One of the oldest sayings in the book is “Home is where the heart is.” Yet, when there’s no home, the heart is simply stray. Coincidentally, the saying and the Chargers franchise share common interests: old and homeless.
Qualcomm is the 49-year old stadium better known as the Chargers home. Well, the Chargers, Aztecs, and Padres (up until 2003) home to be exact. So it is fair to say this stadium has done its due diligence to the sports community.
Of course, the citizens of San Diego may see the price of the new stadium project and lose their noodles, however, let’s just take a second to review a few things before the outrages begin.
For starters, Qualcomm has hosted over 30 seasons of football, over 30 seasons of baseball, and even added nearly 18,000 seats to accommodate the large crowds over the years. The talks of a new stadium stem all the way back to 2002; which is just one year before this beautiful city hosted its most recent Super Bowl. This can possibly go down as one of the longest stadium negotiations in history. Regardless of it all, there is no way to ignore the fact that the facility is old.
But who cares, right? San Diegans are so exasperated on the $1.1 billion price tag on the project, not many take the time to realize the significance of a new stadium.
One things for sure, this stadium is not safe.
In 2011, Qualcomm underwent a facilities condition assessment by AECOM Technology Company (Architecture, Engineering, Consulting, Operations, and Maintenance). In this assessment a lot of things came to light. AECOM sets their assessment up in 4 sections: Priority 1-Priority 4, with Priority 1 being the most immediate fixings required for the facility. Qualcomm only required immediate basic electrical fixings due to its code compliance violation. Priority 2 however, had a whopping 12 categories in need of repair ranging from mechanical, all the way to fire and life safety.
But, $1.1 billion is obscure! Let’s play the number game…
The Chargers organization is asking the city of San Diego to contribute roughly 31.8% towards the building of the new stadium.
When asked about the Chargers’ location condition during the 2016 Super Bowl week, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell stated, “We will do everything we can to support” the Chargers decision to stay another year. Mr. Goodell meant every word. The league is willing to give the Chargers an additional $200 million on top of the $100 million given to the Chargers and Raiders each at the end of the 2015 season in hopes to help them stay in their current city. Furthermore, the Chargers are putting up over $400 million towards the project.
Hypothetically, if the city of San Diego were to completely repair Qualcomm stadium, it would be 43.8% closer to the amount the Chargers organization is asking for.
Regardless of it all, The ‘Q’ is not a safe place. Spalled concrete, congested cable riser systems, site drainage, and plumbing just to name a few major issues. It’s time for a change. Still not convinced? Try walking on non-bolted grounds, or trying not to slip on piles of water because the pipes are leaking. Or better yet, try being 675 feet from the ground with a walkway half the width of a classroom, attempting to walk alongside 10,000 other people going in different directions. Do you get the picture yet?
It is great that the team will stay in the city for at least another season. However, it is evident that the San Diego Super Chargers are in super trouble.
