The Chargers' loss Sunday knocked them out of the NFL playoffs, marking 51 years since a professional San Diego team won a championship title.
The Associated Press says that’s the longest championship drought for any city with a major league team. In San Diego, which also has the Padres in baseball and once had the Clippers in basketball, it was the Chargers who last won a major title when the team captured the American Football Championship in 1963. Cleveland, which has three pro teams, hasn’t seen a major title in 50 years.
That sounds like some bad PR for a team that’s been lobbying San Diego officials for a new stadium since 2002, but Chargers chief spokesman on the issue Mark Fabiani says it won’t affect the team’s dreams of a new stadium.
"Whether the team won or lost the day before or the month before or the year before isn’t going to matter as much as, 'Does the deal make sense for taxpayers?’” Fabiani, special counsel to the president said in a phone interview.
Fabiani said San Diego taxpayers are on the hook now for $15 million in annual upkeep and an estimated $100 million for deferred maintenance at Qualcomm Stadium.
“So in short, it’s a bad deal for everyone. It doesn’t work for the Chargers because (the stadium)’s outmoded, and it’s a huge drain for the city,” he said.
For nearly 13 years, the team has proposed upgrading the 47-year-old stadium. Most recently, the Chargers have been behind a plan that would combine a new stadium with a Convention Center expansion.
City officials were moving forward with a stand-alone Convention Center expansion until a judge rejected the plan to fund it in August.
U-T San Diego reported the $1.4 billion joint proposal did not include a financing plan, but Fabiani said some funds could come from selling the city-owned 166 acres in Mission Valley where the stadium is currently located plus support from the Chargers and the National Football League.
However, some oppose the use of public dollars to fund a new stadium in any way. New San Diego City Councilman Chris Cate said during his campaign that he’s against the idea. The volunteer advocacy group San Diego Tax Fighters is also opposed to a public-funded stadium.
Mayor Kevin Faulconer has said he wants to keep the Chargers in San Diego and would require any stadium proposal go before voters.
Fabiani personally met with Faulconer in October, but the spokesman said he hasn’t heard of any progress on the stadium front.
A Faulconer spokesman said Monday that he’ll weigh in early next year on a stadium and convention center expansion proposal.
