As about 1,700 fans watched on a Jumbotron in an overflow area at Qualcomm Stadium, about 400 San Diego Chargers faithful peppered the mayor’s stadium task force March 2 with everything from constructive advice to outside-the-box ideas to desperate pleas to find a solution.
The forum, the only public event the task force plans to hold, featured a large majority of speakers expressing support for building a new stadium in Mission Valley instead of downtown.
Many also said it was crucial to include the whole county, not just the city of San Diego, in whatever financing plan the task force ultimately recommends.
Others proposed unusual methods of raising money, such as a man who suggested 68,000 people — the estimated number of seats in the new stadium — could pay $15,000 each to cover about $1 billion of the stadium’s roughly $1.5 billion cost.
Some fans simply expressed how much they love the team and would miss them if they moved to Los Angeles.
“Sundays without football would be a sad day in San Diego,” Becky Barrera-Hart said.
Critics said the nearly three-hour forum, which the task force decided to host after complaints that its regular meetings are held in private, would be nothing more than frustrated fans blowing off steam.
That was mostly the case, with an estimated 400 fans rallying outside in the Qualcomm Stadium parking lot. Many of those who spoke during the forum, held inside one of the stadium’s upscale club lounges, showed strong knowledge of the challenges facing the task force and offered detailed advice.
— U-T San Diego