"CHARGING FORWARD"
In part 1 of this series, I spoke briefly about a close friend of mine who I turn to for their insight, opinions and their advice. They have been kind of a mentor to me through this difficult journey. Mr. Jim Steeg and Jill Steeg, I simply say Thank You. Knowledge is power and they taught me two very valuable lessons that I practiced throughout this process.
1. Everyone has an agenda
2. Keep asking yourself at certain times, What is their exit strategy? What is their end game?
In mid March, as the fan groups were gearing up for the big announcement that was going to start our campaign. We were in deep discussions about the Measure C campaign website with the Chargers. We were discussing how we could use social media to our advantage. We thought we should come up with a catchy slogan for the measure and what would be the best strategy to get it out into the pubic so we could began to accept volunteers for a project of this magnitude.
It became noticeable that the team was starting to fumble their way through the early days of the campaign. They were rushed with legal timelines and strict deadlines in order to get the measure on the ballot. There were times it became almost crazy to think these are the same people that run a NFL team. Of course, it's just as crazy to think of the way the people who run this city actually conduct themselves behind closed doors as well. Things are not always what they appear to be.
It became noticeable that the team was starting to fumble their way through the early days of the campaign. They were rushed with legal timelines and strict deadlines in order to get the measure on the ballot. There were times it became almost crazy to think these are the same people that run a NFL team. Of course, it's just as crazy to think of the way the people who run this city actually conduct themselves behind closed doors as well. Things are not always what they appear to be.
It was just February and frustration was already growing with Dean Spanos because he couldn't get any local business leaders to come speak out in support of the measure. What you might not know is in "nine proposed proposals" that Dean and Mark talked about on TV interviews and in radio interviews. Those proposals ultimately failed because Dean HAD to bring in a developer/ business partner before he could move forward on many of the proposals. However, he never could get a partner agreeing to be on board with him.
If you ever worked with or for the Chargers before then you know how extremely arrogant they can be. As we got closer to releasing the details of Measure C it seemed as if nothing could go right on our side. The early poll numbers showed us with an approval of around 35% for a tax to help with the construction of a stadium. 35% is a Mt. Everest of questions we would have to overcome by November to stand even half a chance.
IMPORTANT...San Diego Voters didn't trust Dean after the ticket guarantee.
If this was going to be a vote on the Chargers we would win!
If this becomes a mandate on Dean Spanos then we would lose badly!!!
IMPORTANT...San Diego Voters didn't trust Dean after the ticket guarantee.
If this was going to be a vote on the Chargers we would win!
If this becomes a mandate on Dean Spanos then we would lose badly!!!
Sometimes it is not what you do but what you are not doing that can lead people to be skeptical of what your true intentions truly are. The feeling around San Diego at this time is that the downtown location would be a no go with almost everyone in the city. The residents of East Village started a group opposing downtown and soon another group of Barrio Logan resident formed in opposition. Remember earlier, I brought up how Johnny was warning the team many times to not ignore that community fears? The Padres were also concerned with what would become of tailgate park and how the plan was going to address the parking. Comic Con wasn't against the stadium they just preferred a contiguous expansion of the convention center. Comic Con makes the city the most amount of revenue and our opponents shamelessly used that fact as a scare tactic to their advantage. Comic Con was never and will never leave San Diego. That was a hoax.
I was working almost daily with Fabiani on the legal requirements of the signature effort. We had to get 67,000 verified in just 6 weeks. All of them had to be registered city voters living and registered in the 9 districts. If you obtained a voter who didn't qualify you could lose 1,000 signatures for every unqualified signature. This is normally a 6 month process but we only had 6 weeks to accomplish our goal. This was a rush job by the team planning measure C and sadly it showed with all the unanswered questions hidden in the language of the measure. Because the ballot was so full it was to be believed that record numbers would have to be spent per signature in this election.
I was working almost daily with Fabiani on the legal requirements of the signature effort. We had to get 67,000 verified in just 6 weeks. All of them had to be registered city voters living and registered in the 9 districts. If you obtained a voter who didn't qualify you could lose 1,000 signatures for every unqualified signature. This is normally a 6 month process but we only had 6 weeks to accomplish our goal. This was a rush job by the team planning measure C and sadly it showed with all the unanswered questions hidden in the language of the measure. Because the ballot was so full it was to be believed that record numbers would have to be spent per signature in this election.
Pressure was being applied to the Mayor to take a stand either for or against the measure. It seemed that the leadership we saw from the Mayor in 2016 disappeared when the ball dropped on New Years. Of course,NOW WE KNOW that this is the same time he began meeting quietly with the FS investors about a plan for Mission Valley and Soccer City.
Our San Diego Mayor is not just a coward but he is a sneaky lying coward. The Mayor and the city council members talk a really good game and did so throughout this process. In reality though, they were just snakes in the grass lying in mud with their fellow pigs!
The real name of the popular character Boltman is also a member of Save Our Bolts. Dan Jauregui spent decades entertaining the fans on Sunday inside the stadium. He bought a domain for the team to use to promote the measure. He spent $500.00 out of his own pocket on it. The team turned him down afterwards and told him they wanted to get their own domain.The name of the website they choose was too long for it to catch on, "VoteYesOnC.com".
They ignored the power of social media and to use it as an advantage for the campaign.In the entire campaign Measure C Facebook page had only 2,216 likes. They discarded taking advantage of instant impact that social media can bring. That showed a honest lack of effort on the teams part in making the measure was successful. You can compare the time and effort spent on VoteYesOnC facebook page and compare it to the Fightforla.com website. Seriously, go look it's worth your time. The difference is night and day. Actually I'll do it for you. They spent so little attention to the VoteYesOnC Facebook page they forgot to close it down. https://www.facebook.com/VoteYesOnC/ https://fightforla.com/
Mic Drop!
