Spanos Says City Enjoys a Super Edge

Alex Spanos, the Chargers’ owner, said Monday he thinks he has enough votes to deliver the 1993 Super Bowl to San Diego.

National Football League owners are to vote on the host city for the game today during the third day of their annual meetings.

Spanos said he has counted a majority of the owners in favor of awarding the game to San Diego over Pasadena and Phoenix, the two other cities bidding to stage the game.

“If the vote was held now, we’d get it,” Spanos said. “But things can change. I’d feel a lot better if we didn’t have to wait a day.”

Spanos said he is most concerned with convincing Norman Braman, owner of the Philadelphia Eagles and chairman of the Super Bowl site selection committee, that the 1993 game should be played in San Diego.

Brahman said he is not sure his three-member committee will make a site recommendation to the entire owners’ group before the vote scheduled for this afternoon. Spanos said he hopes the committee stays neutral.

“If they do, I think we’ve got it,” Spanos said. “If they don’t, it will be tougher.”

The voting will be held after each city makes a 15-minute presentation to the group.

The first ballot will be used to eliminate one city. The owners will then choose between the two remaining cities. A city receiving a three-quarter vote of the 28 owners will be awarded the game. If after three ballots neither city has obtained 21 votes, then the first city to gain a majority of the voting owners will receive the game.

Spanos said he does not have 21 owners for San Diego but has enough to win a majority vote.

San Diego officials have been saying for the past month that they considered the competition a two-city race with Pasadena.

Pasadena offers the financial advantage of the 103,000-capacity Rose Bowl, but San Diego is countering with its convenience and appeal over the congested Los Angeles area.

Spanos said his fellow owners have been receptive to his lobbying after the success San Diego had in staging the 1988 Super Bowl at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

“People I have talked to had a great time,” Spanos said. “They want to come back.”

Backers of the Rose Bowl bid were far from ready to concede the game to San Diego, but they were thrown a possible last-minute curve Monday with the announcement by owner Al Davis that he was moving the Raiders back to Oakland from Los Angeles no later than the 1992 season.

That could mean one less vote in their favor and the possibility that other owners could react negatively to the Rose Bowl bid because of the loss of the Raiders from Los Angeles.

But Los Angeles-area officials said they have continued to work hard to convince the NFL to return for a fifth Super Bowl at the Rose Bowl, the first since 1987.

“We’ve put together the best business plan,” said David Simon, president of the Greater Los Angeles Sports Council. “If the owners make their decision based on that, we’ve got a good chance.”