P-Rez25

Even if the Chargers ride LaDainian Tomlinson's sturdy legs all the way to the Super Bowl, it's not certain that a winning season would score voter support for a new football stadium in San Diego County.

But it couldn't hurt.

The team is considering several sites in Chula Vista and the city-owned Center City Golf Course in Oceanside as possible locations for a stadium that would cost at least $850 million. Chargers executives say they want to select a site this year and put a stadium proposal before voters in November 2008.

Mark Fabiani, the team's general counsel and spokesman on stadium issues, said the Chargers don't have to match their 14-2 record of last year or go deeper in the playoffs than last season when they lost in the first round. But the team needs to be a solid contender to get voters on their side, he said.

“It's huge because people are passionate about this sport,” Fabiani said. “The more successful you are, the more passionate people get, and the more willing they are to work in your behalf.”

That's what happened with the Padres in 1998.

The baseball team went to the World Series in October at the same time Padres owner John Moores and his supporters were campaigning for voters to approve spending more than $300 million, plus interest, in public money for a downtown ballpark. The next month, nearly 60 percent of San Diego's voters backed the team's proposal, leading to development of the $474 million Petco Park.

Steve Erie, a political science professor at the University of California San Diego, said the same thing could happen for the Chargers.

“If they win, the voters will want to keep the Chargers here and will up the ante for what the team wants,” Erie said. “Look at what John Moores did. This is all about public leverage for stadium negotiations.”

Next month, Chula Vista officials are expected to release a more than $200,000 land-use study – paid for by the Chargers – that rates potential stadium sites in the city. A team-subsidized study in Oceanside on the feasibility of office development to help pay for a stadium there also is scheduled for completion in September.



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