No more "San Diego" Chargers? (Jackson: to buy, schools)

[Beware_of_Dog]

Nothing wrong with the new San Angeles Chargers......has a nice ring to it I think. I hope it happens soon. Would love to hop on the train at Oceanside ........ and then hop off a couple hundred yards from the new stadium in ........

[djxpress]

I love the Chargers (when they win...just like everyone else in SD). But our city is broke, the last thing we need to do is spend hundreds of millions on a new stadium.

Like some others have mentioned, the games only sell out because of ticket guarantees and angel donors (tv stations) who buy up the last of the tickets in the final minutes.

The fact is, year after year, the Chargers disappoint. They go 15-1, 14-2, etc. only to fwuck up in the post-season. If you want facts, those are the facts my friends.

[Encinitan]

So get rid of the team, and lose the chance to host a Super Bowl once a decade. You have to spend money to make money. There's a reason cities are vying to lure an NFL team away, and here, too many San Diegans are ready to give up a team. It doesn't make sense.

[6194life]

The Jacksonville Jaguars are bad and no one cares about them so why don't they just move to LA?

[Encinitan]

Originally Posted by 6194life

The Jacksonville Jaguars are bad and no one cares about them so why don't they just move to LA?

They just might. Last year, all but 1 of their regular season games did not sell out and were not shown on TV in the local area. Of course they beat the Broncos today, so it's all good!

[Oerdin]

Originally Posted by Encinitan

So get rid of the team, and lose the chance to host a Super Bowl once a decade. You have to spend money to make money. There's a reason cities are vying to lure an NFL team away, and here, too many San Diegans are ready to give up a team. It doesn't make sense.

Who cares? If you get shaken down for $1 billion every decade or so then once a decade getting a few tens of millions in new sales tax revenue doesn't even come close to off setting that massive drain on tax payer money. Spanos can hit the road and hope LA will pay his shake down money. Seriously, it's been shown over and over that sports stadium NEVER pay for themselves and tax payers always get hosed so hit the road Spanos because we don't want you.

[Oerdin]

Originally Posted by 6194life

The Jacksonville Jaguars are bad and no one cares about them so why don't they just move to LA?

For the last five years Spanos has used his owner's veto to prevent any other team moving to LA or an expansion team setting up shop in LA. He's repeatedly said LA was "his". That's why he's making completely outrageous financial demands when the 49'ers were able to self finance their new stadium without massive government handouts yet Spanos claims he just can't get by without an $800 million stadium (there will be cost over runs without a doubt) and tens of millions in ticket guarantees and numerous other large subsidies from the taxpayers. If he wanted to do it himself then he could just like the owner of the 49'ers did it (or the Disney Concert Hall in LA was paid for without public money) but instead he prefers to arrogantly demand billions in public subsidies so good riddance Spanos.

I don't know how any fan could be loyal to those arrogant bastards because they clearly have no loyalty to you or this city.

[6194life]

Originally Posted by Oerdin

For the last five years Spanos has used his owner's veto to prevent any other team moving to LA or an expansion team setting up shop in LA. He's repeatedly said LA was "his". That's why he's making completely outrageous financial demands when the 49'ers were able to self finance their new stadium without massive government handouts yet Spanos claims he just can't get by without an $800 million stadium (there will be cost over runs without a doubt) and tens of millions in ticket guarantees and numerous other large subsidies from the taxpayers. If he wanted to do it himself then he could just like the owner of the 49'ers did it (or the Disney Concert Hall in LA was paid for without public money) but instead he prefers to arrogantly demand billions in public subsidies so good riddance Spanos.

I don't know how any fan could be loyal to those arrogant bastards because they clearly have no loyalty to you or this city.

I like the team, not the owners. It seems he is being really greedy. Maybe he thinks if he goes to LA, he'll get more money since it's larger. If that's the case, then he and them can go for all I care.

[Encinitan]

Originally Posted by Oerdin

Who cares? If you get shaken down for $1 billion every decade or so then once a decade getting a few tens of millions in new sales tax revenue doesn't even come close to off setting that massive drain on tax payer money. Spanos can hit the road and hope LA will pay his shake down money. Seriously, it's been shown over and over that sports stadium NEVER pay for themselves and tax payers always get hosed so hit the road Spanos because we don't want you.

Teams don't build new stadiums "once a decade or so." For example, Qualcomm is 41 years old. So your cost-benefit analysis is a little off.

[Oerdin]

There are lots of continuous costs like ticket guarantees, electricity and water subsidies, parking subsidies, and lots of other subsides which keep the billionaire owners in gravy without risking much of their own money. Also the shear cost of building a new stadium means we'll never make that tax money back even if the stadium is around for 40 or 50 years yet you can be sure they'll want a new one before 40 or 50 years passes. It's a net money loser for tax payers simply because the cash outlays far exceed any increased tax revenue.

For instance Petco Park was recently trumpeted as having a much better return on investment (ROI) then expected amounting to about a 6.8% ROI. Sounds good, right? Not really. The city had to borrow hundreds of millions up front with an average APR of around 6% because our credit sucks. That means even with this spuriously large and doubtful ROI we're just barely making the interest payments on the debt and tax payers are going to be on the hook for paying just about all the principle costing several hundred million dollars. What worse is more realistic ROIs not calculated by the Padres owners only amount to 3%-4% which means the extra tax revenue from Petco Park isn't even enough to pay the interest on the bonds much less the principle.

Stadiums are simply net money losers for cities so it doesn't make sense for tax payers to dump a billion dollars it doesn't have into that money pit. It makes much more sense to use it to improve roads, schools, or other things which will get a much better ROI for the local tax payers. Sports team owners tend to be extremely well politically connected though so they're usually able to strong arm politicians into given them vast subsidies while the city gets stiffed. I'm very happy to be rid of those welfare queens who drain our city's budget and don't net contribute anything to our economy.