Submitted by SanDiegoDave on May 29, 2009 - 11:49am.
Everybody in this whole stadium scenario is an idiot. The team. The Mayor. The city council. The developers. The whole lot of 'em.
The existing Qualcomm stadium land is the best place to build a new stadium. It is centrally located in the county, at the merger of all the major freeways and the trolley, just minutes from the airport & downtown, and nearby dozens of hotels. What f*cking more do they need?!?
Have any of these people bothered to look around at what other teams did when they built new stadiums? Nobody is asking for $1 billion to be spent on new office spaces and residential. What's needed is a new stadium. Period.
The Chicago Bears built their new stadium at the exact same spot as the old Soldier Field. During that season, the Bears played at U of I-Urbana-Champaign. When the Green Bay Packers renovated Lambeau Field, they played at U of Wisconsin's Badger stadium.
So I ask: What is the big deal about having the Chargers play up at the L.A. Coliseum for a season while Qualcomm gets demolished and rebuilt? If anything, it would expand the Chargers' fan base.
Build a new stadium right at the same sight. Any other site is not optimal by comparison - not by a long shot.
Wasn't some ludicrous amount of money spent on expansion what was then Jack Murphy Stadium? Didn't the City end up loosing millions on ticket gurantees. Let the Chargers go!
So. Cal./San Diego fans are fickle. As soon as the wheels fall off the bandwagon the crowd goes home. The culture here is completely different cmopared to the midwest. Very few here would sit in the freezing cold to watch their team win or loose.
I personally vote for a motorsports park. We could have karting, autocross, drag racing, motocross all taking place at the same time. I know, pipe dream.
Everybody in this whole stadium scenario is an idiot. The team. The Mayor. The city council. The developers. The whole lot of 'em.
The existing Qualcomm stadium land is the best place to build a new stadium. It is centrally located in the county, at the merger of all the major freeways and the trolley, just minutes from the airport & downtown, and nearby dozens of hotels. What f*cking more do they need?!?
Have any of these people bothered to look around at what other teams did when they built new stadiums? Nobody is asking for $1 billion to be spent on new office spaces and residential. What's needed is a new stadium. Period.
The Chicago Bears built their new stadium at the exact same spot as the old Soldier Field. During that season, the Bears played at U of I-Urbana-Champaign. When the Green Bay Packers renovated Lambeau Field, they played at U of Wisconsin's Badger stadium.
So I ask: What is the big deal about having the Chargers play up at the L.A. Coliseum for a season while Qualcomm gets demolished and rebuilt? If anything, it would expand the Chargers' fan base.
Build a new stadium right at the same sight. Any other site is not optimal by comparison - not by a long shot.
The point of the office parks, condo's, hotels, or any of the other crap they wanna build is to defray the cost of building the stadium. Everyone in any way involved is too cheap to actually build the stadium, so they are trying to hide the costs in other building projects.
I say they build a parking structure on the fields behind Qcomm, give away free stuff to people who take the trolly and charge extra for parking to pay for it, and then build the new stadium right next to the old one in the parking lot. Tear down the old one, make it prefered parking (it would be closer to the stadium than the parking structure) and call it a day.
The whole reason they want a new stadium is because they want more luxery boxes and prefered seating, and all the stuff that makes corporate sponsorship so profitable. So use that new stuff to pay for the new stadium, and stop trying to kid yourselves into thinking people are gonna drive to way inland Chula Vista just so you can hid/avoid your construction costs.
Submitted by SanDiegoDave on May 29, 2009 - 1:10pm.
While I don't think that the city should (or can) pay for a new stadium, I'm not against some minimal element of taxpayer involvement. San Diego is one of only a handful of cities that is a good destination for a Super Bowl. The financial advantages of that are tremendous. And IF they were to build a stadium in a central location there at Qualcomm, the multi-use advantages are huge as well.
In general, though, I don't think the public should fund stadiums at all. To your point creechrr, as rabid as the fans are in the Midwest, they still raped money from the public to finance new stadiums. Totally upside down logic.
Submitted by SanDiegoDave on May 29, 2009 - 1:32pm.
