Looks like the Chargers will be out of San Diego in a couple of years
 

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slu...v=ap&type=lgns

San Diego mayor says city can't afford new Chargers stadium

By ALLISON HOFFMAN, Associated Press Writer
April 21, 2006

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Cash-strapped San Diego doesn't have the money to help the Chargers build a new stadium, Mayor Jerry Sanders said Friday, opening the door for Southern California's only NFL team to leave the city it has called home for 45 years.

Sanders said he plans to ask the City Council to amend the Chargers' lease to allow the team to begin looking at sites elsewhere in San Diego County before the end of the year. If the team fails to find a new home in the county before Jan. 1, the Chargers would be free to negotiate a deal anywhere in the country.



The Chargers can leave San Diego after the 2008 season if they pay off the approximately $60 million in bonds the city issued in 1997 to expanded Qualcomm Stadium.

"I do not think it would be prudent or honest for me to say to taxpayers 'We can't resurface our roadways, but we can finance a stadium,"' the mayor said.

Chula Vista and Oceanside, two smaller cities south and north of San Diego, have been mentioned as possible new homes within the county.

San Diego is facing what the mayor called a financial and a managerial crisis, which includes a $1.4 billion city employee pension fund deficit and federal investigations into city finances.

The Chargers have been in San Diego since 1961, the year after they started playing in Los Angeles under the ownership of hotel magnate Barron Hilton.

Last year, the team proposed building a $450 million stadium as part of a commercial development the Qualcomm site, but dropped the plan because it could not find developers to share the estimated $800 million upfront costs. The team offered to pay for the stadium and traffic improvements, but wanted the city to give it 60 acres for development to recoup its costs.

Earlier this year, the mayor of San Antonio signaled that his city would welcome the Chargers to fill the Alamodome, where the displaced New Orleans Saints played three games last season.



Updated on Friday, Apr 21, 2006 5:06 pm EDT

Is the city run that poorly that they can't afford to resurface their roadways?

Considering half of their population are illegal immigrants from Mexico, I'd say they're that poor of a city.

:clap: for a mayor who will stand up for the common citizen rather than the half a dozen fans the Chargers have in that town. It's not that long of a drive to LA for them to see their team.

There should be plenty of cheap labor to fix the streets then.

ROFL this perception is so wrong it is laughable. Due to a pension fund disaster and some other money management issue the cities finances are in a shambles. However the populace is so well off compared to most of the rest of the country the average home is valued at $500K, so yea we are a city full of illegal immigrants.ROFL

What is funny is Kansas Citians would die to have streets as nice as ours let alone freeways. We are just spoiled, people find one pothole and it is a disaster hurry call the city and complain.

The L.A. Chargers has great marketability potential.

Screw that.

The Chargers need to stay in SD.

I think they should tax the hell out of Jaguar owners. Talk about conspicuous consumption.

And they can do it on the cheap.

Well I should hope San Diego has few potholes on their roads what with the absence of winter weather.

I take it you didn't read the entire article.