DISCLAIMER: The thoughts expressed here are my own and my own only. I was a volunteer organizer and was the Director of Communications for the Chargers fan group Save Our Bolts. I do not speak for Save Our Bolts, as our group has dismantled since the relocation was announced. What will be shared here are my own personal feelings and experiences. My time with SOB was a fantastic learning experience-- and there is no one I respect more than my former members.
My hope with this series of articles, is to answer any remaining questions and to address those who have doubts in regards to what happened and why in it happened during the 2016 Measure C campaign. I hope this brings some closure for some of you.
I'm not placing blame on just the city only nor just the team. No one is solely to blame. It was group of failures that led up to this result. There is plenty of blame to go around by both parties.
INTRODUCTION TO ME
I'm not placing blame on just the city only nor just the team. No one is solely to blame. It was group of failures that led up to this result. There is plenty of blame to go around by both parties.
INTRODUCTION TO ME
I have been a Charger fan since I was 10 years old. Jan 2, 1982, The Epic in Miami game sucked me in. I have spent the last few years building solid relationships with the local sports media, the players on the team and with the Chargers front office as blogger of the Chargers.
MY BACKGROUD
In 2013, I joined Dave "Booga" Peters and his Charger blog called BoltBlitz.com. He was living in North Carolina and I was out here in San Diego. Soon after, he moved out here to give us a better chance at success. There were so many Charger pages on Facebook and the fans were socializing quite often on social media with eachother.
MY BACKGROUD
In 2013, I joined Dave "Booga" Peters and his Charger blog called BoltBlitz.com. He was living in North Carolina and I was out here in San Diego. Soon after, he moved out here to give us a better chance at success. There were so many Charger pages on Facebook and the fans were socializing quite often on social media with eachother.
They very seldom though ever met each other. We wanted to take the discussions from Facebook and Twitter and join them to create long lasting friendships through events that we were planning. We held some of the biggest Charger fan meetups ever held in San Diego. 250 fans packed the Tilted Kilt in Mission Valley on May 30,2014. We created fan get together events like meetups, bonfires, viewing parties for the road games and of course tailgating at the home games.
May 30th, 2014 1st meetup
In January of 2015, I joined a group that was beginning to form just two months earlier called Save Our Bolts. We were a group of die hard Charger fans refusing to stand bye and just let the team relocate. Our mission was to make some noise and have it heard among the other owners in the NFL. The NFL needed 24 of the 32 owners to approve the relocation.
THE GOAL: To win over one owners vote at a time.
The time span covered in this series is all of 2016. I personally went through 3 life threatening surgeries that year. The stress and the magnitude of what we were trying to achieve might have got the best of me in 2016.
The time span covered in this series is all of 2016. I personally went through 3 life threatening surgeries that year. The stress and the magnitude of what we were trying to achieve might have got the best of me in 2016.
I have broken these article into three parts. The articles are very long and I'm sorry for that. But there is so much untruths and fairy tale stories coming from uneducated opinions speaking about what they know nothing about.
I have only one goal here and one agenda. To answer as many of those questions as I possibly can. I promise you the journey is amazing and there is a lot of information to process here. Some of it has never been shared before. I'm still a Charger fan today although bitter at the lack of effort and leadership by the City of San Diego and the Chargers. This was never in the whole 16 year saga ever years ever really close to getting a stadium built. The team had all their phony proposals and incompetence and the city had epic failures in leadership and vision. THIS is why you no longer have a football team!
I have only one goal here and one agenda. To answer as many of those questions as I possibly can. I promise you the journey is amazing and there is a lot of information to process here. Some of it has never been shared before. I'm still a Charger fan today although bitter at the lack of effort and leadership by the City of San Diego and the Chargers. This was never in the whole 16 year saga ever years ever really close to getting a stadium built. The team had all their phony proposals and incompetence and the city had epic failures in leadership and vision. THIS is why you no longer have a football team!
One thing I sure learned in this process. Things are not always what they appear to be.I want to thank you all in advance for all for your support. I hope you enjoy the series and my hope is this can provide you with some closure and peace of mind knowing what transpired and why. Much Respect, Thomas Powell
MISCONCEPTION #1
First off, never during this process was there a lack of fan support mentioned to us by the team. The team left for reasons that had nothing to do with "A lack of support among San Diego!!!!"
The "Murph" is the name of the stadium to homegrown San Diegans. It was later renamed "Qualcomm Stadium". The stadium was always at least 82% capacity for every Chargers home game. Through all the losing seasons and the heartbreak endured by Charger fans San Diego remained supporting the Chargers 100%. The fans looked beyond an out of touch owner in Dean Spanos who simply didn't care about winning half as much as they did.
The "Murph" is the name of the stadium to homegrown San Diegans. It was later renamed "Qualcomm Stadium". The stadium was always at least 82% capacity for every Chargers home game. Through all the losing seasons and the heartbreak endured by Charger fans San Diego remained supporting the Chargers 100%. The fans looked beyond an out of touch owner in Dean Spanos who simply didn't care about winning half as much as they did.
It wasn't until 2010, that the fans began to gain LA fatigue from surviving all the previous years threats made by Special Advisor to Dean Spanos and political crisis expert Mark Fabiani. The questioning from some of this fan base devotion and loyalty by outsiders is absurd. Those who didn't go through the turmoil from 1995 to 2012 yet still speaking as though they were a witness to it personally is ignorant, uneducated and just plain foolish.
From 2004 to 2009, every Charger game was sold out and 90% of the fans that were in attendance was Charger fans. There would be a rare Steelers or Packers take over but it was not the norm. The visiting teams and broadcast announcers would speak about what a tremendous home field advantage the Chargers had. I will also tell you the stands were mixed with charger fans from San Diego and LA. On average, I'd say 64,000 Charger fans uniting every home game against the opposing team.
Sadly, now that unity has turned into divisions as some of them have turned on each other. They have separated into two groups. "Support the players" and "Support the soil" sides. Witnessing this separation might be the saddest thing I've witnessed in this journey.
Don't tell me how you're a city fan or a players fan and blame the other group for being a fake fan. You know who you are so maybe from here on out you'll respect the other person opinion even if it differs from yours. There is no date available on human emotions of a situation like this. You know who you feel so let others carry on in their way. We'll all be better fans for it.
My fellow members of the fan groups and I always believed there would be a deal worked out. Even if it came to working until the final hours of a deadline. Sadly, that did not happen. Now it's time you know why!
Entering
the 2016 New Year, we had already been at this for a year now with Save
Our Bolts. What started out as a handful of Charger fans sitting at a
Starbucks discussing what could we do as fans to help in this process.
The meeting was arranged by David Agranoff. He was a community activist at his former home state of Indiana. This was his baby. No one had any idea how far this would go but hell, Go big or go home right? This movement grew way beyond any of our imaginations. There was also a Charger blog writers, fan groups, season
ticket holders and the unofficial team mascot Dan Jauregui. Except fore the Chargers some of us had nothing in common. It was a very diverse group but it worked and not only well but really well. The proudest accomplishment in my life was my journey with Save Our Bolts.
In all there was about 19 of us. A simple meeting over coffee would lead to the entire nation hearing our screams. Football fans across the country related to mission.
Throughout 2015, Save Our Bolts became bigger and more popular each passing month. The first event was a small rally at the mayor annual State of the City address. The mission was to demand a meeting with the mayor to discuss the stadium situation. A bunch of football fans demanding a meeting with the mayor of the 8th largest city in the United States. Yeah right!
