Panelists: Chargers would be big investment

In the end, the mayor who helped build a new stadium in Glendale, Ariz., had a simple message Thursday for the three cities in San Diego County considering a similar investment.

"Forget the glamour, forget the hype," said Elaine Scruggs, Glendale's mayor. "Is it just another cost, or is it a cost that brings you tremendous returns?"

Scruggs was the featured speaker at the Current Issues Forum of San Diego. The forum, entitled "Where will the Chargers touch down," brought together a panel of five experts to discuss various issues surrounding a possible new stadium in the region ranging from the role of local governments to the appropriateness of public financing.

The Chargers have said they are considering Oceanside's 71-acre Center City Golf Course as a possible location for a new stadium. Two sites in Chula Vista -- one year that city's inland Olympic training facility and an aging power plant on San Diego Bay -- have also piqued the Chargers' curiosity. National City has also offered a bayfront site it owns.

Chargers spokesman Mark Fabiani, who has become a fixture at community forums in recent months, reaffirmed the Chargers' commitment to build a new stadium with private funding, provide a city can provide free land.

"In short, the private sector pays for everything," Fabiani said, adding that a new Chargers stadium is likely to cost $800 million and should top $1 billion once surrounding commercial or residential development is included.

Scott Barnett, president of taxpayersadvocate.org, a local taxpayer's rights group, served as one of the forum's panelists. Noting that every other stadium deal ever done in the United States has involved a public subsidy, Barnett said he thought the Charger's proposal sounded reasonable.

"I have to tell you I am astonished that the city of San Diego would not sit down with the Chargers and work something out," Barnett said.

Scruggs said Glendale's deal with the Cardinals to build what is now the University of Phoenix Stadium, had the city spending about $32 million to pay for infrastructure and other costs as its share of a much larger development budget. Voters in Maricopa County, Ariz., also approved tax increases to raise $355 million, and she guesses that the Cardinals contributed an additional $180 million.

Scruggs said she voted against the bond that paid for the stadium, but has since changed her mind.

"I was a nonbeliever, and I have switched over," Scruggs said.

Though she said she believes that increased economic activity associated with the stadium could generate between $100 million and $400 million in profit over the next 30 years, the Arizona mayor added that short-term costs have added an extra $2 million per year to Glendale's annual budget.

"It is a very expensive thing," Scruggs said, adding that increased police protection has been costly for events at the stadium, which has been busy with concerts and other activities not related to pro football.

Although she would still support building the stadium in Glendale, Scruggs said, she would push harder for more stadium operating costs to be paid by private industry if she could renegotiate the stadium deal.

"I would do that negotiation a little differently," she said.

Despite the ongoing costs of having a major sports facility in town, the mayor said Glendale has already begun to see increased economic activity as a result.

"We see it just from the people who are knocking on our doors wanting to build regional or national headquarters," Scruggs said.

Glendale is a suburb of Phoenix with an estimated population of 239,435.