DEAN SPANOS COLOSSAL ERROR
On March 20th the plan was delivered to Steve Pitz over at the Mayor's office. The same office where Tony Manolatos worked at one year earlier. The same office where all of Tony's friends and his clients who are politicians throughout the city and clients of Apex Strategies, Tony M political consultant group. all had their prepared statements ready to go within minutes. This was a pre planned and pre-executed maneuver all setup to ambush and attack the Chargers. Not only were they waiting for the moment of the measure release to attack but then Dean walked right into their grenades by not having a press conference to make the announcement.
.Mark Fabiani said in his own book Masters of Disasters: The ten commandments of damage control, "It's not about winning the news cycle, it's about winning the war of the news. It is about rebuilding lost trust" he adds, "Be clear when admitting your mistake.Take personal responsibility and do it in a meaningful way. When responding to a crises the mission is to restore trust. Sometimes it is best just to suck it up and say I'm sorry."
Our San Diego Mayor is not just a coward but he is a sneaky lying coward. The Mayor and the city council members talk a really good game and did so throughout this process. In reality though, they were just snakes in the grass lying in mud with their fellow pigs!
The real name of the popular character Boltman is also a member of Save Our Bolts. Dan Jauregui spent decades entertaining the fans on Sunday inside the stadium. He bought a domain for the team to use to promote the measure. He spent $500.00 out of his own pocket on it. The team turned him down afterwards and told him they wanted to get their own domain.The name of the website they choose was too long for it to catch on, "VoteYesOnC.com".
They ignored the power of social media and to use it as an advantage for the campaign.In the entire campaign Measure C Facebook page had only 2,216 likes. They discarded taking advantage of instant impact that social media can bring. That showed a honest lack of effort on the teams part in making the measure was successful. You can compare the time and effort spent on VoteYesOnC facebook page and compare it to the Fightforla.com website. Seriously, go look it's worth your time. The difference is night and day. Actually I'll do it for you. They spent so little attention to the VoteYesOnC Facebook page they forgot to close it down. https://www.facebook.com/VoteYesOnC/ https://fightforla.com/
Mic Drop!
DEAN SPANOS COLOSSAL ERROR
On March 29th at around 5pm, the team called four local reporters into Chargers complex for a 5:30 meeting. They proceeded to leak the entire plan to the four media members. A week earlier it delivered to Steve Pitz at the Mayor's office. The measure which was asking the public for $1.2 billion dollars was relayed to the voters in a series of tweets! I found out the leak by a media member who's a close friend and he called me to tell me about how they leaked this out. He said to me "You won't fucking believe this. There is no presser. They are leaking the details to four of their favorite reporters instead of addressing the media ".
I wanted to quit right there on the spot. They just gave the opposing party all day and all night to to appear on tv and radio tearing the measure apart piece by piece. No chance for a rebuttal or nothing by doing this. You just gave your opponent free air time on the 5 and 6pm newscast instead of having both sides on.
All day they were on the radio, TV and on social media smashing the measure. Nothing but anti Dean, anti stadium and anti-public money. I don't know about the others in the fan groups did but I know I didn't talk to the team at all that night. I was livid.
All day they were on the radio, TV and on social media smashing the measure. Nothing but anti Dean, anti stadium and anti-public money. I don't know about the others in the fan groups did but I know I didn't talk to the team at all that night. I was livid.
The Chargers' big announcement was nothing more than a giant fart heard around San Diego. Why should we expect anything less from Dean Spanos? To make matters worse was within five minutes of releasing the plan. It was ambushed by a pre-planned negative reactions setup by Tony Manolatos. Measure C is a 110 page document that is very complicated and detailed when first reading it. Yet, it was so easily being analyzed and in extreme detail on twitter with prepared public statements from politicians ready to go. How the hell is that even possible to have an opinion on something that was just released? I'll tell you how, just follow me here.
On March 20th the plan was delivered to Steve Pitz over at the Mayor's office. The same office where Tony Manolatos worked at one year earlier. The same office where all of Tony's friends and his clients who are politicians throughout the city and clients of Apex Strategies, Tony M political consultant group. all had their prepared statements ready to go within minutes. This was a pre planned and pre-executed maneuver all setup to ambush and attack the Chargers. Not only were they waiting for the moment of the measure release to attack but then Dean walked right into their grenades by not having a press conference to make the announcement.
.Mark Fabiani said in his own book Masters of Disasters: The ten commandments of damage control, "It's not about winning the news cycle, it's about winning the war of the news. It is about rebuilding lost trust" he adds, "Be clear when admitting your mistake.Take personal responsibility and do it in a meaningful way. When responding to a crises the mission is to restore trust. Sometimes it is best just to suck it up and say I'm sorry."
The massive amount of work just to get the plan out in time and meeting all the legal requirements at the same time is meaningless if you can excite the public with your offer.
Between the mayor being non committal in his support to the city council members who were lining up to oppose the measure so they could appease the hoteliers who own them this become a fiasco. Tony Manolatos and April Boling was out in the public eye crushing the Chargers plan every chance they got. Steve Cushman who was quietly working behind the scenes with the hoteliers to gain more opposition to the Chargers' plan. All of this led to what I believe resulted in the team panicking and doing the unthinkable instead of the announcement as planned. For a team that needed a big bang this came across as a giant fart.
Between the mayor being non committal in his support to the city council members who were lining up to oppose the measure so they could appease the hoteliers who own them this become a fiasco. Tony Manolatos and April Boling was out in the public eye crushing the Chargers plan every chance they got. Steve Cushman who was quietly working behind the scenes with the hoteliers to gain more opposition to the Chargers' plan. All of this led to what I believe resulted in the team panicking and doing the unthinkable instead of the announcement as planned. For a team that needed a big bang this came across as a giant fart.