To everyone's shock though, the mayor sent a message with a man named Marshall. The mayor wanted to meet with us. This was in January 14, 2015. The meetings with the mayor would end up being regular monthly meetings for updates and ideas between our group and the mayor office.
From that day until March 3rd, our group held google chat conference calls. Starting from scratch be had to come together as a group and discuss who we were, what were were about and how we were going to go about it. There was a lot of ego's and strong opinions on those calls. It wasn't always pleasant but the mission was defined. All of us had day jobs working at least 40 hours a week. Save Our Bolts was a volunteer efforts that would require many more hours per week from us. That was never really an issue. Together we worked around each person schedules. This was a personal mission to us. There was no boundary to where we were going to go.
Early on, a local rapper made a song that winded up becoming our unofficial anthem. The media adored our groups message and respected our devotion. One reason is David had experience writing press releases from his community activist days back home. He knew how to write a press release and how to conduct media interviews. We gave them good power points which made their job as reporters easier. It wasn't until former Charger Nick Hardwick spoke about us at a Padres game in an interview with a local sports producer Marty Caswell wearing one of our brand new Save Our Bolts shirts. The words he used was the mission we defined early on. The passion he spoke with is the passion that drove us daily. That moment you could very well say rocketed Save Our Bolts into the mainstream. We had become a major player NFL player on our side in this stadium saga. In 2015, the mayor was trying to figure out how to keep the team in San Diego.
You can hear Nick Hardwick heartfelt plea here. We didn't knew this was going to happen.
SAVE OUR BOLTS MUSIC VIDEO
Throughout the year, we conducted an estimated 50-60 TV and radio interviews. We created events throughout the city like June 19th and called it 619 day. Everyone would celebrate our city's civic pride. `By the end of our first year, we were on HBO, ESPN, Monday Night Football, a documentary made and had many of the other fans in different NFL cities reaching out to us in support of our cause.
Meanwhile, the city and the team was not so successful. After just a couple of meetings between the two, the Chargers walked away from the table. Mark Fabiani would blast anything the city attempted to move forward with a stadium. He's aggressive approach was best described as "carpet bombing" the city. Dean was quiet and mostly out of the spotlight.
Before we move on let me address briefly what happened with the city and the Chargers that led to the mayor asking for a task force and the team to walk away from the table of negotiations.
LA is the 2nd largest media market in the nation. The NFL abandoned LA in 1994. Al Davis wanted LA back and soon after his son Mark as well. Alex Spanos was never going to let a team intrude on that market as well and either was Dean Spanos. The reason is simple. The way sports works is the person to move in on that market generates massive extra revenue. In other words each team was satisfied in their home market as long as another team didn't invade LA.
If you do not understand what transpired between 1995 and 2004, you will never understand a damn thing about the stadium saga. This is why reporters sound so damn foolish when they report on this subject as an expert.
They don't know shit. If you read anything read this. This remained to be the elephant in the room in 2015 and 2016 between the city and the Chargers.
1995-2003
Here is your breakdown
May 15,1995...Four months after the Chargers made their first Super Bowl appearance they renewed their lease with the the city. The mayor at the time Susan Golding should have excused herself from the table. She was friends with Alex Spanos and Alex played a big role in Susan getting the Republican National Convention to San Diego. She owed him greatly for his efforts. The lease is 20 years set to expire in 2020.
May 1, 1995
Letter from Ron Fowler, president of the San Diego International Sports Council to San Diego city manager Jack McGrory:
Our pledge to the City of San Diego, and the citizens of San Diego, is to rally our forces and focus our energies and efforts to promote the sale of Chargers season tickets. We recognize the critical importance of this pledge, and we are prepared to work on a multi-year ticket sales campaign to increase home game general admission attendance to a minimum of 60,000 per game.
Please accept this letter as our endorsement of the ratification of the proposed lease agreement by the San Diego City Council. The San Diego International Sports Council is prepared to begin work immediately on this project.
May 15, 1995
Statement by Mayor Susan Golding to the San Diego City Council:
Teams in some instances leave in the middle of the night and then leave stadiums built at taxpayer expense empty. I feel that it is extremely important to approve this agreement with the Chargers.
The Chargers clearly are tough negotiators and wanted a great deal more than we were willing or I feel prudently could give. And I think this agreement is a compromise. It was a difficult negotiation, but this agreement secures -- and somehow in the media reports this seems to have been lost -- secures this franchise for the city of San Diego for another 17 years beyond the current lease. That is an extraordinary length of time in professional football today, and I think we cannot diminish in any way what that means.
Just moments after he had won hard-fought approval of a new Chargers lease and expansion of San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium yesterday, Alex Spanos grabbed the microphone in City Council chambers to deliver a pep talk worthy of his football team.
"There's one major difference in all this," said Spanos, the club's majority owner. "Winning is everything. We all know that. The Chargers are committed and dedicated to not only going to the Super Bowl every year, but to winning the game when we get there."
San Diego gets the peace of mind that another city will not be able to steal its football team. Even a complicated clause in the lease tied to changing economics in the NFL would allow the city first right of refusal to match any outside offer the Chargers might obtain.
"I can't conceive what it would be like to see the Chargers leave," said Councilman Scott Harvey.
1997.. Alex wants another Super Bowl to be held in San Diego. However, the stadium is getting old and outdated. Alex was to late to ask for a new stadium because the Padres were already working with the city to build their own stadium in downtown. The current stadium in Mission Valley wasn't baseball friendly to fit the current changes in baseball stadiums around the country. So the Mission Valley stadium would have to require substantial upgrades to bring a Super Bowl to the city. They would also have to update the stadium to meet current requirements as to adhere to the Americans with Disability Act. The city and the team agree on a bond of 52 million dollars to bring the stadium up to date. The city also agrees to build the team a practice facility rent free on Murphy Canyon Road. The agree to sell naming rights to the stadium for 20 million dollars to Qualcomm. Alex makes huge campaign donations to City Attorney Casey Gwinn, City Council persons such as Barbara Warden and Byron Wear, Juan Vargas and Christine Kehoe. The city council conducted several secret meetings to keep updated and have input on the negotiations with the Chargers. To avoid the fans of the team being blacked out per NFL rules depending on a certain level of attendance at home games they agree to buy any remaining tickets that remain under 60,000. Those secret meetings must have been truly enlightening. The bond is granted 20% interest. Alex also added in the into the lease. The city agrees the team can leave in 2008 but would have to pay the remaining bond and a termination fee.
2004.. Casey Quinn and Dick Murphy along with the city council approves the new terms added to the lease eventhough the Chargers had stopped marketing the team through 1998 and 2002. From 1998 to 2002 the Chargers went 27-53. In getting the Chargers to agree to eliminate the ticket guarantee the city agrees to forgive $90 million dollars in rent. The team sues the city for breach of contract and later receives rent credits that would allow the Chargers to be paid $3.3 million instead of paying $23 million dollars because the city defaulted on the payment to do construction to be updated with the Americans with Disability Act costing the team tickets they could have sold. The city is angry because of the team performance and not marketing the team. The city learns the Chargers highest priced seats in the stadium is their Club seating. The team wasn't counting those seats when submitting the attendance figures to the city. Alex also added in the a into the lease. The city agrees the team can leave in 2008 but would have to pay the remaining bond and a termination fee. Casey Gwinn and Dick Murphy allowed the team to leave. As weird as it is one person predicted back them total doom for the city. Bruce Henderson pleaded with the city not to make this deal. He tried to sue the city for anti trust with former Browns attorney James Quinn. The city won't even talk to Quinn nor the 50,000 voters who signed a referendum. A judge throws the referendum out later. But Bruce words to the city council haunt the city to this day. After 2008 the bond becomes solely the city debt and the termination fee is greatly reduced every year. It went all the way down to $12.5 million from 50 million and the city has to pay the remaining bond debt of $52 million dollars as of 2018.
