The Chargers and city missed a deadline Friday to reach an agreement on a stadium plan that would lead to a public vote in January, a “bittersweet” moment for the team, according to special counsel Mark Fabiani.
This is considered to be the last day San Diego and the Chargers can forge an agreement in time to have the City Attorney’s Office draft a ballot measure and get it approved by the City Council in time to hold a special election.
At a lunch meeting of the Albondigas Political Society, Fabiani outlined a series of missed opportunities that could have led to a deal, including former Mayor Jerry Sanders rejecting a joint stadium-convention center project downtown.
Fabiana also cited current Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s appointment of a task force to study the stadium issue instead of immediately beginning negotiations, and moving ahead with an expedited environmental study of the proposed Mission Valley site.
“As a result, we stand here with our fate in the hands of the NFL owners,” Fabiani told members of the organization, which is named after a Mexican meatball soup.
He said the moment was bittersweet when paired with the hopes of a new season that begins Sunday with a home contest against the Detroit Lions.
The Chargers have been wanting a new stadium for nearly 15 years and have acquired land in Carson, an L.A. suburb, to build their own facility — possibly in concert with the Oakland Raiders — in case they cannot make a deal in San Diego.
St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke, meanwhile, is aiming to build a stadium in Inglewood, another Los Angeles County city. NFL owners will have to decide if all, some or none of the teams will be allowed to move into the potentially lucrative Los Angeles market, which has been without a franchise for more than 20 years.
“We can’t control that — we don’t know what’s going to happen,” Fabiani said.
Fabiani said such a decision could be made late this year or early next year, and that the Chargers would adhere to the ruling.
In a statement, Faulconer thanked fans and civic officials who helped San Diego make its best case to the NFL owners, and that city and county leaders remain ready to negotiate.
“While it’s no surprise that the Chargers have allowed today’s deadline to pass for a January 12 special election, San Diego can still hold a public vote on a new stadium during the normal election cycle in June or November — if Chargers ownership is willing to work in good faith with their hometown,” the mayor said.
In answering media questions after his talk, Fabiani refused to speculate on when or whether the Chargers might return to the negotiating table.
He said the city was “wedded” to a “legally insufficient” environmental study of the proposed Mission Valley site — next to Qualcomm Stadium — that cannot be the basis for further talks.
“The city would have to go back to square one and do (the EIR) the right way,” Fabiani said.
The Chargers ended stadium negotiations in June after objecting to the city’s expedited timeline, which produced an environmental impact report much faster than usual. Fabiani contends the report will not survive court challenges.
Faulconer, county Supervisor Ron Roberts and City Attorney Jan Goldsmith have said the quick EIR is valid because a project would simply replace existing Qualcomm Stadium, so the impacts are already known.
—City News Service