They made the biggest mistake you can make in a political campaign. The big announcement of the plan had turned into a giant fart. No opportunity for the media to question Fred Maas and Dean to the questions that the public was asking. Our opponents were out throwing shit on the walls and hoping it stuck. Whether they were telling the truth or not and most often they were not. They were blatantly lying. My belief is the lack of support from the Mayor who was being updated every 2-3 days from Fred Maas and having no business leaders supporting the measure up to this point. They just reacted and gave up.
I wanted to quit right there on the spot. They just gave the opposing party all day and all night to to appear on tv and radio tearing the measure apart piece by piece. No chance for a rebuttal or nothing by doing this. You just gave your opponent free air time on the 5 and 6pm newscast instead of having both sides on.
All day they were on the radio, TV and on social media smashing the measure. Nothing but anti Dean, anti stadium and anti-public money. I don't know about the others in the fan groups did but I know I didn't talk to the team at all that night. I was livid.
I'm going to link an article about the ambush below. Most of these these statements come from people that supported the Mayor and his $2.1 million dollar EIR for Mission Valley just one year earlier. That same $2.1 million dollar EIR is sitting inside the mayor's desk right now gathering dust.
All day they were on the radio, TV and on social media smashing the measure. Nothing but anti Dean, anti stadium and anti-public money. I don't know about the others in the fan groups did but I know I didn't talk to the team at all that night. I was livid.
I'm going to link an article about the ambush below. Most of these these statements come from people that supported the Mayor and his $2.1 million dollar EIR for Mission Valley just one year earlier. That same $2.1 million dollar EIR is sitting inside the mayor's desk right now gathering dust.
These pigs claiming to be tax paying watchdogs supported raising the TOT on tax payers by 3% to expand the convention center without having a public vote! But they didn't support raising the TOT 1% more and combining the cost for a stadium and expanding the convention center with a public vote?
Read that again, WTF! Welcome to the San Diego City Council.
The threat of Comic Con leaving San Diego was one of the biggest hoaxes in this whole saga. They were never going to go anywhere. Trust me, hell they just bought land in Balboa Park for like three million dollars. It was Tony M playing with voters fears and the fans emotions by using scare tactics. The same way he used roads and schools as a fear tactic.
Now that the measure failed, I ask you, are your roads any better? Is your local schools getting the much needed improvements that they need as these politicians claimed would be done if the measure would be denied.
NO! Because it is not and never was about a stadium with these clowns at city hall. If we keep electing the same imbeciles to run this city then this debauchery is OUR fault! We have elected people with character flaws over and over again and let them be bought out by special interest groups. It is embarrassing. My message to you is this November, Vote all 9 of these assholes on the city council out this November. As they pack their offices after the election. We'll go tell them they can shove a lighting bolt up their asses.
What I'm going to do now is share with you what really hasn't been digested by the public yet. I didn't even know this until I was doing some research in March of 2017. Measure C is word for word a copied proposal from 2009. All of the details big and small are the exact same. The Measure voted on in November 2016 was already tried and failed before reaching a public vote in 2011.
2009 PROPOSAL
It called for a East Village stadium in Downtown San Diego to be constructed in East Village at Tailgate Park and the MTS Bus yard. The cost would be $800 million dollars and $500 of it being public contributions. To help pay for the construction a TOT would be raised and the team lawyers said it had to be a COUNTY vote if they wanted it to succeed in November 2012. The problem with this proposal was in its location. The Mayor at the time was against it, The city council was against it, The hoteliers were against it, The residents were against it as was Comic Con and the Padres.
The City Councilman of the district it is planned to be constructed is Councilman Kevin Faulconer district. Centre City Development was going to assist in the project. Who was Centre City Development CEO at the time? Fred Maas
The proposal calls for 225,000 square feet to be expanded for the convention center as well as a multi use stadium. The capacity would be 65,000 and could expand to 75,000 for Super Bowls. The convention center annex would be 6 blocks from its original location now. The MTS Bus yard would be moved and that cost was unknown. It called for an inflatable roof where the materials would be shipped from Asia and Europe for its membrane material called polycarbonate. The Kansas City based design team Populous would design the project and it's renderings was released on May 27, 2010. Turner Construction would study the MTS Bus Yard contamination and the fault lines that resided underneath the 1,040 parking spaces at Tailgate Park.
Fred Maas wanted to name the project as a "Sports and Entertainment District." The benefit was they could combine the cost of the expansion of the convention center with a stadium. A study conducted showed that there is 57,000 parking spaces in Downtown at or near the proposed site. Details of the proposal was discussed in a meeting by Dean Spanos, Fred Maas, Mark Fabiani, Mayor Jerry Sanders and his Chief of Staff Kevin Mitchell on October 27, 2009 at the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club.
The Chargers have said for 7 years at that time a stadium would not require any public money. At this meeting they admitted any project would have to include public money. The $800 million dollar project would be a contribution of public funds for $500 million. A 1 to 3% TOT increase plus the NFL and the Chargers kicking in $150 million each would fund the project. The benefit as the team sold it to the Mayor was a stadium downtown with a sports arena and an expansion of the convention center. The city could recoup the tax paying contributions by freeing up the Sports Arena land and the 266 acres in Mission Valley.
Tailgating was discussed as in Socal it is a family tradition. Mark Fabiani at the time stated "It's something that is really important to people.What we have to do is hopefully convince people that there are other ways to have that experience other than maintaining a 130 acre parking lot in the middle of the city." It doesn't make sense for anyone. It doesn't make sense for the taxpayer, It doesn't make sense for the team. It's the one thing that even people who could careless about football could agree with the Chargers on. Petco has proved that fans are smart. They're adaptable, and they will find other ways to have a great time."
