Go Away Chargers

Please join us in opposing this financial Field of Schemes and the huge give away of millions of dollars worth of public lands and subsidies.

New secret talks taking place about putting a Charger's Stadium on the old drive-in theater property.Haven't we had enough of these backroom talks yet?

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/10/04/news/top_stories/1_02_5900_3_07.txt

Charger's consultants say the site is too small. It also seems to hint that the so-called office complex deal simply will not work out in today's economic climate. The site is not large enough to support a stadium and the size and square footage of office buildings that would be necessary to supplement the cost of the stadium. The City needs to beware of any supplemental reports that tell them otherwise. Other property, such as the ballparks, pool and senior center could be considered in those. See this link for more info: http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/09/29/news/coastal/21_50_429_28_07.txt

We love Oceanside and choose to live here because we love our beaches, downtown, the relaxed, coastal way of life with the most perfect weather in the world. Adding a massive stadium and all the problems that will come with it will severely impact our entire community. Excessive noise, traffic, and an overall loss of quality of life and city services will be unavoidable. Even though the Chargers say this is a 'privately financed' stadium, that really isn't true is it? The real costs to host cities are quite high and revenues are low or non-existent.

Is that really enough to seriously considering ruining entire neighborhoods and endangering the fiscal health of our city?

Massive Land Giveaway: Some people don't believe that the city is contemplating a giveaway of the Center City Golf Course (72 acres) which is dedicated public parkland AND give away the Ron Ortega Recreation Area that includes the baseball fields, the Boys & Girls Club, the Senior Service Center and the Brooks Street Pool. Believe it! According to the Mayor, "That (land) would certainly come into play." http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/01/14/news/coastal/23_02_501_13_07.txt

This land giveaway was discussed way back in January of 2007 and keeps being discussed because the golf course property is simply too small for a stadium, parking & office buildings. Are you in favor of the city giving away land that is worth over $1 billion dollars?

Events: A stadium and 340 additional events per year will create nightmare traffic situations, increase crime, create parking problems for local businesses & neighborhoods, push out customers from our local shopping areas and eventually strain our city treasury. And yes, the Chargers have said as recently as 2007 that they anticipate mulitiple events, including Monster Truck Rallies, at this stadium site. (Fabiani interview, KOCT June 22, 2007)

Stadiums Don't Pay: Won't the city wind up paying for this stadium as the City of San Diego currently is? That city is paying out $19Million per year from their general fund while much needed infrastructure and repairs to the rest of the city fails to get done.

Where will this huge amount of funding come from in Oceanside? We are a city that is about 1/10th the size of the City of San Diego. As a taxpayer, where you want your precious tax dollars going?

Cities wind up paying for all the problems the stadium creates and don't forget the time will come when all the massive overtime for cops, firefighters and emergency medical personnel comes due! The City has had problems funding new police, fire and emergency medical personnel just this year.

Will the City be able to afford to hire 100 or 200 more safety personnel and fund their pension benefits? Will the public be expected to wait for emergency assistance on game days?

The opinions stated herein are not the official opinions of the newspapers cited herein or their staff or ownership, the City of Oceanside, City Council or City staff, KOCT and its board, staff, reporters or guests. THIS IS NOT AN OFFICIAL CITY OF OCEANSIDE SITE.

We support re-building a new Stadium at the Qualcomm site or in the alternative, a site in Chula Vista. However the Jack Murphy Field site has the necessary transportation infrastructure and will create the least impacts on residents in the area.

The adjacent homes, unlike those in Oceanside, were built well after the stadium. The people knew about the stadium before they bought their homes and accept the noise and traffic. In Oceanside, our homes and neighborhoods literally touch the golf course land. Is there where someone should even think about building a stadium?

We believe the Chargers can work out a deal with the City of San Diego or possibly for development land and a stadium in Chula Vista. There are several groups working toward this goal right now and we support them.

Those alternatives are the only sensible choices if the Chargers honestly want to remain in San Diego County as they have claimed.

We already have terrible traffic problems on I-5, Highway 76, Highway 78 and Oceanside Boulevard. Who hasn't been stuck in traffic on any day of the week? Adding a stadium will create a continuation of the nightmare gridlock we are experiencing every day of the week.

Will it be worth living in Oceanside when we won't be able to go to the beach, downtown or to our local shops and services?

People using the stadium will cause all traffic to cut through neighborhoods and create traffic issues for all surrounding neighborhoods and beyond. Is this ever going to be acceptable to the citizens of Oceanside?

Center City Golf Course is approximately 72 acres of taxpayer owned land. The Chargers want us to get them the land for free or for a very, very cheap lease, like a dollar a year deal. Who will benefit from this deal except the Chargers?

This prime real estate would cost hundreds of millions of dollars yet our council wants to give it away to the already rich Spanos operation. How can our elected officials possibly justify a $750Million dollar or more give away?
image of coach comforting kid

3. Public giveaway of & recreation areas

An additional 40-60 acres of publicly owned land including land with the senior center, Brooks Street Pool, YMCA and baseball fields may also be given away to the Chargers. They claim they need it for parking and office space development.

Hundreds if not thousands of families use these facilities and have no other options in the vicinity of their homes, especially if they walk to their recreation and senior facilities. Where do they go?

These facilities will close and cannot be quickly or easily replaced. our City officials have told us time and time again that El Corazon won't be ready for years. So where else will these facilities be built that are accessible for the communities that use them?

- Please see the Area Map - http://www.netrootz.com/rte/../images/groups/group_31/Neighborhoods_by_Goat_Hill.jpg

This acreage also serves as a buffer to the freeway. This keeps our neighborhoods quiet and peaceful. We can hear birds and just listen to silence if we want to.

will fill up our neighborhoods and fill parking lots of the local businesses. These people don't spend money in our town. They just want free parking.

Trash, alcohol, drugs, loud music, loud noise from monster truck rallies and concerts- these all will come at the expense of the quiet enjoyment of our homes and cost our city a huge loss of general funds for cleanup and enforcement on event days. Remember the Chargers claim they want events 350 days per year because they know the football games alone will never pay for this stadium.

It is well known to all independent sports economists and even by the team owners that sports stadiums do not make money for the host cities and are a huge drain on city services and the treasury.

What are the real benefits of a stadium? They generate increasingly more wealth for the owners of the teams while cities struggle to keep up with the hidden costs to fund the stadiums.

It is reported that the Chargers make about $70 million a year now plus more and more through lucrative broadcast contracts. Is making more money for the Chargers organization a valid reason to put a fiscally irresponsible stadium in our town?

The City of Oceanside would have to hire hundreds of additional cops and firefighters for event days (up to 350 per year) and pay massive amounts of overtime & benefits.

We most likely be would adequate police & fire, emergency medical personnel services on event days. While the city's response times are improving this would cause major set backs. This stadium just doesn't make financial sense for our town.

The city would have to provide the surrounding neighborhoods with additional code enforcement officers and have tow trucks available on game day.

Trash and sewer services will create additional costs to the city not including the huge cost to maintain the stadium and eventually to demolish it.

A replacement stadium relocates existing minimum wage workers from Qualcomm Stadium. They would be a drain on our social and medical services in the area as these jobs don't pay a living wage. Could they even get here on game day? Our affordable housing shortage is well documented. Where will they live?

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