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Still a money pit. Does little for hotel taxes as most people are locals. The events aren't enough to overcome the maintenance costs, nor do they stimulate enough economic activity (or notoriety) to justify public subsidy.
All these events can continue with the current state of Qualcomm. Last time I checked, the Chargers/NFL are the only ones complaining about their 65,000 seat stadium. If the others really cared, Viejas can also accommodate them. No need to rebuild perfectly adequate entertainment infrastructure for the primary purpose of an "enhanced" 8 game season and 1-2 superbowls (as in 2 days out of the 40 year life span of the facility).
Plus, they are asking the average citizen to pay for a facility that they will use maybe once a year. San Diego has 3.3 million people and the average person does not step foot on Qualcomm. It provides no tangible benefits to 95% of locals.
The Chargers really need to just leave. San Diego is better than their loser football team.
As a Raider Fan I Agree
The whole "Not with my Tax Dollars approach" is one of the reasons why the Chargers are history.
Good Luck Getting anybody but the Aztec to play in Qualcomm.
The Monster Truck show has left for Petco
Motocross has left for Petco
International Soccer Matches bring in more money and revnue than a charger game ever will (look it up)
If you ever want to see what happens to facility after a team leaves, drive by the San Diego Sports Arena on a Saturday.
Get use to "USED CAR TENT SALES" And "CRAPPY ROADS" to drive on because, that money you guys are going to save is not going back in the Coffer like you think or hoped.
One Word "pension"
As a Raider Fan I Agree
The whole "Not with my Tax Dollars approach" is one of the reasons why the Chargers are history.
Good Luck Getting anybody but the Aztec to play in Qualcomm.
The Monster Truck show has left for Petco
Motocross has left for Petco
International Soccer Matches bring in more money and revnue than a charger game ever will (look it up)
If you ever want to see what happens to facility after a team leaves, drive by the San Diego Sports Arena on a Saturday.
Get use to "USED CAR TENT SALES" And "CRAPPY ROADS" to drive on because, that money you guys are going to save is not going back in the Coffer like you think or hoped.
One Word "pension"
Then hopefully San Diego can just tear it down and develop the land. Build something the city needs and can be proud of. As much as I love the completely concrete structure surrounded by acres of asphalt, it's time for it to go.
Sports Arena needs to be torn down too. Midway district in general is dumpy and very underutilized land. Not sure how the people in Point Loma/Loma Portal tolerate it...
Definitely agree that the Midway/Sports Area area is heavily underutilized/dumpy. I'll never understand why there are car rental agencies along prime real estate on Harbor Dr....
Yea like in the 1800's
But seriously, People need to understand that the Stadium will be used more that 8 times a Year.
Soccer Matches, Rugby, Monster Truck Shows, Motocross, Music Concerts, Aztec football games will all Generate additional Revenue.
It's actually 10 games (2 preseason) and maybe a playoff game or two. And maybe a super bowl game every 10 years. Maybe a couple of bowl games as well. The rest of those things you listed, are nice, but don't generate a ton of money. The NFL is a billion dollar per year business with millions of fans and a super bowl that gets watched around the world and companies spend millions on 20 second ads.
People always love to use the "Other events" theory, but the reality is if the Chargers leave San Diego, nobody is building a 1.2 Billion stadium. So like it or not, those 8 games are what builds that stadium and what cities love/hate about it. Nobody builds a billion dollar stadium for rugby or monster truck shows. Those things might generate a few more bucks, but they aren't money makers. It never makes sense when people pretend like that's the case though.
SD, like it or not, is not a football town. It's not a baseball town either. Whereas teams like the New England Patriots or Pittsburgh Steelers or Dallas Cowboys or NY Giants and so on have fans around the world. There are bars dedicated to Patriots/Redsox, Giants, Jets, Steelers, even Raiders, etc in almost every city. Hell in SD there are many games where more Jets fans show up than chargers fans. And the Jets don't have a huge fanbase like some of these other teams. But I can name a couple of bars that become Jets bars during the NFL season. I can tell you that last season something like 100+ people from NY/NJ flew out just to see the Jets/Chargers game. And the Jets stunk.
