NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Saturday at a rally that the Chargers belong in San Diego and a new stadium would be “a ideal place for the Super Bowl”. The Chargers also announced its willingness to enter into a project labor agreement with the San Diego Building and Convention Trades Council that would effectively guarantee union-level wages and benefits.
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After his flirtation with Carson previous year, Spanos finally has a stadium plan in San Diego he is enthusiastic about.
The current concept features separate entries for the stadium and convention center, while a large “sky garden” would connect directly to the upper concourse of the stadium for panoramic views of the Coronado Bridge, the water and the downtown.
Like Faulconer, some City Council members, as well as representatives of San Diego’s convention and hospitality industry, said they are reserving judgment on the look of the stadium project until they can get more specifics about financing, construction and operation of what would be a publicly owned complex.
“We’ve been talking about building a stadium for a long time and now we actually see a clear path to the finish line”, Lemmon said. The Chargers haven’t been successful getting the public money they want for the stadium, which is why the L.A. possibility is still looming.
Tim Newcomb covers sports aesthetics-stadiums to sneakers-and training for Sports Illustrated.
It’s easy to (sometimes) forget that the opportunity for the Chargers to move to Los Angeles, as a tenant of the Los Angeles Rams in their soon-to-be-built Inglewood monster-stadium, still exists. Faulconer had supported a plan for a new stadium at the site of aging Qualcomm Stadium in Mission Valley. Mata said the proposed stadium is “much lower than most of the other recently constructed stadiums with retractable roofs (by) four to six stories”.
In fact, if the fine citizens of the City of San Diego don’t give the Chargers their signatures and then their votes to an appropriate degree.the Chargers will nearly assuredly be following that plan and heading up the 5 to Inglewood.
At the downtown event on Saturday, Goodell was joined by Chargers head coach Mike McCoy, general manager Tom Telesco, cornerback Jason Verrett, Philip Rivers, LaDainian Tomlinson and team chairman Dean Spanos. The International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association (IHRSA) is scheduled to hold its annual convention and trade show in San Diego in 2018.
“If I can play a constructive role, I want to be here”, Goodell said. “This is for the community to make, but we certainly want to be part of that solution”. And the National Football League needs to support this community and the effort. “Let’s get it done”.
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Not everyone at the event was enthusiastic about the proposed project.
