Former City Councilman Carl DeMaio will unveil a plan today to pay for a new $1.5 billion Chargers stadium without a tax increase or a convention center annex.

DeMaio, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2012 and Congress in 2014, said the proposal involves fans and investors, investing in the stadium for $5,000 to $700,000 each.

Instead of a convention center annex, as the Chargers propose in their planned Nov. 8 so-called “convadium” ballot initiative, DeMaio would substitute a 250-room hotel whose rooms would overlook the stadium field, and a 200,000-square-foot retail center with a fitness club, nightclubs, shops, restaurants and other attractions.

In addition to laying out his vision, DeMaio said he will encourage local hoteliers to move immediately for their own ballot initiative to authorize the convention center expansion already approved by the California Coastal Commission, and a separate measure, if necessary, to fund the project.

“If they are worried about the ‘convadium’ not being beneficial to San Diego, why are they sitting on their hands?” DeMaio asked. “Get up and start moving forward. What I want to see is leadership in town. The only people providing leadership right now are the Chargers. Whose fault is that?”

To get the plan enacted, DeMaio proposes a mail ballot election on Nov. 15 that would delete the Chargers’ proposed financing plan but retain the general concept of a sports and entertainment center immune to environmental legal challenges.

However, he also said the plan would work with a stadium rebuild at the current Qualcomm Stadium site or on a portion of the San Diego Unified Port District’s Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal, linked by a people mover to the San Diego Convention Center.

DeMaio, now a talk show host, said he was moved to come up with his own plan because no other plan has been advanced with the taxpayers’ interests in mind.

“None of these options have been discussed in the context of a ‘San Diego solution,’” DeMaio said in an interview Wednesday. “The Chargers have their solution and I don’t fault them for developing a position that is very favorable to their interests.”

The Chargers’ initiative relies on raising the current city hotel room tax from 12.5 percent to 16.5 percent, $650 million from the team and NFL and other sources that could underwrite a $1.8 billion, publicly owned facility with 65,000 seats for a stadium and an attached convention exhibit hall, meeting rooms and ballrooms that can expand to the stadium field.

The county registrar of voters expects to complete a preliminary review by July 10 of the 110,786 signatures the team has collected. If a sample check indicates a shortfall in the 66,447 signatures needed, additional time will be needed to complete a more thorough count.

The hotel and tourism industry has raised concerns about the usefulness of the annex, preferring instead a contiguous expansion of the existing convention center.

San Diego City Councilman Scott Sherman, whose district includes the Qualcomm Stadium property, is the only official DeMaio has shown the plan to, and he expressed general support.

“It’s another viable way of trying to keep the Chargers here in town,” he said “This is a creative way of thinking of how to get it done without blocking contiguous expansion or doing a tax hike.”

Sherman said he will study the plan further and seek a council committee review that could lead to a mail ballot. But it might take longer to arrange a special election and push the date past Nov. 15.

DeMaio said he launched his alternative plan several weeks ago and enlisted the Reason Foundation, a conservative think tank expert in public-private partnership funding concepts; Gary London, a local real estate economist and consultant who has worked on previous stadium plans; and four members of Tieback Realty Capital, a Newport Beach firm that has researched alternatives to personal seat licenses that NFL teams have used to help fund new stadiums.

As outlined in a 41-page report, DeMaio’s team offered 10 financing sources for a privately funded facility. The team estimated the construction costs of the three stadium options at about $1.5 billion and the facility would be privately built, maintained and managed.

The plan is available online at privatestadiumplan.com.

The financial sources could include:

▪ $300 million from “FanLord” shares, ranging from $5,000 for limited-access standing-room-only to $700,000 per suite. In return, investors would stand to receive discounts to stadium events and a share in any profits.

▪ $200 million from a boutique hotel development partner with $62.5 million for the hotel and the remainder set aside for the stadium.

▪ $300 million from a retail partner with $60 million for the retail portion and remainder for the stadium.

▪ $300 million from the NFL loan already promised to the Chargers.

▪ $150 million from the Chargers in the form of an equity share in the project or lease payments.

▪ $150 million from naming rights that go to the project and not to the Chargers, as the team’s proposed financing package envisions.

If the project is built in Mission Valley, San Diego State University and UC San Diego would contribute $125 million rather than build their own, smaller facility that could do double duty as a Major League Soccer venue.

A Mission Valley development partner would contribute up to $200 million in return for development rights at the 166-acre Qualcomm site.

If the facility is built on the 10th Avenue Marine Terminal, the port would contribute $100 million.

To cover infrastructure improvements, $50 million would come from property taxes generated by the hotel and retail development.

DeMaio did not commission any designs to illustrate his concept, but he includeds a diagram showing how various elements of the building would be layered to generate a potential capacity of 83,500:

52,000: Reserved seats

5,000: 250 luxury seats

8,000: Club seats

3,500: Free "community" seats

15,000: Standing-room-only seats

A diagram shows the configuration of seating levels in the proposed private stadium concept. — Carl DeMaio

Other elements:

The hotel would be integrated into the building as is the case with the Renaissance Toronto Hotel at Rogers Centre stadium in the Canadian city, where some suites overlook the stadium floor.

Retail would spill out onto the surrounding streets.

About 1,500 parking spaces would be built underground.

Carl DeMaio's stadium plan includes these two images showing how some stadiums already include hotels that offer some suites overlooking the playing field. — Carl DeMaio

DeMaio speaks of some entertainment venues within the complex with the hope that the facility would be active every day of the year, especially when no sports games occur.

"Club Bolt" would be an indoor dance club; "Blue and Gold Club" would be an outdoor dance club; "Owners Club" would include a private restaurant and bar; and banquet facilities.