San Diego has a long history of doing stupid things. Passing-up acquiring Miramar when it would have been feasible and cheap. Passing-up the opportunity to build a new city hall (there were bids and renderings on this forum like a decade ago). The city chose instead to rent space at exorbitant prices and is now in the Ash street scandal. I hate to be so harsh on the city I call home, but building a low capacity stadium and then regretting it in a decade (or less) would be par for the course here.

Putting a team in Vegas is like the league almost inviting a gambling/point shaving scandal. It will happen. The league ignores the player gambling already (probably) going on but the $$$ is so good. In a few years pro sports may be as phony as pro wrestling, with the players (or big gamblers who pay off the players as in the "Black Sox" scandal) managing the scoring so they have a winning bet.

A couple more SD selling points vs. Vegas

Our economy is very diversified now and less open to booms and busts. In this next economic downturn LV could get hit really hard. Our research, Tech/Bio industry, Military Industrial Complex, and growing distribution hub in Otay Mesa shore up our metro area. Will we get hit yes of course but Vegas notoriously gets smashed.

Team of Mexico! The marketing opportunity to get Tijuana residents involved is there. I would also propose the SD franchise play a Mexico swing during the season against other SW teams like San Antonio, Phoenix, and LA teams in CDMX, Guadalajara, and Monterey. Over time the franchise could possibly develope a Mexico wide TV deal for viewing rights.

I have heard NBA wants Vegas because the whole Sports Gambling industry is set to explode with it being unregulated now. Other than that I don't really know why they are all on its sack :shrug:

Yep, the Padres could easily become "Mexico's team" as well as ours.Basketball team here would also be followed down south, although Lakers would still be numero uno in Mex., unless the SD team as you suggest plays a few games that count in the biggest Mexican cities.

When accounting for both City leadership and the electorate, 100% true.

BOSA DEVELOPMENT Land Holdings:

1) Pacific HWY & W Broadway (Parking Lot - Full Block)

2) Pacific HWY & W E St (Office Depot - Almost Fully Block)

3) 1st & Island Ave (Parking Lot - Full Block)

4) 10th Ave & G St (Grocery Outlet - Full Block)

5) 10th & A St (shares block with Ten Fifty B apartments - 2/3rd Block)

6) 8th & B St (plans for Apartments - full block)

Did some digging here. Bosa is sitting on many of the top sites in downtown San Diego. Do we have any update as to when they plan to develop these sites?

I'm most excited about the ones on Pacific Hwy and 1st & Island, they will have an immediate impact on the skyline.

Another thought - A block downtown in these locations is worth ~$25-40mil... 1st & Island and the ones on Pacific Hwy are worth in excess of $50mil. Sitting on a lot of valuable land here, north of $200mil. Do you think they develop every site, or maybe just making land plays and looking to sell these sites off? Could be in consideration with the shift in the market.

I listened to some sports talk analysis when the Padres got Juan Soto, and super-agent Scott Boras explained how they were able to afford it, and beat out the bigger teams that were interested. The Padres have done an exceptional job of cross-border promotion, and he said that while the San Diego market itself is not very big, if you combined the populations of San Diego and Tijuana, you get the 3rd largest city in America. Helps to have Hispanic players like Machado, Tatis and Soto to market as well.

If they do it right, any San Diego teams have a pretty big market to capture if they look south.

The difference between Vegas and SD right now: Vegas has T-Mobile arena already, and announced plans for another 20,000 seat NBA-level arena by the Oak View Group just south of the strip. San Diego has no NBA arenas and no plans for one. Seattle also has an NBA arena again now that the Kraken have started playing there and the Key Arena has been totally redone.

Vegas has so much private money they can get these projects off the ground quickly and there's no Coastal Commission to worry about. San Diego does not have that private money and therefore has to go through all the bureaucracy to get anything like an arena built. The NBA will happily go where cities have already built a home, and now five years or so removed from the whole fiasco with the Chargers leaving, I'm sure no leagues have any confidence that a facility can be built in the city AFTER awarding a team, so they're going to want to see the stadium/arena built first.

True. The bureaucracy in California is an enormous hurdle to getting anything done. Amazing the Padres got Petco. Good thing they did, or they might be in San Antonio or Austin now. Petco should be a model on how a sports facility can be a very good thing for a city. Anything to get a new arena built. Maybe the Padres owners could get involved in a downtown arena that could get us big league hockey and basketball? The convention center management could also help, since a large arena might also attract large events like a political convention or be useful for large convention events. The Gulls could be upgraded to major league with an expansion draft, but getting basketball needs a 17,500-18,000 seat arena under construction.

Petco Park is a unicorn I think in urban sports design. The way they didn't just wall off the neighborhood but connected it with the outfield park and grass areas that are still accessible to the public even on gamedays is amazing. Plus, 81 home games a year makes that part of town very lively very often. Day games also help to increase activity down there instead of just at night. It really has been a catalyst for the whole area, in a couple years once a few more projects are finished, it will be amazing to look at an aerial photo of what it all looked like when Petco first opened.

Indoor arenas don't have the same effect on an area, so any arena plopped into some spot is going to need to be surrounded with more development, otherwise it will be a big solid wall that just impedes the natural flow of the neighborhood, it's going to be much harder to replicate the effect Petco had/has. You can either have it end up like Arco Arena was in Sacramento, out in the middle of the suburbs with no life around it, or even AT&T Stadium in Dallas that is surrounded by parking lots (cough cough Qualcomm), or they could go the Chase Center route in San Francisco, where you put this gleaming new arena right close to downtown but you don't try to make it the centerpiece of additional major development.

