Eric D. Williams 9y

Mayor Faulconer to announce members of stadium advisory group this week

SAN DIEGO -- True to his word, San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer is expected to announce this week members of a task force to study a stadium financing proposal that keeps the San Diego Chargers in town.

Faulconer announced during his State of the City address plans to assemble a group of civic leaders to study potential locations and a financing plan to help build a new stadium for the Chargers by the end of the month.

In an interview with Dan Sileo of The Mighty 1090 AM radio, Faulconer's political advisor on the stadium issue, Jason Cabel Roe, confirmed the mayor's intentions.

Listen to the entire interview here.

"This is not a political process," Roe said about the task force. "This is a substantive process with people with expertise. Whether this is people that come at this with the expertise of financing, understanding the local real estate market, understanding NFL and sports teams business and politics -- there's a lot of factors that go into figuring out a solution here.

"The mayor has pooled together a group of folks that have a particular expertise, and he's given them some hard deadlines."

Roe also was asked about a report over the weekend by Andy Strickland of CBS Sports 920 AM radio in St. Louis that according to high-ranking officials in St. Louis, Chargers owner Dean Spanos has a deal in place with Goldman Sachs to build a stadium in Los Angeles, and the NFL asked him to hold off from announcing or releasing those plans.

The Chargers called the report untrue.

"I'd like to take the Chargers' organization at their word," Roe said. "But I don't think anyone doubts that they are actively looking at their options in Los Angeles."

The most interesting comment from Roe came after Sileo asked whether expanding the convention center or building a new football stadium was more of a priority for Faulconer.

"The convention center has more of a direct impact on the City of San Diego, both in terms of the jobs it supports, but also the business it attracts," Roe said. "But at the same time, you can't underestimate the value of San Diego -- the eighth largest city in the country -- having an NFL team.

"This is part of our national identity, if not our international identity. You can't really measure the economic impact, but the marketing that having an NFL team provides to us is huge. It makes us a top-tier city when it comes to civics and kind of the attractiveness. You look at businesses that try to attract top talent here, one of the selling points obviously the weather, the beach and the sunshine -- all of those types of things. But it's other things like having an NFL team that someone that wants to relocate from another state and be part of our economy looks at that as a part of a consideration.

"So the convention center doesn't necessarily bring people together as part of our city's identity, where an NFL team does."

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