" If you allow this to take place you are giving the Chargers a green light to leave. It might not be today but trust me this team will leave San Diego. San Diego has just lost the Chargers because of your actions today"... Bruce Henderson 2004
So if the city of San Diego and their politicians sound bitter or skeptical when dealing with the Chargers in 2015 now you know why.
So if the city of San Diego and their politicians sound bitter or skeptical when dealing with the Chargers in 2015 now you know why.
As the city was planning it's first ever detailed stadium plan in Mission Valley. The Chargers announced a joint-proposal that they would never recover from. This deal damaged any remaining trust the public had left for the Spanos family. It also made Mark Fabiani approval rating in San Diego less than Osuma Bin Laden.
The team announced a joint tentative deal in Carson, Calif to share a stadium with the hated rival Oakland Raiders for a shared stadium . It seemed to be the final straw after 15 years of threats and mostly a disappointing product on the field.
Jay Paris from the local newspaper and former NFL executive Jim Steeg discuss the stadium issue here on PBS.
Here is a voice over commercial bought by the Chargers and Raiders on the Carson project.
As the season approached, the Chargers seem intent on demolishing anything that tied them to San Diego. The bad blood between the city and the Chargers were reaching a boiling point. Save Our Bolts struck a chord with the other fan bases throughout the country. They heard the passion of the Charger fans and rallied to our cause. Dean Spanos was hardly seen or heard from throughout the year. The January vote in Houston was approaching. It was a sobering feeling knowing we accomplished so much but we were fighting for a team that didn't want to be here.
On January 12, 2016, the NFL owners voted allowing the Rams to enter LA. Oakland and San Diego had an option to return home and receive an extra $1 million dollars to build a stadium in their home market. After all that transpired in 2015, it was hard to imagine how the team was going to overcome the carpet bombing of their home city of over 55 years. Mark Fabiani is very effective in his strategy. However, he's not perfect and sometimes his tactics come back to bite him in the ass later down the line.
JANUARY 2016 "THE LEAD UP TO MEASURE C"
I'm
about to walk you through the time frame of Measure C. I'm also going
to take you behind the scenes for a glimpse of what happened and almost
as important, what didn't happen. In my opinion, you will see lots of
missed opportunities for the city and the Chargers to have reached an
agreement.
Because the City-Chargers couldn't get past their own personal and
professional flaws. We in San Diego no longer have an NFL team in
America's Finest City.
DEAN SPANOS IN LATE JANUARY 2016, AFTER THE HOUSTON VOTE
ONE LAST CHANCE
As Dean Spanos made his way home to ponder his options that the NFL gave him. It's a disgrace they gave him that option. Many credible reports since January 2016 say the owners were very upset and shocked Dean took the offer to LA. They were the ones that offered it though. (He could go to LA and be a tenant with Kroenke, who he couldn't stand from previous meetings.)
That night we gathered all the die-hard charger fans together at the Tilted Kilt in Mission Valley to celebrate the night after the vote was announced. We were at it for 14 months at that time and a huge sense of relief sank in. We were given a second chance. Our goal was reached when the owners didn't have enough votes to send the chargers to LA, although it was upsetting to see that St. Louis had lost their team that day. It was so easy for the owners of the NFL to rip the heart out of an entire city. It was done in a heartless manner -- but then again, greed doesn't have a heart.
That night we gathered all the die-hard charger fans together at the Tilted Kilt in Mission Valley to celebrate the night after the vote was announced. We were at it for 14 months at that time and a huge sense of relief sank in. We were given a second chance. Our goal was reached when the owners didn't have enough votes to send the chargers to LA, although it was upsetting to see that St. Louis had lost their team that day. It was so easy for the owners of the NFL to rip the heart out of an entire city. It was done in a heartless manner -- but then again, greed doesn't have a heart.
Johnny Abundez is with the Charger fan group Bolt Pride (one of Save Our Bolts most popular members). He had kept the lines of communications open in throughout 2015 with the other fan group, the SD Stadium Coalition. The coalition was a group with views that mostly for all of 2015, we with Save Our Bolts disagreed with. At times, it got pretty intense between the two groups. However now it was time to unite as one and conquer our goals jointly. So we all united as one fan group. We also added another group who were named The Charger Backers as well:
A description and mission statements of the 3 groups.
A description and mission statements of the 3 groups.
THE SAN DIEGO STADIUM COALITION
"Founded in 2008, the San Diego Stadium Coalition is an organization whose members are fully committed to working with municipal entities to facilitate the construction of a world-class stadium within San Diego County, which will serve as a home for the San Diego Chargers and potentially the SDSU Aztecs, College Bowl Games, and other events. The group’s commitment is fueled by a passion for local sports, an acute understanding of the San Diego market and an unyielding desire to keep high profile events and the Chargers (the region’s only NFL franchise) in the county. The SDSU strongly believes that this goal will be achieved by working transparently with key stakeholders including citizens, politicians, regional business leaders and other key parties."
SAVE OUR BOLTS
"Save Our Bolts is a grassroots fan based organization of NFL fans committed to keeping the San Diego Chargers where they belong. As an organization and individuals, we know that a new stadium that will provide a venue not only to the Chargers, but several other events (super bowls, concerts and Championship games) that will bring economic growth to the entire region. The current stadium is out of date and a drain of tax-payer money, a new multipurpose venue could house many events of which the Chargers would be a small percentage."
Our members included...
David Arganoff..The founder of the group. David did a lot of civic activism back in Indiana. He's also an author of many horror and science fiction novels. Johnny Abundez.. One word to describe my good buddy, Active. Whether it was traveling to the NFL owners meetings in Arizona and San Francisco or waking up to do a 6am interview on TV he was there willing and ready. He was also a great counter to me attacking all the time. His and smile became the face of Save Our Bolts. No way we would have achieved what we did or even have come close if it wasn't for Johnny.
Donney Cummins... Donney was also with BoltPride. Just because some of these names weren't on your TV sets as much as some others didn't mean they worked less or gave less. Donney was huge in the movement and his time to shine was at the NFL public hearings on relocation in November 2015. The former military veteran shined and took the moment and made it his. One of my favorite moments in this saga was his speech there.
Trevis Thomas...Another of several former military guys. He was our IT dude. But that is to discount his efforts. He was heavily involved in our decisions and traveled to Arizona for the owners meetings as well as the pperson who got CSicness to do the Save Our Bolts song.
Brian Bolts and George Ricoy... They represented the group San Diego Bolts Complex. George did our graphic designs and was an enormous help and always amazing with his designs.
Mari..Mari was for a longtime our only female member. She ran the social media accounts and directed our meetings on conference calls to stay focused. She was great at which she did and it showed in her work. She wrote many of our press released that we were often praised for by the media.
Tyler Roberson and Richie Farley and Rafael Alvarez... Tyler was a season ticket holder, Ritchie was our youngest member. He was the only Charger fan to fly out to Houston for the Jan 2016 vote. Alvarez is the ring leader for BoltPride.
Shawn Walchef... The owner of Cali Comfort BBQ.