Taking a closer look at that SI article, I have to proclaim that Mark Fabiani should be fired. If I ran the Chargers and he was representing me, I'd fire him. (Of course, if I ran the Chargers they would have had a shiny new stadium by now).
Check out this gem of a comment from Fabiani in reacting to the fact that people dare question why the Chargers are turning down this plan:
"It causes people to ask that question. We don't deserve that after spending seven years and $10 million in this process. We've done everything we can to stay here. If someone with their own ulterior motives comes up with a half-baked plan, you can't blame us for that.
Hey Fabiani: You can't call someone else's plan half-baked when you don't even have one yourself!
I suspect the real motive behind this is plain old greed. The Chargers don't want to actually put up any of their own money for a stadium. San Diego is broke and can't fund it. We saw what happened two weeks ago when the state asked people to pay more taxes. In the current economic climate, the Charges are not going to find some sucker municipality in any state out there who will pay for a new stadium for them.
So, they've got nowhere to move to. The City of San Diego has all the leverage in this right now (at least that's how I see it). If the Charges keep threatening this "we'll move the team!" B.S., I say: Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
They're not going to move. Force the issue and make them pay for a new stadium, or for a serious renovation of Qualcomm (despite what they claim, it CAN be done - and has been done - to stadiums much older than Qualcomm).
That's just a monstrousity. Personally, LA can take the Chargers for all I care. If I ever make $1billion in my life, then I'd steal the clippers from LA and steal Yao from the rockets and build a team around him. The next thing if I had money left over would be to steal the Anaheim Ducks and bring them here too.
Lakers would stay Lakers (can't see them anywhere else). Though I wish they would rename themselves to reflect their location rather than keep the Minneapolis nostalgia....I was thinking something like the L.A. Riots.... Oh wait, never mind. (The Washington Bullets were so much a cooler name). I guess that was too much of a pun though.
"If I ever make $1billion in my life, then I'd steal the clippers from LA"
You mean "Steal the Clippers BACK from LA."
Following a proposal by then-NBA attorney David Stern, the Braves were allowed to leave Buffalo after the 1977-78 season for San Diego. The deal was a complicated one, as Buffalo Braves owner John Y. Brown traded places with Boston Celtics owner Irv Levin. Levin, a California businessman, was unhappy in Boston and relished the opportunity to own a team in his home state. Levin immediately renamed the club the Clippers due to San Diego's bustling harbor and seaside locale.
"If I ever make $1billion in my life, then I'd steal the clippers from LA"
You mean "Steal the Clippers BACK from LA."
Yup...I was wondering if people were going to wonder why oh why the Clippers and Yao, though I think the clippers were originally from new york(forget where) before SD. I always root for the Clips, because they are just such the underdog team for so long.
Unfortunately, the only way I think the Clips and the Chargers would do better is if they do something drastic like possibly switching the sport they play for one season. Sorry, that was mean.
They say they can't turn a profit unless they have a new stadium, but they need office buildings as a part of the project to fund the building of the new stadium. Seems to me they should use the extra profits from getting the new stadium to build the new stadium.
Could it possibly be that building a new stadium is not cost-effective ? Naw. Couldn't be. That doesn't make sense. We like new stadiums. They must be cost-effective. Oh. THey really aren't ?
Hm. In that case, lets get the city to build the new stadium and tell the city that if they build one they'll MAKE more money than if they don't build one (be sure not to tell them they aren't cost-effective), and make sure the (insert sports team here) threatens to leave cuz no politician wants a sports team to leave on their watch, especially if it means not getting a new stadim. Yeah. That's it.
Seems new stadiums are to cities what granite countertops are to homes. An overpriced luxury.
Lets get an MLS team into Qualcomm. They only need a few hundred seats anyway.
The next thing if I had money left over would be to steal the Anaheim Ducks and bring them here too.
Ducks would be a very difficult steal. Ducks have many more sellout crowds then the LA 'Queens'. And the Ducks have won the 'Holy Grail'. The kings only screw up the scheduling at Staples Center for the Lakers and Clippers. Staples Center makes more money when the Kings are on the road, even if it is dark...
Everybody in this whole stadium scenario is an idiot. The team. The Mayor. The city council. The developers. The whole lot of 'em.
