County may seek advice on Chargers

San Diego County officials could soon hire consultants to advise them on the intricacies of developing a new Chargers football stadium – or sprucing up Qualcomm Stadium.

The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote Tuesday to authorize the county counsel to hire outside lawyers and the chief financial officer to employ financial advisers who are experts on stadium issues.

The consultants would be hired through competitive bids, so the cost to county taxpayers is unclear, said Walt Ekard, the county's chief administrator.

The vote would be the county's second action in two months to assist the Chargers in a search for a new stadium. Last month, after the San Diego City Council voted to allow the team to pursue a stadium deal elsewhere in the county, the Board of Supervisors appointed Supervisors Dianne Jacob and Ron Roberts to a committee to work with the Chargers.

Jacob and Roberts met with Chargers President Dean Spanos in late May to express their willingness to help.

Mark Fabiani, the Chargers' attorney and spokesman on the stadium issue, said the team supports Tuesday's vote.

“We welcome the involvement of the Board of Supervisors,” Fabiani said.

If the supervisors want to assist in paying for a new stadium or renovations at Qualcomm, county voters would have to approve that under a policy approved in 1997.

Ekard reminded the supervisors in a recent letter that the policy remains in force unless they amend or repeal it.

Fabiani said last week that the team has received more than 75 phone calls from real estate owners, developers and others about possible stadium sites in the county. He said he and other Chargers executives have begun evaluating some of the sites, “but none of them looks especially promising so far.”

He declined to identify the sites, saying they are owned by private parties who do not want them publicized.

On May 31, Chargers executives met with Chula Vista Mayor Steve Padilla and Deputy Mayor John McCann, who said team officials assured them sites in Chula Vista would be considered, including one southwest of the Olympic Training Center.

“We're preparing to have them come down for a session with us, probably sometime in July,” Padilla said.

Fabiani said the team plans to look at sites in Chula Vista this month or early next month.

National City Mayor Nick Inzunza has expressed interest in wooing the team, but City Manager Chris Zapata said the city is “trying to catch our breath” after the passage this month of a 1-cent-per-dollar sales tax. The increase gives National City the highest sales tax rate in the county but pays for city services, including the expansion of operating hours at libraries and swimming pools.

“We have to sort out our budget and make sure our priority is to restore city services,” Zapata said. “Like San Diego , which has some fiscal challenges, we have to keep our eye on the ball.”

San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders urged the City Council to allow the Chargers to look elsewhere in the county for a stadium deal because he said he and other city officials needed to focus on resolving a $1.43 billion pension deficit and other financial challenges.

While Oceanside 's mayor and most council members have scoffed at the idea, the North County city has also been mentioned as a possible stadium site.

“Our goal by the fall is to know which sites are viable,” Fabiani said. “By the end of the year, we'd like to focus on a site or two that hold particular promise.”

Beginning Jan. 1, the Chargers can hold relocation talks with any U.S. city and can move after the 2008 season by paying off the balance of $60 million in bonds the city of San Diego issued in 1997 to expand Qualcomm Stadium.

Fabiani has repeatedly said the team prefers to stay in the county but that it needs a new stadium to increase revenue and be competitive for players and coaches in the 32-team league. The Chargers rank 28th in league revenue, Fabiani said.

Last week, National Football League Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and other league executives visited Los Angeles and Anaheim and met with the mayors and business leaders of those cities. Both cities want an NFL team.

David Carter, a sports business consultant and University of Southern California professor, said the NFL wants commitments from corporate leaders that they would buy luxury suites and sponsorships, including naming rights, in a new stadium. That revenue would help pay for a new stadium, which could cost more than $700 million.

Carter, speaking Friday before the San Diego alumni chapter of USC's Marshall School of Business, said the NFL could be seriously trying to decide on a stadium site in Los Angeles or Anaheim before Tagliabue, 65, retires next month. He has been commissioner for 16 years and might want to resolve the issue before leaving, Carter said.

Both cities have been without an NFL team for more than 10 years.