Jesse Arroyo... Former photographer for the Chargers
Dan Jauregui..Boltman the characterJesse Costancio.. He was also a member of the Barrio Logan Steering Committee.
Charles "C-Siccness Cole" and Elizabeth Orozco... Rapper for the song Save Our Bolts and his lovely wife.
THE CHARGER BACKERS
"The Charger Backers continue to be the best fan club in the NFL!" Our club is the first and only official fan club of the San Diego Chargers, having been established in 1961. We support the Chargers and their charities through year-round events. Join us as we volunteer at Charger-supported charity drives, such as the Charger Blood Drive, and meet new and Rookie Chargers at our season lunches and dinners. Our famous happy hours have moved to Buffalo Wild Wings, the former site of Jr. Seau’s restaurant.
Combined we had over 42,000 members nationwide supporting our efforts to keep the team in San Diego. In 2015, Save Our Bolts had a documentary film called "Combined Tackle" released by Jim Wolek released about our journey. It covered all the emotions and the highs and lows facing all 3 cities that were facing relocation. It was published on May 27th, 2015 and is available on YouTube.
Save Our Bolts also had ESPN and Monday Night Football had a segment on us as well. This year, Blue Vision Entertainment and Aaron Roberts who is directing and producing a documentary called "Saving Our Bolts, More Than a Team" was also now trying to film the members of Save Our Bolts. Our message was getting out and it was resonating with the country. "Not our team, Not this Year!
The path was not always easy and it took some really long hours of planning and coordinating between us all. We were very passionate about the Chargers and we didn't always agrees one. At times it got really ugly discussing a certain topic or figuring out what direction the group should take after certain events happened. When we were done debating a topic, we voted as a group as to what we would all say with a giving a certain situation. This was all done in private between
We would work our real jobs at 40 hours a week then go home and work on SOB topics adding another 40 hours to our volunteer job. Our meetings would go from 7pm to as late 1:00 am sometimes. That is how we created a mission statement and discussed what are bullet points would be and what our next course of action would be.
After voting, we would all go out into the public as one united voice with one united message. This was vital for our credibility and is why we were able to accomplish so much in such a short time of span in 2015. We used social media as our groups avenue in getting our messages to the public and give any current updates to the fans as soon as possible.
After voting, we would all go out into the public as one united voice with one united message. This was vital for our credibility and is why we were able to accomplish so much in such a short time of span in 2015. We used social media as our groups avenue in getting our messages to the public and give any current updates to the fans as soon as possible.
The third is a local morning newscast at KUSI having fun with the song "Save Our Bolts".
As January turned into February, Chargers fans had received a little time to relax and breathe. Our group never stopped working though going between between the owners meetings and the planning of Measure C. Looking back now, our group members had became quite fatigued from such an emotional year in 2015. We were actually a lot more tired than I had thought way back then.
THE PLANNING STAGES FOR MEASURE C
We were ready to get going again. The team had just announced that their plan in
San Diego would include a location in downtown. This was after meeting between the city and the team members on February 22nd, 2016 at the Complex on Murphy Canyon Road. The team asked the city for an extra $200 million from what SD Mayor offered with CSAG in 2015. The extra costs were for what they said was missing infrastructure costs as well as the added EIR costs in Mission Valley. The Mayor quickly turned the team down on their offer and the Chargers announced the Downtown location the following day.
THE PLANNING STAGES FOR MEASURE C
We were ready to get going again. The team had just announced that their plan in
San Diego would include a location in downtown. This was after meeting between the city and the team members on February 22nd, 2016 at the Complex on Murphy Canyon Road. The team asked the city for an extra $200 million from what SD Mayor offered with CSAG in 2015. The extra costs were for what they said was missing infrastructure costs as well as the added EIR costs in Mission Valley. The Mayor quickly turned the team down on their offer and the Chargers announced the Downtown location the following day.
I received an email from the Chargers PR Director Bill Johnston. Our group had been called to Charger Complex to meet with Dean Spanos. After a year of fighting to keep the team here, this time the Chargers wanted to get with the fan groups to get on the same page. We had been on separate sides of the process for so long by then that there was some tension in the meeting between us fans and Dean Spanos.
We were skeptical of Deans true intentions. I best described our feelings at the time as skeptical. I knew Bill Johnston and Mark Fabiani from my time with Boltblitz. I also interviewed Fabiani for BoltBlitz a couple times in 2015. We had already began a working relationship that led to a friendship that has since grown and continues even till today. The fan groups were the first group of people that Dean had met with since the vote in Houston.
We were skeptical of Deans true intentions. I best described our feelings at the time as skeptical. I knew Bill Johnston and Mark Fabiani from my time with Boltblitz. I also interviewed Fabiani for BoltBlitz a couple times in 2015. We had already began a working relationship that led to a friendship that has since grown and continues even till today. The fan groups were the first group of people that Dean had met with since the vote in Houston.
I can't lie, once you've been a fan of a team for so long, it is pretty amazing when you walk in the doors of the team complex and enter the lobby to check in for your morning meeting with the team owner. I have even covered the teams practices before as the team gave me press passes from when I was a writer for Boltblitz. But this was a totally different experience.
There was about 15 of us at this meeting in February of 2016. Two people were representing the Charger Backers, three were from the Stadium Coalition and the rest of us were with Save Our Bolts. AG. Spanos and John Spanos (Dean Sons) were there along with Dean Spanos, Mark Fabiani and Fred Maas. Maas was hired earlier as a Special Adviser to Dean for the stadium situation. He recently served as CEO for the Centre City Development Corp in downtown San Diego. Hank Bauer a star player from the Don Coryell days was sitting in the back along with Bill Johnston.
MEETING WITH THE CHARGERS FRONT OFFICE
Dean looked relaxed and he always made eye contact with us. He explained how he wanted to move forward and not talk about 2015. The things that were said and done he wanted to put in the past. We explained to him very clearly how angry fans were. Even the most die hard fans were ready to quit the team for good. Rafael Alvarez made clear to Dean that we were all volunteers. We had been through enough and that moving forward he had to be open, honest and transparent with the public and us or we would just walk away. Dean explained that he is in this 100% and even budgeted 10 million to the campaign. Their lawyers were writing a plan with the 50.1% vote in mind.
MEETING WITH THE CHARGERS FRONT OFFICE
Dean looked relaxed and he always made eye contact with us. He explained how he wanted to move forward and not talk about 2015. The things that were said and done he wanted to put in the past. We explained to him very clearly how angry fans were. Even the most die hard fans were ready to quit the team for good. Rafael Alvarez made clear to Dean that we were all volunteers. We had been through enough and that moving forward he had to be open, honest and transparent with the public and us or we would just walk away. Dean explained that he is in this 100% and even budgeted 10 million to the campaign. Their lawyers were writing a plan with the 50.1% vote in mind.
Mark explained the Citizen Initiative process to us. Dean added that he would do a massive PR campaign across San Diego to help build trust. He promised he would attend several town hall meetings all over San Diego about every two weeks. "You name a location and we'll be there." They wanted to throw rally's and events throughout the year. This was going to be a real grassroots campaign they said. They wanted us to be a very big part of it all.
You can see from what was said in that meeting and what actually happened is something that either changed or this was all a bag of dog shit from the beginning.
You see being heavily involved in the campaign is one thing. Campaigning for Measure C all by ourselves and only ourselves only is two totally different approaches. I wish they did let us run the campaign by ourselves from the beginning. We would have done a much better job running the campaign. We thought we were following their lead at the time of this meeting Feb 2. They did vow that the fan groups would have total access to all of them at any time. To their credit on that part, they lived up to that 100%.
