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.
