[quote=spdrun]Does anyone other than the mayor have to approve this crap?[/quote]

Not positive on the details but I believe it depends on what gets proposed. If the funding for a new stadium includes tax increases to pay for it then it has to go to a vote. If there are no new taxes, (ie they take money from other city services) I think they (mayor & city council) can do it without a vote. I believe the last proposal from Faulconer to build a stadium next to the current Qualcomm stadium didn’t raise taxes so didn’t need a vote. But Spanos wants a different location and a better stadium.

[quote=spdrun]So let the Chargers go to L.A., good riddance. It can barely be called a “sport” anyway.

Bringing it to the voters (who might not want to spend a lot of tax money to keep a stupid sport in their town) is the right thing to do.
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If it’s brought to a vote it’s unclear if it would pass or not, but my suspicion is that it will be put on a primary ballot with poor turnout. The rabid fans will show up, while the general populace will ignore the whole thing. The end result will be a huge handout, and Spanos and supports saying, “well you voted for it.”

Safer yet for the pro stadium crowd is to take money from city budget. Then when the populace gets upset about lack of basic services they can put a measure on the ballot asking to raise taxes to pay for stuff like police, firefighters, schools, roads, etc. That way Spanos gets his stadium and we get higher taxes.

Unfortunately too few people seem to understand the basic math of this. Spanos (even as rich as he is) can’t afford to build a couple billion dollar stadium without taxpayer dollars. And the only place taxpayer dollars come from is taxes. So despite all the hocus pocus and handwaving about how the stadium will be good for the economy it comes down to taxing the general populace and giving the money to a multi-millionaire.