You see being heavily involved in the campaign is one thing. Campaigning for Measure C all by ourselves and only ourselves only is two totally different approaches. I wish they did let us run the campaign by ourselves from the beginning. We would have done a much better job running the campaign. We thought we were following their lead at the time of this meeting Feb 2. They did vow that the fan groups would have total access to all of them at any time. To their credit on that part, they lived up to that 100%.
Philip Rivers walked into our meeting towards the end and personally thanked everyone of us one by one for the hard work we had put in thus far. Rivers was quite the surprise. Dean did state he had 12 to 15 players ready to go out and campaign and advertise the measure as soon as he needed it. They really wanted our help with influencing the Mayor. Our group had a very cordial relationship with Mayor Faulkner during our monthly meetings with him.
"Without the mayor and city council this won't pass." That came from the mouth of Dean Spanos to us. They were very clear about this!
Fred Maas who is good friends with the mayor was updated the mayor every 2-3 days throughout the planning stages.
"Without the mayor and city council this won't pass." That came from the mouth of Dean Spanos to us. They were very clear about this!
Fred Maas who is good friends with the mayor was updated the mayor every 2-3 days throughout the planning stages.
With the location in downtown now, Johnny Abundez explained to Dean and anyone who would listen. How absolutely vital it was that the team reach out to the barrio logan residents. They promised us they would attend Chicano Park Day. This is going in their backyard so reaching out early and settling fears is enormous.
Even I explained that (Barrio Logan) won't win you the election but they could lose us the election. We also talked about getting county voters involved and get them ready for volunteering in what was going to be a required city vote only because there was no county money involved.
At the end of the meeting we all took pictures. It was a cheesy photo opt but that is exactly what the team needed at this point. One thing for sure this was going to be interesting to see if the team does what they said they were going to do. Talking is cute but now is the time for action.
Even I explained that (Barrio Logan) won't win you the election but they could lose us the election. We also talked about getting county voters involved and get them ready for volunteering in what was going to be a required city vote only because there was no county money involved.
At the end of the meeting we all took pictures. It was a cheesy photo opt but that is exactly what the team needed at this point. One thing for sure this was going to be interesting to see if the team does what they said they were going to do. Talking is cute but now is the time for action.
The citizen initiative also avoided having to deal with the EIR in downtown. It's the same thing the team did in Carson a year earlier.
The MLB All Star Game was coming to San Diego in July at Petco Park. This would attract national attention to our city's downtown landscape. I asked the team about Comic-Con and if the Padres were behind the teams plans?
What talks have taken place between the three parties? Dean stated in the meeting he hadn't had any yet talked to either one of them yet."
WHAT? Are you kidding me? Oh boy, this should be fun!
http://www.cbs8.com/story/31322602/spanos-meets-with-save-our-bolts-and-civic-groups
DEAN PROMISES
1. There will be Town Hall Meetings with questions and answering sessions every week or two.
What talks have taken place between the three parties? Dean stated in the meeting he hadn't had any yet talked to either one of them yet."
WHAT? Are you kidding me? Oh boy, this should be fun!
http://www.cbs8.com/story/31322602/spanos-meets-with-save-our-bolts-and-civic-groups
DEAN PROMISES
2. Dean said he had 12-15 Players "ready to go out" to support Measure C. Rivers and LT did two of them. Hardwick showed up when he was notified which wasn't often by them. Dan Fouts did a voice over commercial. Late in the campaign they got Luis Castillo Charlie Joiner and Wes Chandler who we requested months earlier. Shawne Merriman was involved in 2015 but not as much in 2016.
3. Dean will be everywhere out selling the measure. We'll have a massive PR campaign ready to go. There will be a big announcement at the end of March to kick this off. He will do TV and radio interviews. This is his baby so he'll sell it. I believe he did a total of 3 interviews.
3. Dean will be everywhere out selling the measure. We'll have a massive PR campaign ready to go. There will be a big announcement at the end of March to kick this off. He will do TV and radio interviews. This is his baby so he'll sell it. I believe he did a total of 3 interviews.
While the lawyers got the details and the wording perfect for the measure it was turning into March. Save Our Bolts wanted to do a media training session. Last year, Save Our Bolts was kinda of the media darling. We knew this time it would be different. We would be talking politics in great detail.
David and I knew the media wouldn't be so friendly this time around. The team had heard about our meeting and wanted us to meet with environmental attorney Cory Briggs for our get together.
Cory Briggs is a well known environmental lawyer who wrote a similar plan called the Citizen Plan months earlier that also would be on the same ballot. I really enjoyed Briggs a lot. This could be the beginning of a good friendship. He was straight forward and to the point. Cussing like a Navy sailor he is much different than the Briggs the media talks too.
No attorney has sued more using the state main environmental laws than Briggs. He is the main person that got Mayor Bob Filner removed from office for his sexual harassment allegations. People fear Briggs and his lawsuits. He has over $2 billion dollars worth of projects tied up in the San Diego courts. Briggs is either loved or hated. It just all depends on who you are talking too.
He is very much against the Hoteliers and how they have conduct their shady business in the city. He stopped the Hoteliers bay front expansion of the convention center because of a illegal tax opposed upon taxpayers without a public vote. Let me repeat that. They wanted the TOT raised but only to fill their pockets. The city council quietly passed their amendment and it was struck down in the courts as shady and illegal.
He is very much against the Hoteliers and how they have conduct their shady business in the city. He stopped the Hoteliers bay front expansion of the convention center because of a illegal tax opposed upon taxpayers without a public vote. Let me repeat that. They wanted the TOT raised but only to fill their pockets. The city council quietly passed their amendment and it was struck down in the courts as shady and illegal.
Briggs taught us that the media is not our friend. He said the media is only focused on one thing and one thing only. That is whatever their story is at the time. He told us what we needed to know instead of what we wanted to hear. The fan groups joined Briggs as partners in the what would soon to become war over Measure C. Just liked Briggs predicted.
INTERESTING LINKS
Learn more about Briggs here with Liam Dillon of the Voice of San Diego...
Learn more about Briggs here with Liam Dillon of the Voice of San Diego...
https://www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/science-environment/how-san-diegos-most-disruptive-lawyer-makes-his-money/
Learn more about Cory Briggs and the Chargers nemesis The Hoteliers here... http://ourcitysd.com/how-powerful-are-the-hoteliers/#sthash.CZ4mciyF.dpbs
Learn more about Cory Briggs and the Chargers nemesis The Hoteliers here... http://ourcitysd.com/how-powerful-are-the-hoteliers/#sthash.CZ4mciyF.dpbs
George Mullen website http://www.hotelierscabal.com
A week after we met with the Chargers, we also met with former State Senator Steve Peace who was representing John Moores with JMI Realty. He is John Moores' Senior Advisor. JMI was helping the team with the planning and campaign agenda in regards to Measure C. Peace one of the most knowledgeable people on the subject of politics in San Diego that I have ever met.
John Moores CEO of JMI Realty and former Padres owner that helped build Petco Park in the 1998 election. Some voters still has a bad taste in their mouth because of Padres promises that were unkempt. As beautiful as Petco is in Downtown. It is Moores who benefited from the $300 million tax payers contribution to his $450 million dollar project from 1998. He also got all developmental rights to all of the surrounding property around Petco Park. Petco was built building relationships and reaching out to the media and the voters in the communities of San Diego. Dean never even attempted either of those approaches.
