Team officials: Cities could partner to keep Chargers in town

A San Diego Chargers official said Monday that it could take several cities working together to keep the football team in the county.

"The ultimate solution could be a regional solution," said Mark Fabiani, the team's lead negotiator for a new stadium,

Fabiani's comments were part of a wide-ranging interview with the North County Times editorial board Monday in which he discussed the NFL football team's need for a new home and possible ways to finance a $700 million stadium.

Team officials have said they want to leave aging Qualcomm Stadium in Mission Valley within the next decade for a new state-of-the-art facility. They have also said they want to stay in the county and have identified Chula Vista, National City and Oceanside as potential homes.

Fabiani said Monday a stadium could be built in one city and paid for with some sort of development elsewhere in the county. The two cities would then share the costs and revenues from the stadium, he said.

For example, leaders of National City last week discussed the possibility of working with Chula Vista, the city of San Diego and County of San Diego on a partnership to keep the team in the area. National City leaders said Oceanside would not in all likelihood be part of a partnership they form because it would only involve cities that would receive significant costs and benefits from the project.

Fabiani said the Chargers have had no conversations with leaders of any North County cities besides Oceanside about a stadium proposal. And, Oceanside City Attorney John Mullen said Monday the city has not contacted or been approached by any other neighboring city about working together to bring the Chargers to North County.

Chargers and Oceanside officials have been exploring the possibility of the team building a stadium on a 70-plus-acre, city-owned golf course off Interstate 5 since earlier this month.

The team is looking for a city to provide it with land for both a stadium and a development, saying revenues from a housing, entertainment or shopping development could help pay for the stadium.

"We are trying to do something that has never been done -- privately finance an NFL stadium," Fabiani said. "We realize how difficult it is."

On average, taxpayers have contributed about 60 percent of the costs of building football stadiums around the league, Fabiani said.

He said the Chargers aren't looking for a significant public subsidy, and instead want to strike a trade with taxpayers. While it's too early for details, Fabiani said, the basic idea is that a city would provide the team with land in exchange for generating millions of local tax dollar

Building a stadium will require many partners, including developers willing to invest in the project, Fabiani said. He said the team could in all likelihood receive a $70 million loan from the National Football League to help pay for the construction of a stadium under a program the league is expected to soon renew.

Fabiani said the team is looking for a standard 25-year lease with a city for a new stadium similar to those other NFL teams have signed.The city would own the stadium, but the Chargers would pay all the maintenance and operations cost, he said.

He said the team would try to book events 365 days a year, including smaller events such as meetings, weddings and conferences.

No matter where the team decides to locate the stadium, it plans to ask local voters to approve the plans.

The team wants to bring the issue to voters on the November 2008 ballot, so it would need to decide what city to pursue by about February 2008, Fabiani said.

He said the Chargers will have a second official meeting with Oceanside officials on Thursday to discuss a stadium on the Center City Golf Course between Oceanside Boulevard and Mission Avenue.

"Oceanside came into the game late, but there is still plenty of time," said Fabiani.

Chula Vista and National City began talking with the Chargers in May after the team broke off negotiations with the city of San Diego, Fabiani said.

He said the possibility of the Chargers staying in the city of San Diego is "as dead as dead can be." He said the team continuing to play at the existing Qualcomm Stadium, which was built in 1967 by the city of San Diego, would "be a bad deal for everyone."

If the Chargers stayed at the stadium through 2027, he said, San Diego taxpayers would pay more than $400 million for maintenance costs and bond debt on the facility.

Fabiani said the Chargers need a new stadium because the Chargers are 28th out of 32 NFL teams in revenue generated.

"We are selling everything we can sell and have a young exciting team," Fabiani said.

A new stadium would provide the team with millions of dollars that it could use to keep the team competing at the highest levels, he said, adding the team would profit from luxury boxes and club seats, corporate sponsorships, naming rights and increased advertising on electronic signs.

He said all of the additional revenue wouldn't come from average fans but "people willing to pay" for premium seats, services and advertising.

Throughout the interview on Monday, Fabiani stressed that the Chargers want to stay in San Diego despite rumors of the team leaving for Las Vegas, Los Angeles or San Antonio.

"The team could make a lot more money playing in Los Angeles, Anaheim or any publicly financed stadium," Fabiani said.

But he said the Spanos family, which owns the team, has demonstrated its loyalty to San Diego.

"The Spanos family has shown in the last five years, not with what they have said but with what they have done, that they are determined to keep the team in the region."