I was presented very unexpectedly on Thursday morning with the most intoxicating picture of what a renovation of Qualcomm Stadium could be.

It was a proposal to take our ancient landmark back to its original horseshoe structure while modernizing it to the point that it would entice an NFL team to once again call San Diego home.

It was like hearing Mozart with a baby crying in the background. It was like sitting in an Alanis Morissette song. Isn’t it ironic, I thought, as I sat there in awe of something that was so forward thinking that it portended paralysis.

Honestly, what HKS Urban Design Group came up with in nine days with Doug Manchester’s money is beyond impressive.


It was a visual furthering of Manchester’s previously stated intention to privately finance a project to try to entice an NFL team to town that made you wish there was such a team looking to move.

Because that’s a big missing piece. It’s the missing piece.

No one sitting around the boardroom table on the ninth floor of Manchester Financial Center pitching the concept tried to assert otherwise. Nor did they ever portray their idea as more than just that.

“This is not a formal deal proposal,” Perry Dealy, a project manager for Manchester development. “This is a formal vision for the Mission Valley property.”


The worry here is that it is a vision so wondrous that it might blind all those who gaze upon it.

Or that the noise it generates will make us all deaf.

Repeatedly on Thursday, Manchester executives reiterated they are not opposed to the FS Investors proposal for the SoccerCity development in Mission Valley. They do, however, want the city to pull the reins on the process of signing over the land.

And they are smart enough to know that even throwing pixie dust in the air will be a distraction.


The stated goal of the Manchester group is to bring the NFL back to San Diego. Believe them. But to have a shot at that end, they first need to slow down the only project currently on the table, one that has a fair amount of favor at city hall.

As brilliant as this idea could be to land an NFL team, it could be just as brilliant a ploy to sink SoccerCity.

Sudberry Properties and H.G. Fenton could save the money they’re surely going to devote to fighting FS Investors’ proposal and simply keep having these sorts of proposals pop up and distract everyone.

Look, this was a stunning proposal. It shows what happens when people with passion and resources spend some time looking for solutions. We should welcome that — as long as it is doable and timely.


Bless Doug Manchester. Whatever else anyone says about the apparent future U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas, there is no disputing that the man brainstorms with flair.

A little more than a week ago, Manchester commissioned a world-renowned architectural firm – the one that designed AT&T Stadium in Dallas, U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis and is designing the Rams and Chargers stadium in Inglewood – to explore the feasibility of his idea to refurbish Qualcomm Stadium. Thursday, the architects were in town, so Manchester directed his people to invite some folks he thinks can help spread the word and affect movement to share in a presentation entitled “Re-thinking The Q.”

That is how I came to be sitting three floors below Mr. A’s with, among others, Manchester Financial President Dick Gibbons, Valley View Casino General Manager Ernie Hahn, commercial real estate executive Casey Brown, former San Diego City Manager and current Campanile Foundation Chairman Jack McGrory and Randy Morton from HKS.

Gibbons and Dealy had hurriedly invited the others to hear the presentation from Morton’s team.


What we saw was amazing – from lowering the field 13 feet and gutting the stadium’s bowels to create better sight lines, premium spaces and closer seats, to a ring of video boards atop the stadium, to a makeover of the loge level and concourse areas, to the renovation of the stadium’s exterior and access ways.

And the piece that brought goosebumps to an old San Diegan.

Even if you weren’t around when the places was a jewel called San Diego Stadium and then Jack Murphy, when the east end was open, the view of that view is breathtaking.

Further, the architects included a tiered park beyond the open end of the horseshoe, a concept that has made Petco Park such a unique and aesthetically welcoming venue.


The estimate is that the renovation would cost between $500 and $600 million, all privately funded.

To their credit, Dealy and Gibbons were unafraid to answer questions with what amounted to a shrug.

In addition to the stadium, Manchester and HKS have come up with three development zones that could house San Diego State campus expansion, a sports arena and mixed-use development. But it is preliminary to the point of Dealy not being able to say how many housing units would be involved.

They envision a stadium with at least 60,000 seats that is expandable to more than 70,000 for Super Bowls and other events. They say they have had preliminary talks with SDSU that were positive, and they plan to present their vision to the NFL soon.


They acknowledge they can’t go forward without the promise of an NFL team.

That’s no speed bump. That is a mountain. If I could help them climb it, I would do it over the backs of Mike Stone and Nick Stone and any other FS Investor that got in the way. But, alas, the NFL does not appear to be in need of San Diego as leverage anytime soon.

Manchester was hoping to target the Oakland Raiders as possible partners, but the Raiders seem set on moving to Las Vegas, where $750 million in public money awaits. Gibbons named the Jacksonville Jaguars as a possibility, though there is no indication that the Jaguars intend to move soon.

And until there is an NFL team – and with the knowledge that SDSU football’s lease at Qualcomm runs out in two years and the Aztecs are welcome in Petco Park just another year or two beyond that – we have both all the time in the world and very little time.


That is why the fear must be that these renderings might be no more than entertainment — butterflies to a puppy, distracting us from actually finding a dog ready to hunt.

kevin.acee@sduniontribune.com