Thank you UT San Diego for having a voice and taking a stance. I strongly believe that a new stadium is a significant benefit for San Diego. As a local advertising, marketing and PR professional for 30 + years, the often overlooked value of our stadium are the impressions and the media exposure (advertising, in game, PR,) that events here make for our tourism industry and our general economy. Imagine viewing late season football, playoffs, NCAA Bowls and Super Bowl games all shown from our beautiful, warm, welcoming city while you are literally freezing.
The doomsayers/naysayers/wet blanket no public money crowd will squawk, But I ask, why are cities across the country building stadiums for sports? I believe that they realize sports teams, collegiate and professional, add to the quality of life for literally millions of people in a metro area. Sport teams are a unifying point. The market and desire for building stadiums and arenas is strong everywhere in the USA. Most importantly, for San Diego, this is a marketing opportunity.
That said, I believe a potential site for a stadium has been overlooked. It's hard to believe such a large parcel of land has not been considered but I have not seen it mentioned anywhere.
The option is Riverwalk Golf Course (sorry San Diego golfers). While the property does not have the symmetry of the current stadium footprint, I believe that the acreage is similar, if not larger. The trolley runs through the center of the property. There is a need to do some flood mitigation work in that area and that could be done in conjunction with the project. It would also allow for work to be done to extend the public access trail system along the San Diego River further west from the current terminus. Golf course land is not currently very expensive so the price to acquire the land should not be prohibitive. I believe an exclusive access lane/road/exit could be built on the site from the current south bound 163, west bound 8 Hotel Circle North exit. There is conceivably access from I-5 as well (I’m a Cal Trans believer). Yes traffic would still be bad on game days, but that is inevitable and expected anywhere and in just about every other city that has a stadium. There is a built in destination before and after the games with the Mission Valley malls within easy walking distance. It is only about a mile as the crow flies to Old Town from there as well.
Thank you for considering my idea.
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