Why Do the Chargers Needs a New Stadium?
by Joe McRugby (Guest Blogger)
You often hear complaints that the Spanos family doesn't care about winning as compared to owners like Jerry Jones and Daniel Snyder, who regularly sign players -both their own and on the free agent market- to huge front loaded and bonus-laden deals.
San Diego fans ask "Why can't our owner be like that?"
Well, the sad truth of the matter is that with the exception of Al Davis the past year (who many believe has lost his mind - a correct assumption in my opinion), none of the NFL owners dip into their own bank accounts to use their own money to pay players. The money that is used for payroll comes from revenues generated from franchise operations.
With network television money and general admission ticket sales shared leaguewide, a large portion of NFL revenues put small market and large market teams on equal footing.
So what are the franchise revenues that allow owners like Daniel Snyder and Jerry Jones to regularly sign players to monster deals?
It is the revenues generated from their state-of-the-art stadiums: club seat and corporate suite sales are not shared revenue. The Redskins reportedly bring in excess of $100 million more annually than the Chargers. Jerry Jones' new palace (subsidized with more than $300 million of taxpayer money) will dwarf the numbers generated by Daniel Snyder's Redskins.
Qualcomm is one of the 10 largest stadiums in the NFL. The last blackout occurred in mid-season 2004. Yet, the Chargers are in the bottom half-dozen NFL franchises in team revenues. This disparity is entirely due to the 1966-built stadium in Mission Valley that simply is not up to snuff in regard to the non-shared revenues of the 85% of other NFL franchises whose state of the art stadiums have been built over the past 15 years.
Now you will know the answer before you ask next year "Why aren't the Chargers signing Shawne Merriman to the richest contract in NFL history?"
It's long past-due for San Diego politicians to work with the Chargers towards a "win-win" state-of-the-art football only stadium that will give the San Diego its opportunity to shine world-wide several times a year and keep the Chargers in San Diego for a long, long time.
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