One day after holding a public forum to solicit advice from San Diego Chargers fans on a new home, the mayor’s stadium task force met March 3 with the builders of Petco Park, who have also proposed a downtown football facility.
The meeting with representatives of JMI – former Padres owner John Moores’ real estate company that oversaw the ballpark district master plan – comes as the advisory group races to choose a stadium site and financing plan by a self-imposed May deadline.
Last year, JMI outlined four development scenarios, one of them being a joint-use stadium/convention complex that might cost $1.4 billion, about $400 million less than two separate facilities.
The complex would be located on the Tailgate Park parking lot and the MTS bus yard, both located east of Petco Park. JMI also has plans to build a hotel at the foot of Park Boulevard but is awaiting a decision on whether the San Diego Convention Center will be expanded, either at its present location or as part of a stadium complex.
Speaking before the committee were JMI President John Kratzer; Steve Peace, a senior adviser to Moores; and attorney Pat Shea. The JMI representatives presented their multi-use stadium proposal, and task force members asked a “lot of hard questions,” said committee chairman Adam Day.
“Like (Chargers special counsel Mark) Fabiani, they were sharing the research they gathered and presenting it without bias,” he added.
As the group moves forward on its accelerated timeline, Day said on March 3 he hopes the group can make its site recommendation soon so it can move on to the more challenging question of how to finance a new stadium. Momentum appears to be growing for building a stadium in its current Mission Valley location instead of downtown, but the task force has given no hints of which way it is leaning.
Given the time frame for making a decision, the committee has formed subcommittees, some of which will be meeting independently with stakeholders and then reporting back to the full task force, Day said. Among those the group expects to meet with are hoteliers and tourism officials, representatives of the environmental community, organized labor, business and the San Diego Bowl Game Association.
– U-T San Diego