The problem with Chargers boss Dean Spanos is that his sincerity is lost in his perceived insincerity.

Many see Dean as a $100 bill you hand to a store clerk, and after it’s deemed authentic, the manager and police are sent for anyway.

Spanos wants his football team to remain in San Diego, and yet to cover his wallet pocket, he has a deal — one he claims is sweetheart — to join the carpetbagging Rams in L.A., possibly in 2017, if he can’t get a new stadium here.

Knowing years ago he couldn’t keep his team playing in the Qualcomm dumpster forever, I’ve always felt he didn’t want to leave, but also that, as San Diego dragged its baby shoes for more than a decade, the time would come when the businessman in him had no choice.


In planning to write up a new downtown stadium/convention center addition initiative for the November ballot, Spanos has given us a last chance to remain an NFL city. In some circles of course, this is seen as a ploy, that he’s just going through the hopeless motions to placate the populace and is getting out regardless.

Which is a load of crap. He could have left years ago. He could have gone to L.A. this year and made more money. He already has spent millions trying to stay.

I am not a part of those circles. And there’s a big reason for it. He is Fred Maas, hired by Spanos to spearhead the effort for the estimated $1.6 billion downtown project.

Fred is terribly bright, well connected and has reached the stage in his life that he doesn’t need the money, the job or the grief. No chance — none — Maas hooks himself up to a deceiving, formless screen of smoke. He believes Spanos is sincere.


Maybe it won’t work out. But there will be a serious try. If you don’t trust Dean Spanos, that’s your right. The same can’t be said about Fred Maas, the former chairman of Centre City Development Corporation (which Gov. Bullet Train Brown sapped of its money), who can work the political room.

“No chance I would do this if I didn’t see a pathway,” Maas says. “I don’t need it. Dean and I had a frank, serious discussion, how difficult last year was for him and his family; I saw the emotion from Dean. He said he definitely wants to stay in San Diego. He persuaded me. You know, his deal in L.A. is better than the best deal he’s going to get here, and it doesn’t take an MIT mathematician to figure out. He wants to do this.

“But weren’t not suffering from any delusions. We have a short time to craft something people will accept.”

And after many hours of quick work, the initiative (and its particulars) is expected to be presented to the city Thursday or Friday, which is the team’s preferred deadline, because to get this thing on the November ballot it needs 60 days to gather the signatures needed to do so (about 10 percent of the city’s registered voters). It’s going to be a huge challenge, because there are other initiatives out there — including the Briggs initiative — trying to get OK’d for the ballot.


As much as I admire Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s task force, which came up with Mission Valley as the site for the new stadium, to me, downtown has been the right call. How hard is it to figure there’s no chance for people to vote for a separate stadium and convention center expansion? This combines both, and I don’t care what the hoteliers think, nor do I understand them any more than I do string theory.

One thing: It cannot be advertised as a stadium-only project. It has to be more, so we have the proverbial two birds here. It’s a big reason why I didn’t think Mission Valley would fly. Football-only stadiums are a tough make.

“It’s no simple task to do this,” Maas says. “But remember, all the naysayers said the same thing about Petco, and we proved them wrong. If anybody asked me (if they could get it done) not long ago I would have answered differently than I will today. There were ruffled feathers, but I’m basing this now on receptivity I’ve received.”

Can they do it without Faulconer’s blessing?


“Boy, it would be hard,” Maas says. “We have such a good personal relationship. He’s keeping an open mind. We have an open dialogue. Goldman Sachs and Latham and Watkins are trying to figure out a financial mechanism that doesn’t trip the two-thirds requirement for it to pass.”

They know. Nothing’s passing here that requires a two-thirds vote. Fifty percent-plus one, there’s a chance.

“I have no time for dawdling or screwing around,” Maas concluded. “Do you get (bleep) done or not? Time’s short.

“I told Dean, if I don’t do this, I’m going to kill myself if you leave.”


It doesn’t have to be that drastic. If you want an NFL team here, you vote yes.