Go Away Chargers

WHO WE ARE:

We are a group of concerned citizens, sports fans,

neighbors and fiscal conservatives

who oppose building a Charger's Stadium in Oceanside.

Please join us in opposing this financial Field of Schemes and the huge give away of subsidies. We demonstrated the Goat Hill property was the wrong place for a stadium or office buildings. We will demonstrate again why the drive-in property is wrong and why this new crazy idea of sharing a stadium/office buildings with another city is wrong too.

The City Lied!
The Secret Talks are Continuing!
Now they are talking about Goat Hill again! It's definitely time to get rid of Jerry Kern and his ridiculous ideas! Doesn't the Council know the surrounding communities don't want this? There is no possiblity of handling traffic and these stadiums just don't make any $$ for anyone but the TEAM! (click here for latest article)

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?
Studies show these stadiums are a no-go for any City. click here

A stadium & its hidden costs could bankrupt the city

You all know the City is having a tough time with the State of California's financial crunch. Oceanside has cut its budget by millions and will do so again like near the end of the year.

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. This City just refused to fund an additional fire unit thereby endangering the public.

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? Where will all this money come from?

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 multiple events, including Monster Truck Rallies, at this stadium site. (Fabiani interview, KOCT June 22, 2007)

Mark Fabiani, special counsel to the Chargers recently stated that

the benefit to the average fan is

that "the bathroom lines would be shorter".

KOCT interview, June 22, 2007

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

TELL YOUR COUNCIL THE STADIUM IDEA IS ALL WRONG FOR OCEANSIDE

email: council@ci.oceanside.ca.us

and please join our mailing list to receive periodic updates

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. (see Studies here)

Is this what you want for your children? For yourselves? For your neighbors? For the community?

Serious Issues Face Our Entire City

1.Traffic:

We already have terrible traffic problems on I-5, Highway 76, Highway 78 and Mission Avenue. 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?

We all know that any freeway widening will take years and years if it ever gets done.

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?

2. Loss of our right to quiet enjoyment of our homes

The acreage serves as a buffer to the thousands of homes that surround it. The proximity of the San Luis Rey River watershed is peaceful and pretty. We can hear birds and just listen to silence if we want to. That won't be the case with a 350 event program at the stadium!

Tailgate partiers, concert goers and people looking for free parking

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.

3. This will bankrupt the city!

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.(See Fiscal Irresponsibility here)

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?

Financial Fact: Did you know that Petco Park, as much as fans love and enjoy it,

costs $5 million dollars a year that is taken from the general funds from the City of San Diego?

4. The city will drown in red ink paying for additional safety and medical personnel image of firefighters running

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.

5. More red ink to pay for more traffic enforcement & officers image of car being towed

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.

6. No new jobs are created by a new stadium

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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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.

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