They sold the project to the mayor as being able to host Super Bowls, Final Four, Soccer Games and keep the stadium booking events for 200 times a year. The hope was to have a county wide election in November of either 2012 or 2013. The most recent figure the Chargers had studied in 2006 showed the team had 18,562 season ticket holders that lived in the city limits, 8,498 live in North County and 5,248 from the south county. 13,731 fans lived in LA or the nearby area. Fabiani insisted they were advised by their lawyers and would continue to do so to recommend to the public the justification of a county vote.
Mayor Sanders wanted to retain Lazard LTD a company to look into if the plan would benefit taxpayers. The city paid Lazard LTD $250,000 for their services. After 9 months they returned to the Mayor with their advise to delay the project until September. That would leave only 2 months for Sanders to sell the plan to the city council for approval before he would have to leave city hall in December due to term limits.
Does the fact that the team just rehashed an earlier failed proposal mean they never tried in 2016? Was it all for nothing or giving the time constraint on the team coming back from Houston, Was this the best chance for success? These are questions you need to ask yourself. They are no right or wrong answers.
FANS GROUPS CONSTRUCT A TOUGHER APPROACH
As we began to plan the Rally in downtown in support of Measure C. We met with the team in April at the complex. There was almost a sense of panic and despair at the reaction thus far to the measure and the Mayor stance of not supporting the measure they were convinced would be fatal. For over a year our group met with the Mayor monthly. I never attended any of these because my belief early on was I didn't want to get caught up in the political game. That didn't last long. Now the Mayor who was up for a primary in June and had a approval rating of 59% had no reason to take a stand on the proposal. However, he was beginning to be questioned for his inhuman treatment of the homeless. Having police do 430 in the morning raids on the homeless and having the city lay bricks where they would be sleeping as to not look bad when the All Star Game came here in July.
There was a very heated discussion in private among the Save Our Bolt members as to how we should move forward. This was probably the most angry and intense google hangout in our groups 17 months of activism. It seemed as if we were the only ones trying to get an agreement reached. Both sides were talking out of both sides of their mouths and we knew that. Any chance for a deal however we had to act as if progress was being made. What were we suppose to do go do a press conference and announce both sides are worse than a 2 year old having a temper tantrum. Charger fans we're fucked. We had to move forward keeping hope alive until lighting stroke and the two sides could become civil and achieve something. But we had too much invested to stand bye and let these people allow the Chargers to leave.
Our group reached an agreement that we would wait till the end of May for the Mayor to take a stand and everyone on both sides to stop playing political football. After that, it was agreed anyone who standed in the way of progress we would call out and apply pressure to them. I was leading the take the gloves off approach and start hammering these do nothing son of a bitches. Looking back was it the correct approach? I don't know but it was the last ditch effort from us to kick some ass. I should be the one to blame if people became offended by our tougher stance. I believed 100% it was our only option.
Everyone was on my hitlist. The mayor, city council, hoteliers, Tony Manolatos and his goons included. These are the powerful people in this city. We are just a bunch of dumb Chargers fans: what could we do to them? For once though, they were going to fight with a group who had nothing to lose. We owed no one nothing. It was important though to balance the good guy approach and the asshole approach. Johnny was probably easiest the most respected member in our group. He earned that by always being available and having a positive message with the media. Johnny would continue to do that and it was never more important that he do so. If he failed we would look like a bunch of dumb angry scorned Charger fans. I and the the group SD Stadium Coalition would take the role of asshole. We might not have the power to be able to force these people to change their political stance but bet your ass we would become a thorn in their ass growling at them every waking minute.
LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE
April 23rd was time to change the narrative. The Measure C Rally in Downtown. It was attended by over 4,000 people. The fan base was almost tranquil at this point with all the losing and turmoil surrounding the team to the disaster in the making of a new stadium. The Mayor of course was MIA. The Union SD Building and Construction Trade Council announced their support the day before. Now it was our turn to change the negative narrative around the talk of Measure C. Roger Goodell came out along with Rivers and LT. In the entire 17 month process this was the first time LT bothered to help with the effort. In fact it was the only time he showed his support. I bring that up because afterwards he spoke like he was in the fight the whole time then criticized the city for not supporting the team.There were a few who were in the trenches with us from day one. Shawne Merriman, Nick Hardwick, Hank Bauer and especially Scott Kaplan. LT was back home in Texas unless he flew to LA to be on the NFL Network.
San Diego a very diverse city. We knew that in our outreach we had to hold our support and recruit more. Woman, young people, Asians, hispanics from San Ysidro who normally wouldn't vote and non football fans. There was a lot of work to do in a very short period of time. The rally proved that as the crowd was mostly white ages 25-60. Mostly old white men made up the majority of the crowd. The Chargers response was to air 2 commercials with 2 old white men Dan Fouts and Dick Enberg do the voiceover. smfh
"Only tourists will pay for the stadium. You pay nothing, not a penny! The general fund is never at risk" Those were the bullet points we used for the plan.
We still didn't know for sure at this point if the vote would be a 50.1% or 66.7%. I've read this plan over 100 times and reviewed it with Goldman Sachs, JMI Realty, and the team over the phone more times than I care to admit. I knew the plan pretty damn good.
Here are some questions that the public had. The answers are the honest truths to the question.
1. How much will they pay for rent?
The measure is silent on rent. It is punted down the line with no amount given. Rent would be decided after the election yearly by a unnamed group the mayor appoints called the Stadium Authority Group. Remember, rent isn't a favorable topic with voters cause for years the team took advantage of the wording in the 1995 lease.
