Qualcomm Stadium

San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders will decide today whether the San Diego Chargers can play their scheduled Sunday home game against the Houston Texans at Qualcomm Stadium, which is a wildfire evacuation site. Among the options is playing the game at Qualcomm on Monday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said. "If San Diego says it would put less pressure on their public safety, we would move it to Monday," Goodell said at league meetings in Philadelphia.

The Chargers have dropped plans to put a stadium proposal on the November ballot, casting doubt on whether the NFL franchise will stay in San Diego. A major stumbling block, the Chargers say, has been finding a development partner, essential to building a privately financed stadium. Team officials say a chaotic political climate in San Diego and the city's budget crisis have scared away prospective investors.

Results from the 2004 NFL Players Assn. surfaces opinion survey. A total of 1,514 active NFL players voluntarily filled out survey forms from September through November: BEST PLAYING FIELDS 1. Tampa Bay, Raymond James Stadium 2. Arizona, Sun Devil Stadium 3. Carolina, Bank of America Stadium 4. Houston, Reliant Stadium 5. Seattle, QWest Field 6. Baltimore, M&T Bank Stadium 7. Jacksonville, Alltel Stadium 8. Denver, Invesco Field at Mile High 9. Philadelphia, Lincoln Financial Field 10.

The San Diego Chargers are offering to pay for half of a $400-million stadium they want built to replace 36-year-old Qualcomm Stadium. Under a proposal that the team will present today, the public's contribution of $200 million would be paid off in part by taxes generated by a mixed-use "urban village" that would include housing, shops, restaurants and a hotel on about 70 acres of the 166-acre Qualcomm site.

The city of San Diego and the Chargers have finalized a Qualcomm Stadium lease agreement that eliminates an unpopular ticket guarantee but gives the team the option of relocating after the 2008 season, a Charger spokesman confirmed Thursday. "We've said from the very beginning that with the ticket guarantee in place, we had no shot of trying to get a new stadium built in San Diego," team spokesman Mark Fabiani said. "This eliminates the things that were causing the bad feelings.

Despite their completed plan for a Super Bowl-quality football stadium, public park and urban village, the San Diego Chargers are finding it "extremely difficult" to attract development partners willing to make an investment in the project because of the city's political uncertainty, a team spokesman said Monday. "There are a lot of people interested, but the problem is the situation downtown is so chaotic," said Mark Fabiani, point man for the Charger stadium proposal.

The Chargers, who have yet to get traction in their push for a new stadium, officially unveiled a plan Wednesday to pay for the $400-million venue themselves in exchange for the development rights to the land around it. The Chargers want to build a new stadium on the existing Qualcomm Stadium site, and use the rest of the 166 acres for housing, retail businesses, a hotel and 30 acres of parkland.

An attorney who has been involved in other controversies over public funding for professional sports teams sued Friday to block city officials from holding what he claims are secret meetings with the Chargers over the professional football team's desire for a new stadium. Lawyer Michael Aguirre also accused Mayor Dick Murphy of not standing up to the National Football League.

We would have had Michael Vick, the Kobe Bryant of the NFL, playing here every week in our backyard if they hadn't given him to Atlanta. But that's our team for you, owned by a couple of Goofs, and every time ESPN shows another incredible Vick highlight, you might want to get upset with the Chargers -- it'll be good practice when they begin play here in 2004.

As far as this sports fan is concerned, the right two teams made it to the 1998 World Series. But I don't feel that way for quite the same reason as other baseball aficionados. As a fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers, I have little affection for the San Diego Padres who, after the San Francisco Giants, are the Dodgers' biggest rivals. And, as far back as when the team played in Brooklyn, no real Dodger fan could bring himself to root for the New York Yankees.