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Mar 24
2009
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What's Holding Up the Stadium Project?Posted by Jason Riggs in stadium, San Diego County, politicians, Economy, Chargers, Aztecs   |
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What's Holding Up the Stadium Project?
By Jason Riggs
The Chargers have spent nearly eight years and over $10M in an effort to get a new stadium built in San Diego County. However, to this date progress is still moving painfully slowly and appears to be somewhat stagnant through the first quarter of 2009.
This is especially troubling considering that The Dallas Cowboys New Stadium was conceived, planned and constructed during that same timeframe. So, while Jerry Jones and the Cowboys prepare to lift the curtain on their new facility, the Chargers will once again be playing in an aging, crumbling facility that includes bond and maintenance burdens for every taxpayer in San Diego County.
So, what's the deal San Diego? Why have the Dallas Cowboys been able to build a brand new facility in less time than it takes to even get an email back from some local politicians on this subject?
Are the financial stars out of alignment for such an endeavor?
Is it due a lack of political will?
Everybody has an opinion on this topic, but it doesn't take an AIG Executive to see that the economy is at least a partial cultprit. As the economy contracts projects like this seem to take a back seat even though the opportunity to buy land and build inexpensively is very attractive. And that's why some of the well-informed developers with sizeable war-chests are eagerly waiting on the sidelines to fund such a project.
Despite the curent economic conditions, several business and financial interests have expressed a desire to work with the Chargers to build a new stadium in San Diego County. Some of these entities have even gone so far as to create their own financial plans complete with committed investors. There are literally hundreds of such plans floating around right now and some very affluent entities are willing to fund them. So, it's not the economy's fault. At least not entirely. Gut instinct indicates that the economy is less of an issue than the virtually motionless political leadership when it comes to getting a new stadium built.
It's not a stretch to say that many politicians in San Diego are somewhat lethargic when it comes to taking firm leadership positions on critical issues. Many appear to be driven less by the desire to actually serve the public and more by the need to be re-elected.
Although the political climate has recently improved in terms of stadium-friendly politicians in power, there's still a lot of work and education required when it comes to local leadership.
The token gadflies such as Michael Aguirre and Bruce Henderson are out of the mix now, but this only clouds the picture. It's no longer clear to the average person which politicians are for and which are against the development of a stadium in the County. There's no obvious fall-guy or woman any more. That's probably why the current crop of leaders use phrases like "wait and see what happens with Chula Vista" and "what about the backlash from the Petco Park project" and the pervasive "we have more important issues to deal with right now." If these sound like cop-outs, that's probably because they are indeed cop-outs. They are excuses for inaction.
Okay, so there might be some validity to all of those points. An argument could be made that any effort this size involves some amount of risk. And yes, there could be backlash from the community. And, maybe the City does have other important issues to deal with right now. But, what you cannot question is that a new stadium will offer a direct path for dealing with many of these issues. It will provide a means of cleaning up the toxic site on which Qualcomm stadium now sits. It will also boost the local economy by creating jobs and bringing in critically needed tax revenue. It will preserve cherished civic assets such as the Chargers and San Diego State Aztecs. And it will provide a world class venue for highly visible national events so that they can continue to take place in America's Finest City.
So, considering the potential risks and guaranteed rewards, how is "inaction" an option? How is sitting in an apathy-colored La-Z-Boy trying to preserve some precious political career an acceptable way for our local leaders to conduct themselves?
In the words of Theodore Roosevelt "It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed."
The citizens and the politicians of San Diego County need to at least give this whole stadium endeavoer the "college try." Most would forgive the local leadership should it fail, but few will accept inaction if the result is the loss of the region's only NFL team.
Believe it or not, we could all learn a lesson from Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys. When the right people work together, magnificent things can happen in a very short period. And it all starts with political leadership that is at least willing to give it a shot.
With your help, we can change the political dialogue in San Diego County. We can make this a priority for our local leaders by forcing them to look beyond the next election cycle and seeing how much economic upside will come to our region through this project.
We will not tolerate blame shifting and inaction any longer.
It's time to get it done.