The Chargers’ search for a new stadium’s brought forth discussion about whether the public in any way could or should own a piece of the team in return for its investment. You’ve had a lot to say about it in our comments section, too.
(How to catch up: Our poll of the mayoral candidates on the issue, Scott Lewis’ two recent columns on public ownership, his column on what to watch for in the Chargers stadium search in 2012 and our page for all of our stadium search coverage.
Here are five of your comments from the discussion:
I find it interesting and typical of the NFL that they are constantly pressuring the communities that are home to (or want to be home to) their franchises to step up and kick in hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to build sports palaces for their teams to play in, but won’t deign to allow those same taxpayers to have a smidgen of ownership in the teams themselves.
• David Parikh:
No city should not get involved with subsidizing, owning, or co-investing in the team. Ownership is just a conduit for further subsidies.
• Joshua Brant:
I wonder, with the state of the economy, if the NFL would consider the change that MLB made to allow minority ownership by public entities? Highly doubtful. But, that does sound nice.
• Jim Jelley:
(Chargers special counsel Mark) Fabiani has a great argument about public ownership and competitiveness, except for the fact one of the best teams in the NFL, year in and year out are the Green Bay Packers. The NFL has stated for years the want a team in San Diego and LA, they will not let the Chargers move, and Fabiani and Spanos both know this.
The Chargers brain trust also has the attitude that if we gave the Padres a new stadium, we should give them one too. The biggest difference between the two teams is pretty obvious to everyone but the big brains in Chargerland: winning
How about letting the people that want to attend Chargers games pay for the stadium?
Statements have been lightly edited to fix spelling errors.
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Dagny Salas is the web editor at voiceofsandiego.org. You can contact her directly at dagny.salas@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.550.5669.
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