This is not addressed in Measure C. Even if the stadium torn down the debt has to be paid or the city credit rating is at risk. Alex set it up so after 2008 the team would no longer be accountable for the bond debt. He also back in 1995 set the lease up so the termination fee if they left would be reduced each year. In 2009 it was $52 million, In 2016 it was $15 million.
2. What if higher hotel cost leads to less tourism?
One, a cushion was provided by the team. They used a 1.5% higher interest rate to their calculations and included a great recession model of 2007 as well. They did not include any new hotels that would be their calculations as well. People are not going to go to Tucson, AZ because of a .5 cent on every dollar increase in their hotel bill.
The roads and schools and civic protection is general fund money. The general fund is protected as much as the team could in this plan. If your roads are screwed up before the plan, it will be after the plan as well. That is a city councilman problem not a developing projects. Roads have been screwed up for years. You want better roads? Elect better officials to the government. If the MTS move was to go over budget the whole project does not go forward. Kinda of a thing a voter would need to know.
3. Was this a good deal for both the team-city?
It depends what your beliefs are. If you believe that some sort of public financing is okay for the rule of civic pride and bringing the community together that it's probably got your approval. If you could care less about football and civic pride then it's not to appealing to you. Then the plan was very questionable to the profit-loss. NFL stadiums are not profitable to a city. Stadium and convention center expansions when done together is a very risky investment because there are no signs it adds revenue the a city.
4. Who pays for over runs on the convention side? Who decides what is a stadium over run to convention over run?
It depends what your beliefs are. If you believe that some sort of public financing is okay for the rule of civic pride and bringing the community together that it's probably got your approval. If you could care less about football and civic pride then it's not to appealing to you. Then the plan was very questionable to the profit-loss. NFL stadiums are not profitable to a city. Stadium and convention center expansions when done together is a very risky investment because there are no signs it adds revenue the a city.
4. Who pays for over runs on the convention side? Who decides what is a stadium over run to convention over run?
Again, the lawyers left this silent. However, if it is more than 5% it would be decided again by the authority group. The general fund was at risk in this area if the over run was on the convention center side.
5. Is the 1.8 billion dollars a final number for the project?
No, The roof is listed as a possibility. That will add close to a million dollars to the project itself once they decided if there would be a roof and if so where it would be. They also left silent where the annex to the convention center would be. Could it be on top of the stadium or next to it? This was not addressed in the measure. The renderings weren't even released before the plan was released and when it did it was subject to change.
6. In 1997, the stadium went through renovations for the Super Bowl. A 60 million dollar bond with interest was taken out and 18 million came from Qualcomm for naming rights. The city now owes 50 million dollars on that bond today. What happens to that debt?
NFL stadiums are not a good investment for voters. So knowing that, cities came up with the multi use NCAA, Wrestlemania and soccer to sell the deal. But it takes generally about 5 to 7 years to book those at a good ration. Indy holds about 140 events a year but there mostly weddings and little Jimmy bar mitzveh. Not exactly bringing in thousands of new visitors.
7. The city profits off of all non NFL related events right?
Not exactly. The city profits off of non NFL related events however that money is transferred to the cost of construction for a stadium. The city never sees the profits.
How much for the land around the stadium? What is the price of that? Are you going to include the Wonder Bread facility in the design or eminent domain that owner for the second time? (She lost a property to eminent domain for Petco) Tailgate park and the Padres had to be addressed as well.
Bottom line is this plan was written with a timeline deadline for the initiative in mind. The plan left a ton of questions to be answered after the election with a "trust me" in good faith in mind. The problem here is going by the past agreements between the city and the team there is zero trust between the two. Each side had good reason not to trust the other. The measure could not be amended in any sort of way.
If the team held some town hall meetings in all the parts of San Diego they could have answered these easily. They never tried to answer the public questions. Dean approach was I want a stadium, here is the plan, give it to me or I'll leave. He never engaged the public after all the threats and the deal in Carson with Oakland. He never tried to connect with the fans. Then again, he has never connected with the fans since 1994.
JOHNNY "BOLT PRIDE" ABUNDEZ
If the team held some town hall meetings in all the parts of San Diego they could have answered these easily. They never tried to answer the public questions. Dean approach was I want a stadium, here is the plan, give it to me or I'll leave. He never engaged the public after all the threats and the deal in Carson with Oakland. He never tried to connect with the fans. Then again, he has never connected with the fans since 1994.
JOHNNY "BOLT PRIDE" ABUNDEZ
Remember when Johnny was at the February meeting with the team and us? He raised the concern of the people of Barrio Logan. It was either ignored or postponed by the team. This procrastination gave birth to the founder and community activist Brent Beltran group "Barrios Against Stadiums" or BASTA. The community of over 4,000 hispanics who had a history of being taken advantage of by the government and city officials before. They wanted to be heard this time. They felt threatened that their cultural and their very livelihood was in jeopardy. A stadium to low income people who mostly rent meant higher property taxes. They would essentially be moved out of their neighborhood that resembled their past and their cultural images of the murals and Chicano Park. They just wanted to be heard but now it was another section of the city rebuking the plan that was set forth.
Thankfully, Johnny has tons of communications with the community and a agreement was made by our group and theirs. We would agree to disagree but not be disagreeable. I really love that line. Johnny was amazing in this whole 2 year process. That is my boy right there. He went to the Owners meetings in Arizona and SF in 2015. He supported the team every Sunday road and at home. He would wake up at 4am to go to KUSI to get our message out when needed. The signs of Save Our Bolts and the LT thank you signs came out of his own pocket. I love this dude and was proud and honored to work beside him throughout this whole experience. I respect him and Bolt Pride that he so well represents.