SD and the Chargers just don't have those kinds of fans. And sadly, it's also why if the Chargers leave SD, it won't matter to most people. But if the Eagles left Philly or Jets left NJ or Gaints left NY, there might be fans who actually try and murder the owners. And I'm not even joking on that last part. Last season there were many jets fans who spent thousands on billboards and spent who knows what on signs carried by a plane to fly over the stadium and practice facility. All to have the GM fired. And you know what, the GM wound up being fired. When you have fans that crazy and dedicated, it becomes a far different scenario compared to San Diego where most people don't even seem to care if they stay or go.
Last edited by Pedro2000; 05-20-2015 at 08:08 PM..
The thing is, LA isn't going to care if they come or not either. I just don't see LA fans driving to Carson to see the Chargers or the Raiders (well, maybe the Raiders) or the Rams and filling up a 80k stadium for every home game (that would be 16 games in LA). LA isn't that great of a football town either, They weren't clammering for a team, it is the NFL and owners that want this market. LA fans have USC and UCLA. LA is a basketball town. This is turning into a real mess.
The thing is, LA isn't going to care if they come or not either. I just don't see LA fans driving to Carson to see the Chargers or the Raiders (well, maybe the Raiders) or the Rams and filling up a 80k stadium for every home game (that would be 16 games in LA). LA isn't that great of a football town either, They weren't clammering for a team, it is the NFL and owners that want this market. LA fans have USC and UCLA. LA is a basketball town. This is turning into a real mess.
I think the Rams had a decent fanbase years ago, but who knows now. Raiders have fans in every city no matter what. They could move to London and probably pack a stadium somehow. Their fanbase is just odd as they really are vagabonds in a way. I think most Raiders fans don't even know where Oakland is at this point anyway.
The Chargers in Carson, I don't know. They aren't always sold out in SD, so how many of them fans would ever drive up to LA or even be fans anymore? I also think it's kind of BS as well because yeah LA isn't SD, but it's not like they are moving to Texas or to Oakland. Hardcore fans might be pissed, but 8 weeks a year instead of driving 30 minutes, drive 2 hours, not that big of a deal. I mean half the fans of the Jets/Giants drive down from various parts of NY that take 1-2 hours. And the reality is NJ is not NY so the Jets/Giants left NY years ago and most fans didn't suddenly hate them. Now they just complain about the time it takes to get to the stadium. The 49ers pretty much moved to San Jose (Santa Clara). So yeah for city pride and all that it stinks, but a hardcore Chargers fan, why would it really change who they root for? It's not like LA has had an NFL team for over 20 years.
But yeah, how many celebrities will care to go to games with non stars? Neither the Raiders nor Chargers have a Tom Brady or Peyton Manning. Phillip Rivers is good, but most celebrities could care less about him. And that is LA. If Tom Brady were coming to town, they'd all jump at trying to get season tickets. Darrick Carr or Philip Rivers(who doesn't even want to play in LA) not so much. So I agree it is all about the owners. Raiders might be ok no matter what, but the Chargers or Rams, what new fans will actually care to go to 8 games a season?
Definitely agree that the Midway/Sports Area area is heavily underutilized/dumpy. I'll never understand why there are car rental agencies along prime real estate on Harbor Dr....
Agree
That area is perfect example of poor city planning.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pedro2000
It's actually 10 games (2 preseason) and maybe a playoff game or two. And maybe a super bowl game every 10 years. Maybe a couple of bowl games as well. The rest of those things you listed, are nice, but don't generate a ton of money. The NFL is a billion dollar per year business with millions of fans and a super bowl that gets watched around the world and companies spend millions on 20 second ads.
People always love to use the "Other events" theory, but the reality is if the Chargers leave San Diego, nobody is building a 1.2 Billion stadium. So like it or not, those 8 games are what builds that stadium and what cities love/hate about it. Nobody builds a billion dollar stadium for rugby or monster truck shows. Those things might generate a few more bucks, but they aren't money makers. It never makes sense when people pretend like that's the case though.