Read more about the difference between Petco and Dean wanted palace in DT here with the the Voice of San Diego article by Lisa Halverstadt....
https://www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/land-use/5-lessons-from-the-padres-stadium-push/
https://www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/land-use/5-lessons-from-the-padres-stadium-push/
Shall an ordinance be adopted authorizing the City of San Diego to enter into agreements to redevelop an area of downtown, and construct a multiple use ballpark, provided that 1) the City's participation requires no new taxes, is capped, and also limited to redevelopment funds and an amount equivalent to certain hotel tax revenue; and 2) the San Diego Padres guarantee substantial private contributions, pay all ballpark construction cost overruns, and play in San Diego until 2024?
NOTE: Petco was approved with a majority vote of 59.6%.
All the great work Moores and Lucchino did leading up to that vote in 1998 within the communities, business leaders and reaching out to all the voters. That is how you get stadiums built in communities! But given all that the measure only got 59%. Measure C with Dean Spanos as the leader we were looking at possibly needing 67%.
John Moores made millions and millions of dollars off of the Petco project. That was up until his divorce which caused the Padres payroll to fall to embarrassing levels. More of the same ole lies and empty promises made to San Diego's tax payers from billionaires. Moores promised a new stadium would mean fielding a competitive team every year. Nope, just the rich getting richer and the tax paying voters left hung out to dry to support another billionaires projects.
John Moores made millions and millions of dollars off of the Petco project. That was up until his divorce which caused the Padres payroll to fall to embarrassing levels. More of the same ole lies and empty promises made to San Diego's tax payers from billionaires. Moores promised a new stadium would mean fielding a competitive team every year. Nope, just the rich getting richer and the tax paying voters left hung out to dry to support another billionaires projects.
Moores was a big SDSU alumni and strong supporter of the university. Steve Peace told us that he wanted us to put pressure on the Mayor to sell the land of Mission Valley (166 acres) to SDSU for $1.00. Even though Prop C revitalized downtown, many voters felt lied to and betrayed again because of the broken promises made before the election
JMI Realty promised us in the meeting that they would be heavily involved in the campaign process. I was just thinking to myself "THANK GOD"!
Although, Peace said his role in the campaign was "undefined" at that moment. Undefined? Great, Dean Spanos, the man who couldn't get a coalition of kids together to build Lego's in a Toys R US is in charge of running the campaign!
Meanwhile, the former 20 year veteran U.S. State Senator role is "Undefined".
That upset me because Peace had a aura about him. He was knowledgeable, he led a room when he spoke. I don't know what makes a leader a leader. They just have the "IT" factor. Steve Peace had "IT." I will confess though, Steve Peace did loved himself some Steve Peace.
Although, Peace said his role in the campaign was "undefined" at that moment. Undefined? Great, Dean Spanos, the man who couldn't get a coalition of kids together to build Lego's in a Toys R US is in charge of running the campaign!
Meanwhile, the former 20 year veteran U.S. State Senator role is "Undefined".
That upset me because Peace had a aura about him. He was knowledgeable, he led a room when he spoke. I don't know what makes a leader a leader. They just have the "IT" factor. Steve Peace had "IT." I will confess though, Steve Peace did loved himself some Steve Peace.
Peace was a much better salesman than Dean Spanos could ever be. Steve Peace and Jim Steeg would have been perfect advocates for Dean in his conquest to building a stadium in San Diego. Steeg was employed for the Chargers from 2004-2009. He wanted Dean out in the public arena and to interview with the media more. It's a strategy called relationship building. Dean suffered from that illness beyond what any dr could fix.from it.
Building relationships with the cities most powerful people is how you get things accomplished. (The mission valley 2004 proposal, where dean offered to build the stadium himself if given the land for free) wasn't going to ever be fulfilled. He couldn't find a business partner. You know why? No one trusted Dean Spanos to make a good business decision. If it wasn't for Alex Spanos (his father) a real estate developer company. Dean and his two boys would not be the owners of the Chargers. All three would probably be working at a used car lot in El Cajon owned by Bernie Wilson.
Dean ran the franchise but he never connected with the community or even with the teams fans.
Back to the meeting with JMI Realty...
The shocker that came out of the meeting was when he told us without a doubt, Measure C was going to be 67% vote for approval.
The shocker that came out of the meeting was when he told us without a doubt, Measure C was going to be 67% vote for approval.
We were told that former City Council woman Donna Frye approval would be pivotal moving forward if we wanted to succeed. "Don't underestimate her power in this town." I remember Frye for not supporting Petco at that time and my opinion of her wasn't too great. I never met her in person though so I tried to keep my mind open about her. I did know she was very powerful in San Diego politics.
Peace informed us how the NFL had been moving away from suburban NFL stadiums in new cities. JMI was very also concerned with a loan Dean was receiving from Goldman Sachs (also a client of Fabiani) and the amount of the loan. He told us there would be a very tense meeting later that week between JMI and Dean. He was concerned Dean was seeking to much money on loans. Again we talked about Barrio Logan again and the importance of them feeling included in every step of the way.
We explored the power of Social Media in today's elections. I brought up how we needed to have to control of the narrative in the comment sections of the UT, Voice of San Diego and Facebook.
Everyone from Mark to Cory to Steve seemed to be preparing us for a war that would come in regards to the initiative but telling us slowly not to scare us. They knew what we didn't at that time. The Measure C debate was going to be a bloodbath between the proponents and opponents of the measure.
With the no tailgating in downtown now and the push for public transit over driving to the venue. We knew going in, this was not going to going over well with this fanbase. Tailgating in San Diego is a family tradition that is cherished by so many of us. Repairing the wounds that had been inflicted on the fans and the city from the team over the past few years was going to be huge to overcome. How this will be presented to the public is going to be vital. Dean should have turned this venture over to the experts in political campaigns to decide on how to proceed. This is just one of many missteps Dean Spanos overlooked, miscalculated or simply didn't give a shit.
Dean asking the public for money will go over about as well as Osama Bin Laden selling bibles in Afghanistan. It's one thing to ask for help from taxpayers for a stadium but this was one projecting to be over a billion dollars by a person the citizens didn't like and most importantly DID NOT TRUST.
How would questions by the media and public be addressed? The answers to these questions can make or break the election. These simple steps were mishandled to a almost retarded flaw. The answers should have been done with sincerity, honestly and answered fully. If we were going to stand a chance at the approval of Measure C.
Everyone from Mark to Cory to Steve seemed to be preparing us for a war that would come in regards to the initiative but telling us slowly not to scare us. They knew what we didn't at that time. The Measure C debate was going to be a bloodbath between the proponents and opponents of the measure.
With the no tailgating in downtown now and the push for public transit over driving to the venue. We knew going in, this was not going to going over well with this fanbase. Tailgating in San Diego is a family tradition that is cherished by so many of us. Repairing the wounds that had been inflicted on the fans and the city from the team over the past few years was going to be huge to overcome. How this will be presented to the public is going to be vital. Dean should have turned this venture over to the experts in political campaigns to decide on how to proceed. This is just one of many missteps Dean Spanos overlooked, miscalculated or simply didn't give a shit.
Dean asking the public for money will go over about as well as Osama Bin Laden selling bibles in Afghanistan. It's one thing to ask for help from taxpayers for a stadium but this was one projecting to be over a billion dollars by a person the citizens didn't like and most importantly DID NOT TRUST.
