New Charger Stadium (San Diego: transplants, sales, 2015)

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Will you be voting for it?

[sprez33]

Absolutely not! First, there is the moral issue of taxing one group of people for the benefit of another. Second, this is basic corporate welfare. The city and taxpayers should not support private enterprise. There are multiple options to build a stadium completely with private funds. The city still has not paid off Qualcomm.

I will be very proud of San Diego if we summarily defeat this initiative.

[BizrulesSD]

I am glad to see a city is finally standing up to the NFL. Unfortunately, that city is my home town where we might lose our team.

If a stadium was able to provide a positive ROI, you would have seen private entities building them all over the place. The reality is that stadiums (Football in particular) are a terrible investment. The idea of building a billion dollar stadium for the 10-12 football games a year is ridiculous. I imagine that there are other ways to generate revenue or to bring down costs (using non-union labor) to make this more viable.

In the end, it will depend on the plan/tax. A tax on hotels, sure. Increasing sales tax... Go fly a kite.

Sprez33 -
Just about every public project benefits one group more than another but I get your point.

[eastcoastbias]

Sales Tax 8% how and why this would be touched is not even a discussion piece.

Tourism/hotel tax is an incredible source of potential revenue that would be wasted on investment that provides semi entertainment to maybe 35/40k local residents 8 times a year is an absurd waste. On any given Sunday the stadium is probably 30-40% filled with out of towners or locals that will be here today and gone tomorrow.

I love football. I am not a Charger fan but I was old enough to witness my team leaving in Cleveland, that when they got a team back funded their new stadium privately and with a little help of an alcohol/tobacco tax. I get the sentimental appeal and the anguish of losing your team.

The arguments of making it a dual convention center(a facility the city already possesses) and the potential of hosting a Super Bowl every 7-8 years. Not compelling enough for me.

Instead we should Fix the crumbling infrastructure that 100% of all residents use

[The Flying Dutchman]

Nope.

[hitman619]

If i was able to vote, i would vote Yes on a new Stadium.
My Reasoning's:
1)The Stadium would used way more than just 8 times a year(International soccer Matches, Concerts, Motocross. Monster Tuck Shows, Jehovah witness retreats ect..)
2)I don't trust the City to do the right thing with the Money if the Stadium is not built.
3) The hoteliers and the city have been trying to get their grubby hands on this tax for years. The Lessor of 2 evils IMO, Id rather give the money to the Chargers if had to pick.

[sprez33]

Originally Posted by BizrulesSD

Sprez33 -
Just about every public project benefits one group more than another but I get your point.

True but there should be at lease broad alignment between those taxed and the beneficiaries. In this case, even if 10,000 hotel rooms we're sold per game to out of town visitors, that would mean that less than 1% of all hotel stays. The only major beneficiary would be the Spanos family.

People are starting to pay close attention to the burden that travel taxes have on their vacations.

Top 10 cities with the highest travel taxes - Fortune

[eastcoastbias]

Originally Posted by sprez33

True but there should be at lease broad alignment between those taxed and the beneficiaries. In this case, even if 10,000 hotel rooms we're sold per game to out of town visitors, that would mean that less than 1% of all hotel stays. The only major beneficiary would be the Spanos family.

People are starting to pay close attention to the burden that travel taxes have on their vacations.

Top 10 cities with the highest travel taxes - Fortune

Truthfully, I look at this from a more selfish perspective. I actually think SD should take advantage of the fact that its a highly desirable place to go to and shift the burden on those who want to vacation here. These folks only bear the burden IF they visit here and on a rare occasion if but once or twice their entire life


However, I think this is an incredible source of revenue that is tossed away in a stadium that you or I may visit once every couple years. In four years Do you think we will make it 18% to 22% tax rate to fix our roads?

[sdlife619]

Lack of Charger or sports fans on this forum I see?

Well as life long Bolt fan, you don't understand what it means to get excited for Sundays in the fall when the NFL season starts.

I understand the tax issues here, and people not liking the way Spanos is going about this whole thing, but look how transformed Downtown is, ever since Petco has been built???

East Village was a dump, and downtown was scary as hell at night before the ballpark was built. Nothing really was going on besides for the bars/clubs in the Gaslamp, but ever since the Padres moved their, the city has finally started to grow up and development continues to take off, new hotels, condo's. apartments, etc...

Petco is a perfect example of how a public/private finance of a stadium can truly remake and improve an area even if it takes some tax dollars to do so. It benefits everybody in the long run. And why are people so concerned with increase taxes on hotel visitors?? It's not a tax on the residents, so I don't see what the big deal is and why this will lead you to vote no. Visitors will still come to SD in droves, so I don''t believe it will reduce our tourism if the hotel tax went up a bit.

losing the Chargers, and an NFL team in general, will be a devastating blow to our city morally and emotionally regardless of how many other things their is to do here . Forget about the money and how a new stadium can possibly bring even more events to town, helping the convention center or whatever, and increase more revenue for the city, it's the pride that will be lost if they left, Football Sundays is the only day of year that truly brings most of everyone in San Diego together no matter what race, color, class, or creed you come from as it brings us all together for one day, to watch the Chargers play because in reality, SD is a FOOTBALL and Soccer town, not baseball, so it goes to show how powerful a pro sport means to a city and it's people. I don't see this when the Padres play, nor do ever see Padres stickers or Pad flags being waved around town on the back of people's cars/trucks like I do the Chargers.

Sundays in the fall is like one giant get together party, and it is a big deal for a lot San Diegans even if they are not Charger fans, but simply football fans. It benefits the transplants as well because it allows them to see their favorite teams play here whenever their team is on the schedule.

So I look at this stadium project as one huge moral and economic issue. Do we want to continue to be a world class city, a real big major city that has an NFL team that so many other cities would kill for if they had the chance? Or do we want to lose them, including possibly Comic-Con because our political leaders and SD's political climate being so divisive basically drives both the Chargers and CC out of town all because the people here treat each other like enemies, which also includes the Hoteliers?

I vote YES! We cannot risk losing an NFL team no matter how crappy the Bolts have been playing the past few seasons.

[mongozx]

I would absolutely vote yes on this stadium. Morals Shmorals. . .I mean seriously, what is wrong with extra-taxing tourists who stay in our hotels and using it to help pay for a new stadium? Piece of crap cities like Houston used something similar to pay for a stadium with exorbitant TOT rates that 2X exceeds SDs. Corporate welfare? Geez, get outta here! I can't stand Spanos myself but as a native San Diegan I say THIS IS OUR CRAPPY TEAM and not anyone elses! What a big freakin loss that would be, losing our team because a bunch of whiny San Diegans go on and on over phantom potholes and lack of park space. That's our city, right? Whining over petty, shortsighted crap that has nothing to do with the vote.