THE MAN JOHNNY ABUNDEZ
I asked Mark if businesses could help with the signature effort. He said they would have to train them but if I found one they would train the next day. I called fellow member Shawn at Cali Comfort, both locations of the Tilted Kilt and then Brian from Die-Hard Bolts Club got Slater's 50-50. They all agreed to take the training and we got Keenan Allen, Manti Teo and DJ Fluker to show up at Slater's. Awesome right that is 4 businesses!!! Why didn't someone from the team try these popular places? Every step of the way now it seemed there was no effort by the team nor the city to get something done. Much like the 15 years before that. A bunch of talk on both sides but no effort put forth. A city with no leader and a football team with no leadership. These two almost deserve each other.
Now I was just getting pissed off. A received a phone call asking me to hold a rally at the mayor office in downtown in under 2 weeks notice. It would be a weekday and it was Day 2 of the NFL Draft. That sounds impossible so I accepted. It wasn't a great turnout but I lived up to my end of the bargain. I did this on my own without the groups blessing. I didn't blame them for being against it with those odds against me. But a deal was worked out and I took the brunt of the blame for moving forward. I was supplied with signs that read "Where's Kevin." We met at outside city hall on April 29. I gave a speech to the crowd followed by Dan McLellan. Then I got a hair up my ass to up the ante. I told the group the hell with this crowd let's storm the mayor office. We marched up to his office with signs and balloons calling him out. Dan saw the mayor coming down while we were going up. He ran back to his office. As we approached his office I saw a picture of the mayor outside his door. I though PERFECT PHOTO OPT. We took the picture of all of us and sent it out to the media.
People thought the rally failed. (wink) Bullshit, I got a great picture and the following week Cory Briggs told me he would support the public right to vote on measure C. So with Briggs, a few businesses that quickly agreed to support us I scheduled a press conference for Monday, May 9th outside of Charger park to announce the endorsements. I called Scott Kaplan at 1090am and that began our new approach. That is when we took the gloves off. The link to the interview is below. I kept the Briggs announcement quiet and tried to just focus on the other announcements. Kaplan is good when he wants something your hiding. I wanted to have 3 speakers as the Press Conference.
1. Johnny Abundez to display how easy and quick it was to give a signature so he signed up my buddy Morgan Harpenau.
2. Shawn Walchef from Cali Comfort on the owning a business side and what the Chargers mean not just to him but for his business.
3. Nick Conde.. Late one night I was going through all the messages on Facebook from fans. Around 1am I found one that caught my eye. Nick had his leg amputated and was becoming suicidal from the trauma. He wanted to help us in our effort so he went out in his wheelchair and pushed himself 2 miles to a signature event and signed. That was all the motivation I needed. I felt like running through brick walls now. That folks what Nick did and the effort to accomplish it. That is motivation! He was my 3rd speaker and was invited to a fan group meeting with Dean Spanos and us.https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/sports/Chargers-Fans-Put-Pressure-on-Mayor-Faulconer-378729201.html
NEIL CONDE
1. Johnny Abundez to display how easy and quick it was to give a signature so he signed up my buddy Morgan Harpenau.
2. Shawn Walchef from Cali Comfort on the owning a business side and what the Chargers mean not just to him but for his business.
3. Nick Conde.. Late one night I was going through all the messages on Facebook from fans. Around 1am I found one that caught my eye. Nick had his leg amputated and was becoming suicidal from the trauma. He wanted to help us in our effort so he went out in his wheelchair and pushed himself 2 miles to a signature event and signed. That was all the motivation I needed. I felt like running through brick walls now. That folks what Nick did and the effort to accomplish it. That is motivation! He was my 3rd speaker and was invited to a fan group meeting with Dean Spanos and us.https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/sports/Chargers-Fans-Put-Pressure-on-Mayor-Faulconer-378729201.html
NEIL CONDE
MY PRESS CONFERENCE AT CHARGER PARK
At the 12:00 minute mark Kaplan starts setting me up. I come on at the 20:00 minute mark.
A week later the team held its first Town Hall Meeting in East Village. It was the only town hall meeting they held where they showed a sincere effort. Dean Spanos, Fred Maas, Architect David Manter and special advisor Jeffrey Pollack. ( PIC BELOW Pollack the one running the strategy in LA he didn't pose for the photo) The Chargers called me to ask if we could get some friendly faces in the crowd. Which means they had their finger on the pulse of how things were going.
DEAN AT HIS FIRST AND ONLY TOWN HALL
EAST VILLAGE TOWN HALL
DEAN AT HIS FIRST AND ONLY TOWN HALL
EAST VILLAGE TOWN HALL
The day before this meeting we met with mayoral candidate Lori Saldena. She was a very nice person. Casey Anthony stood a better chance to beat the Mayor than Lori did. She was against the measure and we grilled her to know why. She had no chance to beat the Mayor but if she would have supported the plan we could offer her thousands of voters in Charger fans. We realized half way through the meeting she was full of shit. Boltman called her out "You didn't read the plan did you?" She admitted she had not!!!! She was against something she didn't read. Welcome to SD Politics. Boltman called Maas and Fabiani from right there and made an appt for her to meet with the team and be briefed on the measure. She cancelled that meeting 4 times. Saldena lost the primary to Mayor Faulconer by 34 points.
One of our signature gatherers was outside taking signature at my polling place. She didn't know who I was. She said they needed 40,000 more signatures by midnight or it wouldn't go on the ballot in November. I knew this was false because I talked to the team the previous evening. We had already gotten our required signatures. They were just out collecting extras. She thought I was just some random Joe and was lying at the polling location. I took a picture of her and called Mark directly on the spot. She doesn't work as a signature gatherer anymore. Lady was so dumb.
The media covered the boycott from the USA Today to the local media. Here is a link to the San Diego Reader https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2016/may/17/ticker-chargers-fan-boycott-cripple-hotel-magnates/.
