Look, even if they do some financial shenanigans where they don't raise taxes directly, it's still close to a Billion dollars of tax money that comes from somewhere. That's money that won't go to parks, libraries, trolley stations, cops, fireman, water mains, or streets. San Diego has over a billion dollars are deferred maintenance already, which we'll have to pay for in addition to this.
I've loved the Chargers for almost 40 years, but I just can't justify this. I want them to stay, but not at this price. The monstrosity in Dallas only cost 1 billion. Why do you need 1.2 or 1.6? Petco was like $400 million. That wasn't THAT long ago.
Propose a reasonable stadium, with reasonable costs, an equitable sharing of costs AND revenues, and I think you'd find people willing to listen. But their tactic seems to be more along the lines of: "Please shovel your money into my pockets. FASTER! I Said FASTER!"
And you know, maybe even that would work here if they had a rabid fan base, but they don't. And why? Because in 50 years they have never won a goddamn thing. 50 years of Ryan Leaf, Mike Riley, Playoff Nate Kaeding, VJ kicking flags, Marlon Fucking McCree, 1-15 (kept the coach), 14-2 (fired the coach), Jacob Hester's helmet, Drayton Florence Penalties, Larry English, Buster Davis, Stanley Richard, Jared Gaither, but they ran Tomlinson out of town, ran Weddle out, ran Harrison out, ran Sproles out, ran Marty out, and ran Junior Fucking Seau out, but Norv and AJ get to stay around for years, and now McCoy gets fucking extended. Then you spend a decade with one foot out the door and wonder why the fuck Rivers needs to do a silent snap count at home?
There's nothing magical about one cities fans over anothers. It's no fucking coincidence that teams with the most "loyal" fans also Happen to have the most fucking Lombardi trophies.
Yet here we are, watching this train wreck week after week. No expectation of a title, ever. Just because they're our team.
I was there, 1998, for the Padres divisional playoff game against Houston. 62000 San Diegans screaming their heads off in Qualcomm. Could not hear myself think. This town has the greatest fans in the world, they just don't have a team that deserves them.