The existing Qualcomm stadium land is the best place to build a new stadium. It is centrally located in the county, at the merger of all the major freeways and the trolley, just minutes from the airport & downtown, and nearby dozens of hotels. What f*cking more do they need?!?
Have any of these people bothered to look around at what other teams did when they built new stadiums? Nobody is asking for $1 billion to be spent on new office spaces and residential. What's needed is a new stadium. Period.
The Chicago Bears built their new stadium at the exact same spot as the old Soldier Field. During that season, the Bears played at U of I-Urbana-Champaign. When the Green Bay Packers renovated Lambeau Field, they played at U of Wisconsin's Badger stadium.
So I ask: What is the big deal about having the Chargers play up at the L.A. Coliseum for a season while Qualcomm gets demolished and rebuilt? If anything, it would expand the Chargers' fan base.
Build a new stadium right at the same sight. Any other site is not optimal by comparison - not by a long shot.
Wasn't some ludicrous amount of money spent on expansion what was then Jack Murphy Stadium? Didn't the City end up loosing millions on ticket gurantees. Let the Chargers go!
So. Cal./San Diego fans are fickle. As soon as the wheels fall off the bandwagon the crowd goes home. The culture here is completely different cmopared to the midwest. Very few here would sit in the freezing cold to watch their team win or loose.
I personally vote for a motorsports park. We could have karting, autocross, drag racing, motocross all taking place at the same time. I know, pipe dream.
The existing Qualcomm stadium land is the best place to build a new stadium. It is centrally located in the county, at the merger of all the major freeways and the trolley, just minutes from the airport & downtown, and nearby dozens of hotels. What f*cking more do they need?!?
Have any of these people bothered to look around at what other teams did when they built new stadiums? Nobody is asking for $1 billion to be spent on new office spaces and residential. What's needed is a new stadium. Period.
The Chicago Bears built their new stadium at the exact same spot as the old Soldier Field. During that season, the Bears played at U of I-Urbana-Champaign. When the Green Bay Packers renovated Lambeau Field, they played at U of Wisconsin's Badger stadium.
So I ask: What is the big deal about having the Chargers play up at the L.A. Coliseum for a season while Qualcomm gets demolished and rebuilt? If anything, it would expand the Chargers' fan base.
Build a new stadium right at the same sight. Any other site is not optimal by comparison - not by a long shot.
The point of the office parks, condo's, hotels, or any of the other crap they wanna build is to defray the cost of building the stadium. Everyone in any way involved is too cheap to actually build the stadium, so they are trying to hide the costs in other building projects.
I say they build a parking structure on the fields behind Qcomm, give away free stuff to people who take the trolly and charge extra for parking to pay for it, and then build the new stadium right next to the old one in the parking lot. Tear down the old one, make it prefered parking (it would be closer to the stadium than the parking structure) and call it a day.
The whole reason they want a new stadium is because they want more luxery boxes and prefered seating, and all the stuff that makes corporate sponsorship so profitable. So use that new stuff to pay for the new stadium, and stop trying to kid yourselves into thinking people are gonna drive to way inland Chula Vista just so you can hid/avoid your construction costs.
While I don't think that the city should (or can) pay for a new stadium, I'm not against some minimal element of taxpayer involvement. San Diego is one of only a handful of cities that is a good destination for a Super Bowl. The financial advantages of that are tremendous. And IF they were to build a stadium in a central location there at Qualcomm, the multi-use advantages are huge as well.
In general, though, I don't think the public should fund stadiums at all. To your point creechrr, as rabid as the fans are in the Midwest, they still raped money from the public to finance new stadiums. Totally upside down logic.
Taking a closer look at that SI article, I have to proclaim that Mark Fabiani should be fired. If I ran the Chargers and he was representing me, I'd fire him. (Of course, if I ran the Chargers they would have had a shiny new stadium by now).
Check out this gem of a comment from Fabiani in reacting to the fact that people dare question why the Chargers are turning down this plan:
"It causes people to ask that question. We don't deserve that after spending seven years and $10 million in this process. We've done everything we can to stay here. If someone with their own ulterior motives comes up with a half-baked plan, you can't blame us for that.