A week later the California Supreme Court took all the mojo we had going. The gut punch that took all the air out of us. It was going to be a 66.7% vote. Although we told the fans and media we were prepared for 67%. We were sure hoping it was 50.1%. The plan had 0 chance of 67%. We just had to keep our heads high. The public especially our friends could not see us down now. They have seen us fight and fight so any look of defeat would have diminished all hope. But inside ya just wondered, Damn can we get a break? Cory Briggs called us into his office for a meeting. He mentioned he was talking to Bill Evans about the boycott. Evans would laugh to Briggs as to what are some dumb fans going to achieve in same sentence was very concerned bout how impact we could be but most importantly what our next move was .He hated the fact we had nothing to lose in this fight and we owed no one any political favors.So we could do whatever we wanted. The unknown carries a lot of fear. We got the signature needed and they were verified. As the months turned to July nothing changed really. The Mayor was still "going over the plan" and more and more undecided voters were going to the other side.
Dean Spanos released a statement to the press..
"On behalf of the entire San Diego Chargers organization, we want to thank every registered San Diego City voter who signed the petition,” said Chargers Chairman Dean Spanos. “We also want to thank representatives of organized labor – and particularly the unions of the Building Trades Council – for their significant help and support during this process. And we are grateful for the volunteer signature gathering work coordinated by the fan groups, including Save Our Bolts and the San Diego Stadium Coalition. The fan groups did a great job, as did the hundreds of other people who contacted us and volunteered to gather signatures.”“Most signature gathering efforts of this kind take six full months. We had just six weeks to complete our work,” Spanos continued. “The fact that we were able to collect more than 110,000 signatures in that short period of time demonstrates tremendous support in our community for a new, combined stadium-convention center expansion downtown.” So we meet Chris Cate. He is a bright man. I can tell he wants to run for Mayor. He has the hoteliers, Tony M, and April Boling behind him plus the outgoing mayor support. Most of the issues he raised were valid. In knowing the measure they were mostly the unanswered questions or ones that are silent. He did say he had to cold call Dean after reaching out to him several times to get some answers.
Finally Fred Maas called him back. They couldn't even agree on the day they met. URGGGGGG. Cate said they met on April 15 and Maas asked if he wanted to meet with Goldman Sachs. He said yes and never heard back from the Chargers. I texted Mark Fabiani under the table on my phone. Maas was with him.
One of our signature gatherers was outside taking signature at my polling place. She didn't know who I was. She said they needed 40,000 more signatures by midnight or it wouldn't go on the ballot in November. I knew this was false because I talked to the team the previous evening. We had already gotten our required signatures. They were just out collecting extras. She thought I was just some random Joe and was lying at the polling location. I took a picture of her and called Mark directly on the spot. She doesn't work as a signature gatherer anymore. Lady was so dumb.
The media covered the boycott from the USA Today to the local media. Here is a link to the San Diego Reader https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2016/may/17/ticker-chargers-fan-boycott-cripple-hotel-magnates/.
A week later the California Supreme Court took all the mojo we had going. The gut punch that took all the air out of us. It was going to be a 66.7% vote. Although we told the fans and media we were prepared for 67%. We were sure hoping it was 50.1%. The plan had 0 chance of 67%. We just had to keep our heads high. The public especially our friends could not see us down now. They have seen us fight and fight so any look of defeat would have diminished all hope. But inside ya just wondered, Damn can we get a break? Cory Briggs called us into his office for a meeting. He mentioned he was talking to Bill Evans about the boycott. Evans would laugh to Briggs as to what are some dumb fans going to achieve in same sentence was very concerned bout how impact we could be but most importantly what our next move was .He hated the fact we had nothing to lose in this fight and we owed no one any political favors.So we could do whatever we wanted. The unknown carries a lot of fear. We got the signature needed and they were verified. As the months turned to July nothing changed really. The Mayor was still "going over the plan" and more and more undecided voters were going to the other side.
Dean Spanos released a statement to the press..
"On behalf of the entire San Diego Chargers organization, we want to thank every registered San Diego City voter who signed the petition,” said Chargers Chairman Dean Spanos. “We also want to thank representatives of organized labor – and particularly the unions of the Building Trades Council – for their significant help and support during this process. And we are grateful for the volunteer signature gathering work coordinated by the fan groups, including Save Our Bolts and the San Diego Stadium Coalition. The fan groups did a great job, as did the hundreds of other people who contacted us and volunteered to gather signatures.”“Most signature gathering efforts of this kind take six full months. We had just six weeks to complete our work,” Spanos continued. “The fact that we were able to collect more than 110,000 signatures in that short period of time demonstrates tremendous support in our community for a new, combined stadium-convention center expansion downtown.” So we meet Chris Cate. He is a bright man. I can tell he wants to run for Mayor. He has the hoteliers, Tony M, and April Boling behind him plus the outgoing mayor support. Most of the issues he raised were valid. In knowing the measure they were mostly the unanswered questions or ones that are silent. He did say he had to cold call Dean after reaching out to him several times to get some answers.
Finally Fred Maas called him back. They couldn't even agree on the day they met. URGGGGGG. Cate said they met on April 15 and Maas asked if he wanted to meet with Goldman Sachs. He said yes and never heard back from the Chargers. I texted Mark Fabiani under the table on my phone. Maas was with him.
Now it was time to address the big honchos. The group that was the main reason it was so difficult to accomplish anything in San Diego. Our next match up was The Hoteliers.
So just to do what harm little old we could do. We called for a boycott of the 3 main hoteliers. Why should they profit off a team their trying to get out of San Diego. With Bolt Pride connections to the 31 other teams fan groups called on all football fans to boycott their hotels.
