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Stadium committee to meet with Chargers representative for ‘robust’ talk

A San Diego civic committee tasked with finding a way to build a new NFL stadium will meet Monday with a representative of the Chargers.
(Donald Miralle / Getty Images)
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When San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer named a committee of business and civic leaders to find a way to build a new NFL stadium and keep the Chargers from moving to Los Angeles, he did not include anyone from the team’s ownership.

Reaction from the Chargers to the committee idea was tepid. For more than a dozen years the team has been campaigning for a new stadium without much political push from City Hall.

Faulconer wants the committee to recommend a location for a new stadium and a way to pay for it – all to be submitted to a public vote for approval.

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Any split between the Chargers ownership and the committee could make an already daunting task even more difficult.

On Monday, the nine-member committee hopes to close any breach with the team by meeting with Mark Fabiani, the Chargers’ point-man on stadium issues.

The committee is “looking forward to a robust discussion with the Chargers about their finances and their deal points,” said committee spokesman Tony Manolatos. “The Chargers are obviously a very important piece of this puzzle.”

Fabiani said he wants to make sure the committee understands “our work product from the last 14 years of effort,” including details on “nine different stadium plans that the Chargers have unsuccessfully proposed over that period of time.”

The meeting will not be public.

But committee chairman Adam Day, assistant tribal manager of the Sycuan tribe, has promised an open meeting soon to allow members of the public to make their views known, particularly on the incendiary issue of possibly using public money to build a stadium.

Faulconer has said he wants the Chargers stadium issue decided by late 2016. He gave the committee until this fall to prepare its recommendations.

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The maneuvering of the St. Louis Rams owner to build a stadium in Inglewood as a possible precursor to relocating the Rams has given the Chargers’ issue new urgency. One speculative scenario holds that the Chargers might become tenants at the Inglewood stadium.

“At no point in San Diego’s history has the possibility of the Chargers moving to Los Angeles been more real,” Faulconer said in his recent state of the city address.

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