Hey Fabiani: You can't call someone else's plan half-baked when you don't even have one yourself!
I suspect the real motive behind this is plain old greed. The Chargers don't want to actually put up any of their own money for a stadium. San Diego is broke and can't fund it. We saw what happened two weeks ago when the state asked people to pay more taxes. In the current economic climate, the Charges are not going to find some sucker municipality in any state out there who will pay for a new stadium for them.
So, they've got nowhere to move to. The City of San Diego has all the leverage in this right now (at least that's how I see it). If the Charges keep threatening this "we'll move the team!" B.S., I say: Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
They're not going to move. Force the issue and make them pay for a new stadium, or for a serious renovation of Qualcomm (despite what they claim, it CAN be done - and has been done - to stadiums much older than Qualcomm).
Maybe we should give them a taste of their own medicine. Commit to ten years in San Diego, or we'll throw your asses out right now.
The rendition in the SD Tribune in interesting...
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2...
That's just a monstrousity. Personally, LA can take the Chargers for all I care. If I ever make $1billion in my life, then I'd steal the clippers from LA and steal Yao from the rockets and build a team around him. The next thing if I had money left over would be to steal the Anaheim Ducks and bring them here too.
Lakers would stay Lakers (can't see them anywhere else). Though I wish they would rename themselves to reflect their location rather than keep the Minneapolis nostalgia....I was thinking something like the L.A. Riots.... Oh wait, never mind. (The Washington Bullets were so much a cooler name). I guess that was too much of a pun though.
"If I ever make $1billion in my life, then I'd steal the clippers from LA"
You mean "Steal the Clippers BACK from LA."
Following a proposal by then-NBA attorney David Stern, the Braves were allowed to leave Buffalo after the 1977-78 season for San Diego. The deal was a complicated one, as Buffalo Braves owner John Y. Brown traded places with Boston Celtics owner Irv Levin. Levin, a California businessman, was unhappy in Boston and relished the opportunity to own a team in his home state. Levin immediately renamed the club the Clippers due to San Diego's bustling harbor and seaside locale.
We also had the Q's an ABA Franchise:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego_C...
I watched a few Q games at Pederson Gym, what a joke that was but it was fun.
I forgot to mention that the Houston Rockets were once the San Diego Rockets:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houston_Roc...
More on the "San Diego Rockets"
Well known players included Pat Riley, the "Big E" Elvin Hayes, Calvin Murphy, and Laker anouncer Stu Lanz...
http://www.sportsecyclopedia.com/nba/sdr...
You mean "Steal the Clippers BACK from LA."
Yup...I was wondering if people were going to wonder why oh why the Clippers and Yao, though I think the clippers were originally from new york(forget where) before SD. I always root for the Clips, because they are just such the underdog team for so long.
Unfortunately, the only way I think the Clips and the Chargers would do better is if they do something drastic like possibly switching the sport they play for one season. Sorry, that was mean.
They say they can't turn a profit unless they have a new stadium, but they need office buildings as a part of the project to fund the building of the new stadium. Seems to me they should use the extra profits from getting the new stadium to build the new stadium.
Could it possibly be that building a new stadium is not cost-effective ? Naw. Couldn't be. That doesn't make sense. We like new stadiums. They must be cost-effective. Oh. THey really aren't ?
Hm. In that case, lets get the city to build the new stadium and tell the city that if they build one they'll MAKE more money than if they don't build one (be sure not to tell them they aren't cost-effective), and make sure the (insert sports team here) threatens to leave cuz no politician wants a sports team to leave on their watch, especially if it means not getting a new stadim. Yeah. That's it.
Seems new stadiums are to cities what granite countertops are to homes. An overpriced luxury.
Lets get an MLS team into Qualcomm. They only need a few hundred seats anyway.
Nice !
Ducks would be a very difficult steal. Ducks have many more sellout crowds then the LA 'Queens'. And the Ducks have won the 'Holy Grail'. The kings only screw up the scheduling at Staples Center for the Lakers and Clippers. Staples Center makes more money when the Kings are on the road, even if it is dark...
LuckyInOC