San Diego Architectural Foundation

The Chargers shared a vision for their future playing field - and our downtown on Wednesday, having released the first rendering of an “urban” stadium proposed for downtown San Diego.
  
Chargers special counsel Mark Fabiani called the proposed 10 acre site the team’s “last best option.” The 62,000-seat, $800 million venue would located near 17th Street and Imperial Avenue.

In a report filed yesterday, the San Diego Couty Grand Jury also had a few thoughts on the matter, including the following:

           
The last reported annual operating income of the Chargers was $41.6 million for the 2008 season, excluding revenue sharing.1 San Diego voters appear to be aware that the Chargers franchise is quite profitable and needs no subsidies: 71% percent of respondents to a 10News poll on December 11, 2009, said that taxpayer dollars should not be used for stadium construction. This comports to a June 15, 2002 Union-Tribune poll wherein 61% of respondents said that they were opposed to using public money to keep the Chargers in San Diego.
 
Nevertheless, the City and the Chargers appear to be planning a new stadium using public monies. The cost of a new San Diego stadium at the currently hypothesized downtown site is now estimated to be $800 million. The Chargers are proposing to invest about $200 million to build a 62,000 seat stadium, with the balance to come from: $500 million public tax dollars in the form of tax increment bonds to be paid from property and sales taxes, and $100 million from a National Football League (NFL) financing program. However, the NFL funding is apparently not available, so the public financing could be about $600 million. Moreover, with the latest construction proposal, a retractable roof, the $800 million estimate may well be significantly low. The new roofed stadium of the Dallas Cowboys that opened in 2009 cost $1.2 billion, f which owner Jerry Jones put up $800 million.
     
Read the full Grand Jury report here.
   
Read the SDUT's article here.
     
Then tell us, what do YOU think?? Are you in favor of the Charger's plan?