Chargers deliver 110,786 signatures to city clerk’s office to qualify Chargers Citizens’ Initiative for November 2016 Ballot
Listen to this articleIn a press release sent out to media today, the San Diego Chargers said “… the Committee for Sports, Entertainment and Tourism delivered 83 boxes containing 110,786 signatures to be filed with San Diego City Clerk Elizabeth Maland.”
The press release offered a statement from Dean Spanos, president and CEO of the Chargers, “On behalf of the entire San Diego Chargers organization, we want to thank every registered San Diego City voter who signed the petition,” said 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.
Philip Rivers
“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.”
There is a lot of support among city residents for a new stadium, but the idea has its detractors and city officials are not yet on board for a convention center expansion that includes a stadium in downtown San Diego.
In April when the Chargers kicked off their petition campaign, thousands of people showed up to their rally at 13th and K Streets to hear a panel of stadium supporters speak about the project. On board were future Hall-of-Famer LaDanian Tomlinson, current quarterback Philip Rivers, Dean Spanos, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodall and several local congressmen.
The city — Mayor Kevin Faulconer and others — has wanted to build a new stadium in Mission Valley, next to the existing Qualcomm Stadium, but that plan seems to have lost steam. It appears that if a new stadium is built it will be in downtown San Diego. It is now up to the voters in November.
Photos by Claudia Gestro
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