If you haven’t read this yet, it’s a good run down of the challenges and vision of putting a new football stadium on bayfront property in National City.
I will say this again: This is going to be the proposal for a new Chargers facility. Start getting used to the discussion.
Last week, I did a lot of work on this and the news that Steve Cushman had decided that a Chargers stadium would fit on the plot of land being considered next to one of two deep water ports on the bay. He said not only that it would fit but that it wouldn’t cause harm to the businesses around it. This was a big change of direction for a port that had earlier vociferously rejected the idea of allowing a stadium on land that was supposed to support industry. (Remember the 10th Avenue Terminal debate of 2004?)
I decided to call some of the businesses on the land in question to see what they thought of the idea.
Pasha Automotive Services is the name that comes up most often when you think about businesses that depend on the particular cargo bay the Chargers and National City are eyeing for the end zone.
Pasha brings in cars, runs a shipping service back and forth to Hawaii, adds accessories to the vehicles it handles and loads them on railway cars.
In 2006, the company handled 340,000 vehicles. In 2007, it hopes to do 500,000.
It’s a business that is doing well, said Rich Frick, the senior vice president and general manager.
Did the port or Commissioner Cushman call Pasha to talk about the effect of putting a stadium near the operation?
“To my knowledge, nobody at Pasha Automotive was contacted,” Frick said.
Frick said he didn’t understand how a stadium could fit without hurting his business but he could imagine some potential schemes.
“They could construct several parking garages to help me store automobiles, for instance,” Frick said. “There are other things that would have to be looked at but we’d have to protect our productivity and efficiency.”
Frick said he’s keeping an open mind but he’s not going to let the discussions go on without him.
“I will be active in the process of ensuring that the maritime business activities are not compromised. We’re interested in keeping our business growing,” Frick said.