![]() ![]() The debate now shifts to whether the team can even get a proposal on the ballot in 2006 because of the city’s meltdown, and what potential roadblocks await a development plan if it is approved by voters.įabiani said any voter-approved development of the scale proposed by the team will require the close cooperation of a number of government entities, including the city. Talk no longer simply focuses around if the voters will approve the package. The political whirlwind has even changed the basic equation. The city’s shaky finances and political uncertainty, team officials say, have driven away prospective developers needed to complete the housing and retail buildings that would stand alongside a new football stadium in Mission Valley. Significant changes between the Chargers’ original stadium proposal and the one on the table now reflect that change.Īnd while the team’s on-the-field performance has improved greatly in recent years, the city’s financial picture has gone from above-average to desperately poor since the Chargers first presented a stadium plan in January 2003. In that era, a construction boom of new, publicly financed stadiums left cities and team owners constantly trying to keep up with the Joneses. It’s one of many significant dynamics that have changed since the Chargers’ business representatives were last selling the idea of a new football stadium to San Diegans in 20.įor one, the American public in general doesn’t support publicly subsidized ballparks and football stadiums with the same fervor it did in the 1990s and early 2000s. Indeed, the back-and-forth between the city attorney and the team isn’t merely a personality issue. And if, in the end, the Chargers are unable to work out a deal in San Diego, Aguirre will be the one responsible for that outcome,” said Mark Fabiani, the Chargers’ special counsel. “We anticipate that Aguirre will be a roadblock at every step of the way. ![]() Just as he’s done with the pension system, the city’s consultants and its wastewater system, Aguirre plans to complete a background report into the Chargers past dealings with the city within a month. The battle just began simmering but is likely to rage as the Chargers progress towards a stadium proposal that could be before voters a year from now. I think they’ll get past that and we’ll move forward.” They’re just not used to anybody talking smack back to them. “And I’ve called them corporate welfare queens,” Aguirre said. ![]() It was a reference to the temperamental Philadelphia Eagles star football player who was recently suspended from the team indefinitely for making disparaging public remarks about his teammates and coach. “The sad fact is that you have become the Terrell Owens of San Diego by making name-calling and erroneous statements regular weapons in your perpetual grabs for television cameras,” the team’s special counsel, Mark Fabiani, wrote last week in a letter addressed to Aguirre. Instead of simply brushing off the concerns of citizen Aguirre, the team now frequently releases documents to the media and the public contesting what team officials say are inaccuracies in the city attorney’s public statements regarding their contract and new stadium proposal. To be sure, the Chargers have adapted quickly. But add a new title before his name and City Attorney Mike Aguirre turns from private pest to powerful public official.įrom that title comes a new venue from which to address the team’s desires the same way he has dealt with the city’s other high-profile issues: with his usual confrontational style. The Chargers may still consider Aguirre pesky. The private attorney used his companions and the public comment portion of the 20 meetings to combat the football team’s public statements about their need for a new home and their past promises. He arrived at the evening meetings of the mayor’s task force on stadium issues armed with blown-up newspaper articles and accompanied by the likes of a college professor who regularly referred to the National Football League as a “cartel.” Monday, Novem| The last the San Diego Chargers saw of Mike Aguirre he was a pesky citizen. Playing Field Altered This Time in Chargers Push for Stadium | Voice of San Diego Close ![]()
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