Dean Spanos is ready, just not reflective.

The Chargers chairman remains as cautious as ever, but he is striking a different tone, and the significance of that should be appreciated.

Spanos is aware, as we all should be, that there remains a steep hill to climb toward a public-private stadium partnership and some hurdles that just might prove impossible to vault. But his approach seems to be a genuine reversal from the tone of the past 16 months.

“There will be a lot of positive support going forward,” he said. “… Once we have a direction, to me, it’s positive momentum.”


This is the man who had given up, whose side didn’t utter a constructive word in public or private about the possibilities in San Diego, who had permits pulled and promotional material printed in Los Angeles.

Now there is not a hint of negativity, even when the recorder is turned off. He’s all about optimism, cautious as it may be. He does remain the same careful operator. In a half-hour conversation Tuesday morning at Chargers Park, Spanos measured almost every word.

He didn’t prohibit any questions, he simply refused to answer some. He said nothing has been decided in terms of a financing structure and a site for their proposed stadium, and he doesn’t want to “negotiate in the media.”

He also declines to delve into what happened to get the Chargers and San Diego to this point. He believes it is best to push the focus forward.


Certainly, that is the easy way out. But it is also prudent for all parties. Dwelling on the ugliness of the past year-plus will doom us to repeating its failure. And implicit in Spanos’ caution is the acknowledgement of the shaky ground he is on, the awareness that there is no margin for error.

At least Spanos is communicating, and he vows to continue to do so.

He said the team’s current efforts are focused on deciding between whether to try to get a stadium built downtown or in Mission Valley and discussing financing options with the city. There is, all sides concur, a gap in the proposed funding. Spanos will not discuss what his family will contribute but said the commitment will be “significant.”

He and new stadium point man Fred Maas are discussing various strategies for campaigning once a citizens’ initiative is finalized and the effort to get a November ballot measure passed is underway. Spanos said he’ll be involved in the campaign, addressing various groups and the media, as well as rallying the business community.


“Whatever we need to do,” Spanos said, “we’re going to do what we need to do to get this done ... We’re trying as hard as we can. I can’t do it myself. It’s going to take the effort of the mayor; politically we need support. The business community needs to step up. I think once we have a definitive plan in place they’ll get behind us and support us. It has to economically make sense for the voters, and I think (the business community) will help make that case down the line and they’ll support us.”

He referred also to another facet of the stadium campaign: “Our product on the field will be helpful; 4-12 isn’t going to help much.”

Spanos’ willingness to be involved and to communicate should essentially be a requirement by us, since he will be asking for a sizable public subsidy.

Toward that aim of clarity, Spanos put into context one of the Chargers’ key goals in building a new stadium. That is, of course, revenue growth. According to Forbes, the Chargers ranked 22nd in team value ($1.53 billion) and 25th in revenue ($304 million) in 2015. Whether those numbers are entirely accurate, they convey an approximate standing in the bottom quarter among the NFL’s 32 teams.


“We’re never going to be in the top quartile,” Spanos said. “We don’t expect it. Never have been. Just be competitive. We need to make enough in revenue to be competitive with the top teams … That is why we have the salary cap. There is parity in the league. Just to be able to field as many good players as the high-end clubs.

“This league, the way it’s built, it really comes down to the expertise of your general manager, player personnel, coach. If you have those right, that’s where it’s really going to happen – not because you have the most money. … (Generating more revenue) gives you more to spend for a coach or coaching staff or different front office people you might want to acquire that you might not be able to otherwise because you don’t have enough revenue.”

While San Diego fans hopefully get to one day hold Spanos (or rather, his sons) to the spirit of that quote, it is not inconsequential that the Spanos family had the option to be in Los Angeles already.

After NFL owners voted last month to approve the Rams’ move from St. Louis to Los Angeles and to give the Chargers the option to join them or receive $100 million grant toward construction of a stadium in San Diego, the Chargers and Rams agreed in principle to a deal in which the Chargers would be revenue-sharing tenants in Inglewood. The Chargers have that insurance policy in place at least until next January, and they could have already cashed it in.


There is not an expert or anyone in the NFL that doesn’t agree the Chargers would be worth more and realize more revenue as a tenant in an L.A. stadium than they would as the only team in a new San Diego stadium.

Asked about his willingness to accept less money to stay in San Diego, Spanos said, “That’s nothing new. I like San Diego. I never said I didn’t like San Diego. It’s not L.A., not New York, not Chicago, not Dallas. It is what it is. I’ve never complained about the market size. Plus, I’ve been here 30-some years now.”

Of the flip from thinking there was no chance in San Diego to making one last run here, Spanos said, “Obviously, having options was important, and $100 million from the league is significant. It’s a great starting point. So there are a couple things. You step back and say, ‘It’s easily worth it to try to get something done here, so let’s give it a try.’ When you have an extended option like we have (in Inglewood), why wouldn’t you take the opportunity to try to get something done here? I mean, it’s more personal to me. I’ve always said I want to be here. So the option is the option, and I’m going to do the best I can to stay.”

That effort includes the hiring of Maas, the longtime civic and business leader who assumed the tip of the stadium spear last week.


“Bringing on Fred was a real plus for not just us but the city,” Spanos said. “... He’s familiar with the politics of the city. He’s a business guy, and he understands the economics of both projects. He’s been helpful to me understanding what we can build at each site, what it means economically to us and what’s maybe more doable than the other one.”

Spanos initially just shrugged when asked why longtime stadium point man/front man Mark Fabiani has been shifted to a lower-visibility role. Rest assured, however, there was no ignorance in the move. As best pieced together by people familiar with Spanos’ thinking, he feels Fabiani has served him well and considers him one of his closest advisers. Fabiani will always be part of the stadium effort.

What Spanos would allow regarding the hire of Maas and Fabiani’s diminished public role as the stadium push transitions from a business venture to a political campaign is that Spanos felt there should be a “different” vibe from the Chargers’ side.

And there certainly is.


At this point, it’s all we have. The structure of their actual plan to get a stadium built is most important. But for now, given the silence of 2015, to hear anything is significant. To hear the right things is substantial.