Since we are now one year into the Spanos departure from San Diego, I wonder why few if any in our sports media have done an in-depth investigation on who is ultimately to blame and why.
Folks, we lost an exclusive NFL franchise. There will never ever be another NFL franchise in this city considering the damage that has been done by losing this one. What has been proven is that San Diego, again, is not capable of pulling together political and civic leadership to do what is necessary in securing bona fide, legitimate efforts in business retention let alone attraction. We did not lose a local 7-11 store in which there are 150 others to replace it down the street. The NFL is gone-forever. Period.
Love or hate Mark Fabiani he was dead spot on when he noted that the SD political leadership was not capable nor up to the task of securing an agreement that was or would be acceptable. The proof is in the pudding.
The easy target has been Dean Spanos, as well he should be. But, didn’t we know all along that he and the NFL for that matter were rat finks? We knew what to expect from both. There were no hidden agendas on their parts. Like any business, they were going to extract everything they could from whatever source they could get it from. That was not a secret. Maybe though, San Diego was just too naïve to believe that they were going to be rescued by common sense coming from the NFL. How many times did we hear moving to LA makes no sense and the NFL would see that?
The problem was and is simply this: SD as a whole failed to think big because they were up against big. The leadership in SD is small.
Who gets the blame? Mayor Kevin Faulconer gets all of it. He was a total and abysmal fraud. Think about it. We knew and expected the Spanosites and the NFL to be rat finks. We expected better from the mayor and his team. What did we get? A false agenda of false promises. A totally bogus Mission Valley proposal. When a business owner says not interested, why do we waste millions to shove something down everyone’s throat?
The mayor wasted countless millions of dollars on enviironmental impact reports, committees such as CSAG, and city staff time on a Mission Valley proposal that was known to be dead on arrival from Day One. It was as Fabiani said it was—political cover. And the time that was wasted is beyond explanation. How many times did Spanos tell us (the Chargers) were not and never would be interested in Mission Valley? How tone deaf is the mayor and San Diego leadership to not have understood this—yet they did it anyway. Why? Because the mayor and his allies knew that they would never have to put a sincere proposal on the table that was bona fide. They knew Mission Valley would be rejected and they would never have to live up to the bogus bargain. Millions of valuable taxpayer dollars were wasted by this mayor and his allies. Shame goes to them and it should be publicly noted by all of you in the media so this never happens again. We need you the media to step up and hold them accountable. This charade can not stand ever again!
Also, the deeper story has not been fully told on what we now know or reasonably suspect about this mayor and why he did what he did.
It is clear, that he was running a game on Spanos. Concurrently and secretly it appears that he ran planning meetings with Soccer City. This explains his indifference to the downtown proposition as well as legitimately and honestly negotiating anything with Spanos. You can bet the NFL knew what was going on and so did Spanos. They could never take this mayor seriously or trust him. Knowing what we know now can we blame them?
Further, who else knew that the mayor was pulling this nonsense behind the scenes? Did Adam Day know? That would certainly irritate the CSAG efforts. Did Ron Roberts know? Did Scott Sherman know?
Then we have the Mission Valley proposal itself. Only Tom Krasovic has noted best as I can tell that the $300 million offered by the mayor was never a guarantee. He had no authority or council approval to make it—yet it went unquestioned. This media should have been blasting this mayor a long time ago for not having any agreement with his city council for anything that he proposed in Mission Valley. He failed at bringing in a coalition of bipartisan support. There was no buy in from organized labor or the Democrat majority. He failed at bringing in key players in business as well. What he was good at was listening to his core that elected him— the hotel people.
Further, the problem with Mission Valley is that it will be challenged by the environment folks and all of the usual suspects. The site is still toxic regardless of what the so called flowery reports have been from the current water officials regarding the huge gas plumes from the Friars Road storage tanks. There will be challenges as there should be. Trust me on this; it will be years before either SDSU or Soccer City can lift a shovel there. The Q ain’t going anywhere. Further, the city still owes tens of millions in bond debt on that stadium. Who pays it off and how?
Just remember how long the delays were for Petco and the SDSU arena. The current stadium site will be litigated for several years you can count on that. Don’t expect a thing to happen until at least 2025.
Spanos knew this which is why he asked for an additional $200 million plus to even consider Mission Valley. They know that delays in clean-up and lawsuits would cost them millions.
Why has the mayor been so close to the hotels? Besides the obvious the untold story is out there. This mayor needs a soft landing in a well paid six figure job when he is done here. The hotel powers will provide this. He is not going to be governor.
Folks, downtown was doable with the right financing innovations and without the transient occupancy tax. The mayor should have sought a joint powers agreement with the county and the port. They should have created a separate entertainment district in which all of the Gaslamp would be a part of which had a separate taxing structure and not involving the TOT. The vision should have been similar to creating an LA LIVE but better. What is so hard about this?
Rat fink honorable mention:
Soccer City. Why were they engaging in secret negotiations in the first place during a time critical with the Spanos? That is not ethical. It says a lot about them doesn’t it?
SDSU. All during the Chargers negotiations they were asked time and again why they had not weighed in. Now we know. They were cozy with Soccer City. They were not ethical as well.
The Democrats on the city council. They should have called this mayor out on every aspect of what was going on. They knew and said nothing.
So here we are one year later. This is what we know:
We had a mayor spend millions to taxpayer dollars to make a dishonest proposal to a NFL team owner and a dishonest league. Mission Valley was nothing more than a bogus proposal designed to provide political cover. Fabiani was spot on again.
San Diego ends up with a huge black eye because the image nationally is that this city just loses franchise after franchise over the years. San Diego is the city that can’t.
There is no quality and honest leadership in San Diego that can be trusted or respected ever. That goes for political as well as business selfish interests. This is a rotten city and we should stop thinking it as some bastion of loveliness. It’s not AFC. We trip over ourselves all of the time. Pick the issue and problem. It’s a mess here. Let’s stop kidding ourselves.
Bottom line: a deal downtown or anywhere but Mission Valley could have been done had we the kind of honest and dynamic civic leadership that is needed. We expected the Spanos side to be rat finks. We knew what we had in them. We did not expect that from the mayor or his allies. All the shame and blame goes to him. We deserved much better. One year too late.
Russ Hall is a Chula Vista resident.