SD, like it or not, is not a football town. It's not a baseball town either. Whereas teams like the New England Patriots or Pittsburgh Steelers or Dallas Cowboys or NY Giants and so on have fans around the world. There are bars dedicated to Patriots/Redsox, Giants, Jets, Steelers, even Raiders, etc in almost every city. Hell in SD there are many games where more Jets fans show up than chargers fans. And the Jets don't have a huge fanbase like some of these other teams. But I can name a couple of bars that become Jets bars during the NFL season. I can tell you that last season something like 100+ people from NY/NJ flew out just to see the Jets/Chargers game. And the Jets stunk.
SD and the Chargers just don't have those kinds of fans. And sadly, it's also why if the Chargers leave SD, it won't matter to most people. But if the Eagles left Philly or Jets left NJ or Gaints left NY, there might be fans who actually try and murder the owners. And I'm not even joking on that last part. Last season there were many jets fans who spent thousands on billboards and spent who knows what on signs carried by a plane to fly over the stadium and practice facility. All to have the GM fired. And you know what, the GM wound up being fired. When you have fans that crazy and dedicated, it becomes a far different scenario compared to San Diego where most people don't even seem to care if they stay or go.
Might be a first, but I disagree with you!
The Fiscal impact To the city From a International Soccer Match, Holiday Bowl, would be huge. Look at when the Mexican national soccer team plays a friendly Match in LA. It's usually sold out and the hotels are Booked months out.
Quote:
Originally Posted by loveautumn
The thing is, LA isn't going to care if they come or not either. I just don't see LA fans driving to Carson to see the Chargers or the Raiders (well, maybe the Raiders) or the Rams and filling up a 80k stadium for every home game (that would be 16 games in LA). LA isn't that great of a football town either, They weren't clammering for a team, it is the NFL and owners that want this market. LA fans have USC and UCLA. LA is a basketball town. This is turning into a real mess.
This^^^^
They don't care anymore than we do. The only benefit is that they can Charge more for PSL's
Agree
That area is perfect example of poor city planning.
Might be a first, but I disagree with you!
The Fiscal impact To the city From a International Soccer Match, Holiday Bowl, would be huge. Look at when the Mexican national soccer team plays a friendly Match in LA. It's usually sold out and the hotels are Booked months out.
This^^^^
They don't care anymore than we do. The only benefit is that they can Charge more for PSL's
I agree that money is made by these events, but 1 or 2 bowl games a year is not saving any city. The Soccer matches, I don't know, LA has a huge fanbase of soccer fans, and while SD is closer to Mexico, is there that many here who would pack a soccer stadium? I mean Qualcomm exists now, when was the last time an International soccer game was played here? Why would it suddenly change in the future? And if that huge soccer stadium and a football stadium is built in LA, why would SD get first rights even with a new stadium?
At least the Bowl games are pretty much guaranteed once or twice a year. The Olympics, International Soccer Matches, Super Bowls, etc are something you might see once every few years, maybe not even. So 1 or 2 events every 5 years isn't really a huge impact.
I'm not a San Diego taxpayer so my opinion doesn't really matter, but as a Chargers fan and from what I've read of the CSAG proposal it seems like a pretty reasonable financing proposal for everyone involved. Chargers and NFL contribute half a billion +ticket and parking surcharges, and the city and county add to the remainder and get to keep what amounts to civic pride and a state of the art stadium that they'd hope would attract political national conventions and other things.
I think the thing that is most impactful about the proposal (is it considered a proposal at this point?) is the part where it says something along the lines of the Chargers estimated contribution of $200M being static over the past decade even though revenues have risen and construction costs have risen. Someone on the Chargers forum also mentioned that the $100M addition asked of Spanos in the CSAG proposal is especially fair when you consider the scope of the project as well. If Spanos chooses not to work with the city over that, it's clear that he had no intention of staying regardless of any plan.
I think the most annoying part of these billion dollar stadiums is how unnecessarily ostentatious they have become. Why do you need 50 yard jumbotrons and party pools and all of that garbage? It's a joke that the NFL has decided that that's the minimum standard going forward. The Patriots' relatively new Gilette Stadium only cost $325M when it was built a little over a decade ago. How did it balloon so quickly?
Anyway -- I hope you guys get to keep your team. I really enjoy heading out to your great city to watch the Bolts whenever I can. I know I certainly won't follow the team to the cesspool that is Los Angeles.
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" is one of the reasons why the Chargers are history. 