How would questions by the media and public be addressed? The answers to these questions can make or break the election. These simple steps were mishandled to a almost retarded flaw. The answers should have been done with sincerity, honestly and answered fully. If we were going to stand a chance at the approval of Measure C.
It was not going to be a just a group or two opposing the plan either. It wound up being an Army of opponents that was quietly preparing themselves at the same time as our meetings to destroy the Measure C even before it was announced to the public. This was being led by a friend of The Hoteliers Tony Manolatos .The location of downtown wasn't going to go over well with the fans that we already knew.
I was still very concerned about who was going to sell this measure to the public. If it was going to be Dean as the main selling person then I knew we were fucked!
NEW RULE: If you can't build a stadium 100% on your own then maybe you shouldn't own a NFL team.
NEW RULE: If you can't build a stadium 100% on your own then maybe you shouldn't own a NFL team.
It was about this time that Comic Con announced they were not supporting the measure. They had more interest in the convention center being expanded contagiously rather than the one proposed. San Diego makes the majority of their annual budget just from Comic-Con. SDSU was quiet in public but we were told they were dead set against helping the team in any way shape or form.
SECOND MEETING WITH THE FAN GROUPS, CHARGERS AND WITH GOLDMAN SACHS. MEASURE C STARTS TAKING PLACE
On April 7th, 2016, we met with the Chargers again. This meeting was more about the details of the Measure and the process that would unfold. We had a conference call with a man named Tim at Goldman Sachs.
Scott Lewis is the CEO of The Voice of San Diego as links have been previously posted. They are a online news source that had pinned the nickname for the convention center expansion/ stadium. Scott Lewis gave birth to the name Convadium. It would become the term used for the project by most opponents. The name sounds complicated and isn't appealing to voters. Thanks a lot, Scotty.
So we began a conference call with Tim from Goldman Sachs. He went into the financials of the Convadium with us and reviewed all the little details of the plan with us. The further we got into the process the more complicated this measure became. A lot of lawyer language and details hidden in that language.
Scott Lewis is the CEO of The Voice of San Diego as links have been previously posted. They are a online news source that had pinned the nickname for the convention center expansion/ stadium. Scott Lewis gave birth to the name Convadium. It would become the term used for the project by most opponents. The name sounds complicated and isn't appealing to voters. Thanks a lot, Scotty.
So we began a conference call with Tim from Goldman Sachs. He went into the financials of the Convadium with us and reviewed all the little details of the plan with us. The further we got into the process the more complicated this measure became. A lot of lawyer language and details hidden in that language.
A hotel tax (TOT) was how they came up with getting the funds due to a total lack of support of public funds in our city. The Chargers only solution was to do a Citizen Initiative as done in Carson a year earlier. This had major complications in itself and in my opinion seemed and was fatal.
A Citizen Initiative could only include the city contribution. If there is no county money involved in the contribution then the county is not allowed to vote on it.
That involves a vote by the County Board of Supervisors. (Which had no chance of passing) at all we learned in our discussions with the county.
This was heart breaking for us as a group. The majority of the teams fans and season ticket holders were from Northern San Diego and especially to the south in Chula Vista, National City and Imperial Beach. The districts that could not be heard was the heart of the Chargers in the city. These were the most loyal and devoted die hard Chargers fans silenced by the lettering of the law in California. Our external poll numbers for Measure C was at 35%. We decided to mainly keep those poll numbers to ourselves. Passage was 67% and we are at 35%. In politics that is a MT. Everest climb ahead of us. We needed a Hail Mary!
A Citizen Initiative could only include the city contribution. If there is no county money involved in the contribution then the county is not allowed to vote on it.
That involves a vote by the County Board of Supervisors. (Which had no chance of passing) at all we learned in our discussions with the county.
This was heart breaking for us as a group. The majority of the teams fans and season ticket holders were from Northern San Diego and especially to the south in Chula Vista, National City and Imperial Beach. The districts that could not be heard was the heart of the Chargers in the city. These were the most loyal and devoted die hard Chargers fans silenced by the lettering of the law in California. Our external poll numbers for Measure C was at 35%. We decided to mainly keep those poll numbers to ourselves. Passage was 67% and we are at 35%. In politics that is a MT. Everest climb ahead of us. We needed a Hail Mary!
We would have eight weeks to get 67,000 verified city residents only signatures. It would then be audited and hopefully verified with the city clerk office and adopted by the city council in July. Dean hired a professional signature team to get the signatures. This company worked with the Sacramento Kings with their efforts to gain signatures and worked with Dean in the effort in Carson. A select few of us group members were also authorized signature gatherers.
The East Village site for the stadium didn't include the cost of $75 million to cleanup and move the bus yard.The city was obligated to pay for MTS to seek and relocate to a new location as well.
The team would train us officially as signature gatherers to do what we could to kick start the initiative. We all knew our roles and were ready to go out and fight for this thing finally. Our spirits were high and our energy was rebuilt. All that was left was the Chargers to inform us when the press conference would be to have the announcement. We were planning on starting the campaign off with a big bang!
The East Village site for the stadium didn't include the cost of $75 million to cleanup and move the bus yard.The city was obligated to pay for MTS to seek and relocate to a new location as well.
The team would train us officially as signature gatherers to do what we could to kick start the initiative. We all knew our roles and were ready to go out and fight for this thing finally. Our spirits were high and our energy was rebuilt. All that was left was the Chargers to inform us when the press conference would be to have the announcement. We were planning on starting the campaign off with a big bang!
I was talking to Mark almost every day at this time. Throwing questions at him about the laws in regards to the signature effort. I asked many times because of our work schedule when the announcement would be. The word was always the same. It will be soon and then a delay. Then we heard soon again followed up with another delay.
I knew Dean wanted to have several local business leaders on his side to support the Measure at the presser. They had no luck in recruiting any business leaders in San Diego. The carpet bombing he allowed happen has plagued him like the flu in the business community.
No one wanted their business associated with the toxic Chargers' brand. The Mayor was dead silent on the issue and they knew it was probably going to stay that way so the Mayor could avoid taking a side in such a hot topic right before his re-election. The Mayor cowardly act would hurt our cause greatly. It also worried our opponents position. I have never in my lifetime seen a man go from the way he acted in 2015 to the play it safe scared little rat he became in 2016. The monthly meetings we had with him even briefly stopped. History won't judge this Mayor well in the future. We already knew the city council had no backbone especially when it came to the hoteliers. Now the Mayor was beholding to them as well.
We deserve better in San Diego. Forget about who is on who's side. The leadership in this city should be criminal for how long it has been going on. November 2018 you can change that. Vote all 9 City Councilman out.
The 2nd meeting at Chargers Complex
I knew Dean wanted to have several local business leaders on his side to support the Measure at the presser. They had no luck in recruiting any business leaders in San Diego. The carpet bombing he allowed happen has plagued him like the flu in the business community.
No one wanted their business associated with the toxic Chargers' brand. The Mayor was dead silent on the issue and they knew it was probably going to stay that way so the Mayor could avoid taking a side in such a hot topic right before his re-election. The Mayor cowardly act would hurt our cause greatly. It also worried our opponents position. I have never in my lifetime seen a man go from the way he acted in 2015 to the play it safe scared little rat he became in 2016. The monthly meetings we had with him even briefly stopped. History won't judge this Mayor well in the future. We already knew the city council had no backbone especially when it came to the hoteliers. Now the Mayor was beholding to them as well.
