National City officials sought help from the city of San Diego yesterday in their efforts to bring a Chargers stadium to their city, while Oceanside officials today will consider hiring advisers to help negotiate a possible deal for the team's new home.

The activity in South and North County is occurring as the Chargers seek a stadium site for a deal that can be put before voters in November 2008. A new stadium could cost as much as $1 billion.

Chula Vista is also proposing a stadium and is analyzing potential inland and bayfront sites. A report ranking the properties is scheduled for completion late next month.

The Oceanside City Council is scheduled to vote on spending $100,000 for stadium consultants. The team is considering the city's hilly Center City Golf Course, northeast of the Interstate 5-Oceanside Boulevard interchange, as a stadium site.

City Councilman Rocky Chavez said the consultants would be key members of the city's negotiating team. Oceanside officials and the Chargers met several times in recent weeks to discuss traffic and parking issues because team executives wanted to move a large percentage of fans to and from a stadium by rail or other forms of mass transit.

"This means everything is on point," Chavez said. "I think we're going in the right direction."

Yesterday, National City Mayor Ron Morrison met with his San Diego counterpart, Jerry Sanders, to see if San Diego would be willing to assist National City in its stadium bid. National City was the first city to step forward when the Chargers began looking last March for a new stadium site in the county.

National City's potential site - near its bayfront, west of Interstate 5 and south of Bay Marina Drive - is mostly owned by the San Diego Unified Port District.

National City is seeking $100,000 each from the city and county of San Diego, San Diego State and the Chargers to conduct a feasibility study on its site. Jim Waring, the city of San Diego's chief of land use and economic development, said it is premature to discuss the contribution.

"National City is doing a good job and the next step should involve getting all the jurisdictions together in a meeting," he said.

Morrison, who has met with county and San Diego State officials, said his city had more work to do.

"I'm still optimistic," said Morrison, who was accompanied yesterday by Robert "Dukie" Valderrama, National City's representative on the Port Commission. "The difficult part now is getting all the players playing together and working together. That's not normal in government circles."

Sanders was unavailable for comment.