In case you’ve somehow missed all the fun:
Mark Fabiani letter to Mayor Kevin Faulconer…
(click for larger images)
Faulconer letter to Dean Spanos…
(click for larger images)
U-T San Diego Editorial…
It’s your time to speak for the Chargers, Mr. Spanos
Comments 13
After reading Mark Fabiani’s letter, I was amazed by the mean and hostile tone of the letter. it was very clear that Fabiani is hostile to the City of San Diego and the Mayor’s efforts to come up with a workable solution to the new stadium financing.
Fabiani acts like a trained attack dog. He is not someone you can do good business with. He wants what he wants and will play mean and aggressive hardball the entire time. Did he take lessons on how to win friends and influence people from Bob Filner?!
Good luck Mayor. If I were you, I would tell Dean Spanos that you refuse to deal with Fabiani and he needs to appoint someone else to deal with the City of San Diego and the Stadium Taskforce. If you want a deal, you need to work with someone who is reasonable and professional. Fabiani is neither.
One possibility is that Fabiani is just playing his role in the “good cop, bad cop” scenario. Fabiani presents himself as a complete asshole (it seems to come naturally to him — while continuing to be well paid for his efforts after many years of abject failures). Then perhaps Dean steps in as the “good cop” – the voice of reason in this blatant grab for massive taxpayer subsidies.
Of course, the other scenario is that Fabiani is intentionally, cynically laying the groundwork for a Charger move to LA — so the Chargers can blame is it all on others. But frankly I don’t think the NFL WANTS the Chargers in LA (surely the Rams have the inside track on that move) — and the prospects of anyone building ’em a stadium up there seems slim indeed.
Perhaps the Chargers want to move to the proven failed NFL business location of St. Louis — after the Rams leave for LA. Now THAT’s a goofy idea to consider! Perhaps they’ll get a sweet stadium deal in the booming suburb of Ferguson — just outside St. Louis. Well, the name recognition might have some value, at least.
Fabiani and the Chargers want to (further) rig the Charger Task Force — having already booted Steve Cushman off the panel.
I agree with Dan H. — the Mayor should counter that the city will not longer deal with Fabiani. Period.
How about the San Diego Rams?
Now we know why Fabiani was so arrogant and hostile. He had the joint stadium deal in his back pocket. The Mayor is right. The Chargers have been dealing in bad faith the whole time he’s been trying to work with them. These Charger people are gangsters. Either the taxpayers get reamed by the Chargers for a new stadium or the Chargers leave. We need Mitt Romney to put together a private equity deal to build the stadium. He’s reasonable and very competent. Mitt, we need you!!!
I’d rather invest in a San Diego WWF league. Far more integrity.
I like the easy button solution that Barry Jantz pointed out. – renovate the Q with a bond. that’s my preference.
but 2 points I have not read about so not sure if they were ever discussed.
POINT 1 – looking at this stadium issue from another perspective.
us tax payers are heavily burdened with high and growing state and federal taxes. What do we do about it? we complain but do nothing.
Now we are faced with voting for a city stadium bond raising our taxes even more.
. I believe that San Diegoans are balking at the proposed bond. They are saying ‘enough is enough’ !.
. It is all our fault letting the federal and state governments balloon out of fiscal control. You need to frame it a certain way in your advertising for the bond vote. isolate the city bond from the other taxes, with a movement to start decreasing the size of our totally out of control federal government, Get people focused on that as well-. make that part of the campaign.
ie. Have people write down 1 – 5 federal departments that could be eliminated. Get people enthused about it and share i6t with other cities, states, media.
State taxes we can’t budge. As long as we keep voting in politicians like Toni Atkins who keep raising our taxes, we deserve to pay the highest state tax rate in the nation.
POINT 2: family tailgate parties.
San Diego has great weather so that a lot of families are able to take advantage of that by gathering outside at the stadium..
Having the stadium downtown (with it’s urban tailgate spaces – for a fee, I am sure) would absolutely eliminate that. Developing half of the parking lot at the Q , as someone pointed out, would severely curtail tailgate parties. (is there an agenda in there?)
points to bring out in a marketing campaign
All posturing in the PR war regarding who (a private business entity or taxpayers) will pay for a new football stadium. The Chargers have been planning the joint stadium with the Raiders for months. I first heard wind of it back in December. Shouldn’t have been a shock to anyone. I am most curious why there was no media coverage back then. Interesting.