We deserve better in San Diego. Forget about who is on who's side. The leadership in this city should be criminal for how long it has been going on. November 2018 you can change that. Vote all 9 City Councilman out.
The 2nd meeting at Chargers Complex
Now before we go on, let's meet some of the major players that played a pivotal role in this saga.
THE PLAYERS IN THIS GAME
TONY MANOLATOS
FORMER CSAG SPOKESMAN POLITICAL CONSULTANT
Tony was the former spokesman for CSAG in 2015. He also runs his political consultant business Apex Strategies, a public relations firm that handles many of the politicians at city hall including Chris Cate in District 6. He has since started BNA Communications another public relations firm.
Tony has a lot of influence by the contacts he was able to form from being a former UT writer to his stints working while working for people at city hall
Let me end this speculation. Tony Manolatos was paid and he was paid illegally by the Mayor Chief of Staff Jason Roe. Sometimes alcohol can sink ships. Tony is a snake and a shit stain on society. He himself leaked to Save Our Bolts the CSAG plan at a deli in La Mesa the Friday before the announcement on Monday. He delivered the top secret documents to us so we could better prepare our statements for when the announcement took place.
My impression of Tony Manolatos...
He does what is best for Tony. There is no level he won't stoop to. He is a piece of scum as a human being and a professional. Calling me out of the blue at 7am. That was the day I publish a very detailed interview with Mark Fabiani for the blog BoltBlitz. He was whining about the article where I questioned some tactics he had used on a radio show speaking about the team. If you let a sports blog opinion get under your skin wow you might be in the wrong game. Then again you are the think skinned person who --- out of his wife. "Allegedly of course." Think of Karl Rove the political hack that was called George Bush Brian. That is Tony Manolatos but without the brain. Now, you know Tony Manolatos.
THE HOTELIERS
BILL EVANS
You notice the personal names of the hoteliers are rarely used. There almost like a phantom in the night group. That is by design not an accident. There are 474 hotels with over 60,000 rooms in San Diego county. Most of them reside in downtown. Most hotel owners are friendly and family oriented people. . . There is 3 men with the most power. They are known as "THE HOTELIERS."
Those are The Big Three and together they own the biggest hotels in San Diego. They don't just own hotels, some would say they conduct policy at City Hall. as a ventriloquist controls his puppets. Through their gifts and donations to their handpicked political campaigns they achieve the influence and power that they crave. Especially when it comes to downtown. Under them, you'll find Tony Manolatos, April Boling, Steve Cushman and the SD Lodging Industry, SD County Taxpayers Assc and the TMD working together for their special interest. .And people wonder why nothing gets accomplished in this city.
They want a contagious expansion of the convention center. Nothing less and who it may affect negatively those people be damned. For instance, they imposed an illegal hike of the TOT ( hotel tax) without a public vote. They are powerful insiders at city hall. Funny thing is neither one of them can make a good business decision. Everything they touch turns shit. They powered their way into the Balboa Park celebration which led to be a real embarrassment for the city.
Some believe that they planned the Chargers moving years ago. Get the Chargers out of San Diego, raise the TOT to expand the convention center contiguous as they wanted and have developers take over mission valley with condos and hotels.
Local longtime columnist for the UT Nick Canepa chimed in about the Hoteliers in an article right before the team left. "If they go, they go. And, if they do, it will not be on them, (the team) although, they will get the blame. It will be on the city. The Qualcomm stadium slumlords that allows the facility to retrogress, and now the hoteliers, who don't want a multi-use downtown stadium."
Mark Fabiani "The hoteliers have no interest in having us downtown. So we've gotten the message. The people who are in charge of the city are nothing more than puppets to those who run the hotels."
If you are going to truly understand how this city runs you need to see the secret components of what happened quietly out of the public eye. Therefore it is essential that you at least understand all the players involved. I will provide you with a link to political donations and a very informative (little extreme but facts are there) website designed by George Mullen. You can link up the dots if you so choose. Follow the key names which are...
San Diego Lodging Industry,
Tourist Marketing District, (TMD)
San Diego County Taxpayers Assoc,
The MayorKevin Faulkner
The City Council
Finally, The 3 big hoteliers Bob Evans, Terry Brown and Richard Bartell.
https://hoteliercabal.com/ Just click on political donations to see how the money gets funneled into this city council pockets from the special interest groups.
Well go further into those three later in part 2.
San Diego Lodging Industry,
Tourist Marketing District, (TMD)
San Diego County Taxpayers Assoc,
The MayorKevin Faulkner
The City Council
Finally, The 3 big hoteliers Bob Evans, Terry Brown and Richard Bartell.
https://hoteliercabal.com/ Just click on political donations to see how the money gets funneled into this city council pockets from the special interest groups.
Well go further into those three later in part 2.
Little introduction is needed here. He is known in San Diego as a Darth Vader like character. He is a political strategist and crisis management expert. He has worked with Tom Bradley, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Lance Alworth, Bill O'Reilly and Goldman Sachs to name just a few of his clients. He was hired by Dean Spanos in 2002 as a Special Consultant. Mark is a Harvard graduate and was a research assistant for the well known attorney Alan Dershowitz. His tactics can be questioned and referred to as bullying and in your face style of accomplishing his goals but his methods usually provide results. He co-wrote a book called "The Master of Disaster: The 10 Commandments of Damage Control."
DISCLAIMER: Mark is a very good friend of mine. I want to put that out there right now. In the days of myself being just a little Chargers blogger on a Chargers fan website up until my time with Save Our Bolts. Mark has always treated me well. We did two interviews in 2015 on the stadium issue. I worked very closely with him in 2016, almost every day on Measure C. Personally, I have never had a problem with Mark and he has always been there for me. I always found him to never have lied to me. He might rewrite the truth but he never blatantly lied to me. Even if I didn't want to hear the truth at the time.
His tactics led to some really ill will between him and city hall. But he got San Diego to start talking about a stadium finally. Was it to harsh and harmful? That is your decision to make not mine.
His tactics led to some really ill will between him and city hall. But he got San Diego to start talking about a stadium finally. Was it to harsh and harmful? That is your decision to make not mine.
These are the main players. The fan groups have met with Cory Briggs, JMI Realty, The Mayor over a dozen times and Goldman Sachs with Dean Spanos several times. Johnny was in talks with the community of Barrio Logan and we were looking to bring on volunteers to help aid our cause. We probably know the plan better than the team at this point. The Mayor was acting different than he did in 2015 up to this point. The communication between us and them was declining on their part. Tony Manolatos who was a partner to the fans in 2015 has taken a much different tone in 2016.
A LEARNING EXPERIENCE
"Everyone has a agenda!" That keeps running through my head. The advice I was given near the beginning of all this by a close friend with knowledge of how the team and the NFL worked.
Tony was becoming more and more attackful as time went on. The feeling among most fans was skeptical but with some excitement as we were all approaching March of 2016.
It was clear we were going to have our work cut out for us leading up to November.
The announcement had to be big. A game changer. We had to change the negative narrative that was clouding the city. Thankfully, the big announcement was coming soon or so we thought at the time.
Tony was becoming more and more attackful as time went on. The feeling among most fans was skeptical but with some excitement as we were all approaching March of 2016.
It was clear we were going to have our work cut out for us leading up to November.
The announcement had to be big. A game changer. We had to change the negative narrative that was clouding the city. Thankfully, the big announcement was coming soon or so we thought at the time.
Part 2 of this series will be coming out soon. You can find me on Facebook under Thomas Powell or on Twitter @Tpowell619
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