CRASHING THE FUNDRAISER
The Mayor had a fundraiser of $1,000 a head at guess who house? Yep, A hotelier Bill Evans. They gave no fucks about who knew what their connections were. So we drew up a meme and spread it around to the fans to crash the entrance of the fundraiser. Just another reminder to the Mayor and the Hoteliers we're still here you son of a bitches. It was attended by Steve Cushman and all 3 of the hoteliers. They showed the fans a 1 finger salute as they drove bye. The fans held signs asking the Mayor how much to buy you?
Hell hath no fury as a scorned football fan
We turned in all the signatures on June 10th. 110,780 signatures and 83 boxes got turned in. We did in 6 weeks what usually takes 6 months. Dean paid a unreal record $15.00 per signature the last couple of weeks to get us over. Fans needed a get together so Dave Peters who founded BoltBlitz and I held a old fashion meet up back home at the Tilted Kilt. This was the first one of 2016.We had 3 players come down. Dontrelle Inman, Sean Lissemore and Kyle Emanuel came out thanks to Mark to be with the fans. It was a good getaway for a day.
Sadly my previous health problems returned in July, October and January of our effort in 2016. Each time I was admitted for emergency surgery on my blood clots. Stress had taken its toll on me. The Chargers did send a beautiful plant to my room at Grossmont Hospital.
CHRIS CATE
I did take this time to reach out to Councilman Chris Cate to try and see where we could find some common ground. I also wanted to get him on record with his stance on certain issues with the measure. The team started a smear campaign on social media with Cate right before our conversation. They posted his office phone number on social media and he was getting hundreds of calls a day.I have no idea what they wanted to accomplish with this but it drew more negative reaction than positive from the public.
Cate agreed to meet with us so I got the other members together and we met at a restaurant in Mira Mesa. It was suppose to be a private 1-1 private meeting between the fan groups and us. But it got leaked out to Nbcsd Gene Cubbison who was headed to our meet up spot . This angered me greatly cause it my violated my word to Cate of a private meeting . So I had to do what was right. I called Tony Manolatos who was his public relations rep to discuss the matter. Cubbison wanted in on the meeting. but Tony and I mutually agreed that it could hamper what could be a honest open discussion.
Dan McLellan recorded the audio of the meeting. No one at City Hall knew what the other person was doing. This whole thing with both sides has turned into a giant cluster fuck of incompetence.
Dan McLellan recorded the audio of the meeting. No one at City Hall knew what the other person was doing. This whole thing with both sides has turned into a giant cluster fuck of incompetence.
I'm for the first time going to supply the link to the Cate meeting. You can hear how these private meetings went. So we meet Chris Cate. He is a bright man. I can tell he wants to run for Mayor. He has the hoteliers, Tony M, and April Boling behind him plus the outgoing mayor support. Most of the issues he raised were valid. In knowing the measure they were mostly the unanswered questions or ones that are silent.
They couldn't even agree on the day they met. URGGGGGG. Cate said they met on April 15 and Maas asked if he wanted to meet with Goldman Sachs. He said yes and never heard back from the Chargers. I texted Mark Fabiani under the table on my phone. Fred Maas was with him and said the meeting was at Cate office April 13th at 4pm. In the end he was suppose to call the team and no response. These guys can't even agree on when they met!!!!
We are so fucked.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6tVdbiVUAWha0x4RXg0ZmZ2cHc/view?usp=sharing
We have a mayor who refuses to take a stand on anything unless it putting rocks under the heads of homeless people and children. A candidate running for Mayor (Lori) who admitted to being against a 1.2 billion dollar project she didn't read. Scott Sherman just wants to suck off the developers in a get rich scheme for the land in his district in mission valley. Three bozos who run the city and would cut off their mothers' social security check if it meant a bigger profit margin for them. Top it off the NFL team that is lying to the league and the city.
They couldn't even agree on the day they met. URGGGGGG. Cate said they met on April 15 and Maas asked if he wanted to meet with Goldman Sachs. He said yes and never heard back from the Chargers. I texted Mark Fabiani under the table on my phone. Fred Maas was with him and said the meeting was at Cate office April 13th at 4pm. In the end he was suppose to call the team and no response. These guys can't even agree on when they met!!!!
We are so fucked.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6tVdbiVUAWha0x4RXg0ZmZ2cHc/view?usp=sharing
We have a mayor who refuses to take a stand on anything unless it putting rocks under the heads of homeless people and children. A candidate running for Mayor (Lori) who admitted to being against a 1.2 billion dollar project she didn't read. Scott Sherman just wants to suck off the developers in a get rich scheme for the land in his district in mission valley. Three bozos who run the city and would cut off their mothers' social security check if it meant a bigger profit margin for them. Top it off the NFL team that is lying to the league and the city.
Where are those 15 players Dean? Where are the Ring of Honor Legends at Dean? You said to me and fans on CBS that you would be everywhere during this measure? A massive PR campaign he said? Yea right, all these fools are so full of their own shit. Everyone has an agenda and it has nothing to do with our self interest. The city lives on Mars and the team is on Jupiter. The NFL on planet head up one ass. The NFL has done 10 relocations in 35 years. Disgusting!!
Better late than never but we did receive support from Luis Castillo, Wes Chandler and Charlie Joiner that was met with the opposition airing a commercial where the hoteliers paid a bulk sum of money to Tony Hawk.
THE FALSE NARRATIVE OF 9 PROPOSALS
https://storify.com/jenkuhney/the-chargers-nine-san-diego-stadium-proposals
In Part 3 of this series it becomes crystal clear how disengaged the team was during the campaign. I'll show you how they lied about being out of town for a political debate and sent Jason Riggs and myself from the fan groups.
Part 3 of the 4 part series coming next. Thank you reading.
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