Warning: This video contains crude language
Sports commentator Bill Simmons and Tony Hawk have some thoughts about the Chargers’ proposal to build a “convadium.”
For one, it’s not a thing.
In this week's episode of the HBO show “Any Given Wednesday With Bill Simmons,” the commentator makes his case against Measure C. The ballot measure, proposed by the San Diego Chargers, would raise the city’s hotel occupancy tax to build a football stadium and convention center in downtown.
"Wealthy owners looking for handouts to build a new stadium always tell us the same lie: It's not a stadium,” Simmons says in a voice-over.
He says similar projects in other cities have gone by different names. In St. Louis, Ballpark Village has been called a "multiphase-master-plan-sports-anchor development."
A sports economist also chimes in (“stadiums aren’t major drivers of economic activity”), as well as Councilman Chris Cate (“I took the time to read the initiative, saw how bad it was”).
Chargers CEO Dean Spanos and Mayor Kevin Faulconer, who endorsed Measure C earlier in October, also make an appearance.
RELATED: Faulconer, Other Stadium Backers Highlight Chargers’ Role In San Diego
The clip concludes with professional skateboarder Tony Hawk, or as Simmons calls him, “a native son who’s given more prestige to San Diego than every single Charger combined.”
Hawk says:
I've seen a lot of things in my 82 years of being a professional skateboarder. … I've never seen a convadium. It’s not a real thing. I love the Chargers but if they go we still have the beach, the zoo, Blink-182, Mexico, the sunshine, Nick Cannon, Comic-Con and me, Tony Hawk. And I'm probably going to live 200 years.
Watch the full clip above.
