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).
