When Dean Spanos sought a new stadium for the football team he owned, San Diego political leaders were quick to either denounce or sharply question the plan, with Mayor Kevin Faulconer among the skeptics. Pols did a football-stomp on Measure C, the Chargers initiative, before San Diego voters sacked it Nov. 8. Two months later, when Spanos cold-stamped Jan. 12, 2017 onto the San Diego sports scene, Faulconer said the Chargers Chairman had made a mistake he would regret.
As Spanos headed north, a futbol pitch soon surfaced.
When a collection of La Jolla investors who do not own a soccer team announced their “SoccerCity” plan for Mission Valley and south Kearny Mesa — a vast high-density real-estate spread that will generate, at bare minimum, the $150 million to buy into Major League Soccer — the pols’ reaction was 180 degrees different.