (more likely) November ballot, won’t have the field to itself.


The gestating pro-State initiative would offer San Diego a choice between the multi-use development proposed by FS Investors, which the university has rejected out of hand, and a campus-oriented vision that would generate significantly less traffic in car-clogged Mission Valley.

There’s an important point to remember in the early state of play.

San Diego State is legally constrained from participating in political campaigns, I’m told (over and over). All of the land-locked university’s communications regarding the future of the stadium land has to be presented as factual information, not inflamed advocacy.

Obviously, State will be anxious for the initiative to succeed, but it can’t openly say so.


It’s an interesting ethical tightrope that could lead to some Cirque du Soleil rhetorical gymnastics.

As I understand it, the independent backers of the pro-State initiative is made up of Mission Valley developers (who have their own agenda, to be sure) and Aztec alums with the best interests of their alma mater at heart. The fundraising goal is $3 million, with at least a third of that sum having been pledged, I’m told.

Meanwhile, the university is working with development consultants to create a “site plan,” a detailed vision with, of course, the requisite (and politically resonant) renderings.

Early indications are that State’s site plan and the initiative will assume the razing of the stadium and construction of a smaller football/soccer structure for around $200 million.


In my view, that’s a strategic mistake, one that could turn off thousands of voters favorably inclined to a western SDSU campus but who view the stadium as a mid-century classic that should be creatively renovated and reduced, not reflexively destroyed because it’s theoretically easier to build from a clean slate.

The initiative should at least allow for the possibility that San Diego’s half-century-old stadium, formally renamed SDCCU Stadium Tuesday, is nowhere near its expiration date.

Imagine USC tearing down the Coliseum. There’d be another Trojan War, probably with more casualties.

In the end, I’m willing to concede, the old Murph may be (and maybe should be) demolished.


But tearing the heritage stadium down shouldn’t be the easy default choice.

Erasing our history with a wrecking ball should be the hard choice, the sad but inescapable consensus of architects and stadium construction experts.

Finally, it’s surreal but possible that a pro-State initiative, assuming it gathers the required signatures, could go before the City Council for outright approval contingent on FS failing at the ballot box.

As things stand now, however, the council would almost certainly punt, allowing the opposing initiatives to battle it out at the ballot box.


If San Diego’s football team keeps rolling, piling up points with former Charger fans, it’s hard to imagine State losing the fight for its stadium campus.

logan.jenkins@sduniontribune.com