The new Golden 1 Center in Sacramento is pretty well embedded within the existing downtown area with shops and restaurants surrounding it, but if you look on Google Streetview, it's still a hulking, imposing structure with no connection to the neighborhood. Same with Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee that just opened a few years ago, it's mostly surrounded by nothing, though they did a great job of building the "Deer District" with outdoor shopping and dining and entertainment. Chase Center in SF is just surrounded by corporate buildings. If SD built something, recreating the magic they have with Petco would be in my mind the most important thing. Make use of the roof, somehow turn the roof, which if built in downtown would probably offer some incredible views, into a public gathering place with parks, raised solar panels that double as shade structures, outdoor dining and such. Make it seem like an extension of the neighborhood construction instead of this giant thing that looms over you from street level.

Here's a nice big surface parking lot, just one block from trolley lines. Put one there!
https://awesomescreenshot.s3.amazona...543a5d11de1eec

Thanks for listing these. I've been wondering what Bosa is waiting for too. From what I've heard they may be waiting for the next iteration of the downtown community plan update, which, if rumors are true, may include a push to increase the height limit in certain areas to 650ft. If that's true, it makes sense why Bosa is holding on to prime bayfront properties; they want the crown!

They're also been pivoting from condos to apartments, likely because of CA laws that make it easy to sue developers for condo construction defects up to 10 years after construction. So they may also be waiting for reforms on that issue before building more waterfront condos, while building apartments on inland properities to keep the development pipeline going.

All speculative of course.

How about something novel--an arena with a retractable roof? Most games in SD could be played with the roof open, especially day games when it would be warmer. Of course during cold or hot or rainy days the roof could be in place. To invite the outside public, have public viewing glass wall or fence alongside a walkway outside the arena like they have at ATT Park in SF. Even hockey games could be played with an open roof. The ice is refrigerated.

Maybe even one side of the arena could incorporate a multilevel restaurant and viewing spaces with glass walls where the public outside could catch views of the game. Maybe a nominal fee, say $5 or $10, could be charged to enter this non ticketed SRO space with eating facilities. The outdide SRO fans could move around from one restaurant/bar facility to another. Ticketed fans from the arena could enter and leave this SRO area as well to mingle and eat and watch the game. But non ticketed SRO viewers could not enter the regular arena. Semipermeability. Restaurants in the area would pay a reasonable rent to the arena and teams to operate stands in this SRO area. The restaurants could also cater to the nearby private boxes of wealthy fans and corporations. It should be lucrative for all. In essence recreate the openness of a baseball park like Petco or ATT, which is in essence your advice as well.

Problem with open-air is the elements. In San Diego it would be moisture from the ocean air, would probably wreak havoc on the floor and eventually the building itself. Also, wind, even slight breezes, would cause problems as the building would naturally create it's own wind tunnels. They've done the aircraft carrier games a few times in SD and that was an issue even during the games that got played. Especially since NBA is a winter league, you'll have the Santa Ana winds in the fall and then the wet air the rest of winter.

I'd suggest sinking the stadium down like they had to do with SoFi, but if it's built anywhere near downtown you're so close to sea level that might be an issue with the water table. But that would help to create less of an imposing monolithic structure on the surrounding neighborhood.

There's probably no real way to truly incorporate an NBA arena that has to be fully enclosed like they did with Petco, but there's plenty of unique, untested ways to make it more friendly and interactive for those who don't have a game ticket.

9th & B
 

First time poster here. Bosa has updated their website for 9th and B “Coming Soon”.

https://thinkbosa.com/project/ninth-avenue-b-street/

Here’s a photo of the site that I took from my son’s apartment at Diega 8/13/22:
https://imgur.com/T0709Xi.jpg

Leaving the retractable roof idea for the moment, I think the SRO/restaurant levels open to the non ticket holders could work. They would pay a fee, and could view the game while eating/drinking. Ticket holders could also enter, but non ticket holders couldn't enter the arena from the SRO area.

Thanks for sharing! That's a good vantage point on the site. It highlights how much space is dedicated to the future public park/plaza on the Southern half of the block.

15 Cranes
 

Believe it or not, we have another one! The crane at The Lindley went up this weekend. Barring any cranes coming down that I missed, that raises the count to 15.

1 Crane - Simone, Alexan Little Italy, Trammell Crow Residential, Union & Ash, https://www.crowholdings.com/alexan-little-italy
0 Cranes - One Broadway Hotel, Manchester Pacific Gateway, Manchester Financial, Broadway & Pacific Hwy, https://www.manchesterpacificgateway.com/
1 Crane - RaDD Block 2A, IQHQ, https://iqhqreit.com/project/radd/
2 Cranes - RaDD Block 2B, IQHQ, https://iqhqreit.com/project/radd/
1 Crane - RaDD Block 3A, IQHQ, https://iqhqreit.com/project/radd/
1 Crane - RaDD Block 4A, IQHQ, https://iqhqreit.com/project/radd/
1 Crane - RaDD Block 4B, IQHQ, Harbor Drive & Pacific Hwy, https://iqhqreit.com/project/radd/
1 Crane - 8th & B 9th Ave. & B St., Bosa, 8th & B, https://thinkbosa.com/project/ninth-avenue-b-street/
1 Crane - 800 Broadway, CA Ventures, 8th & Broadway
1 Crane - West, Courthouse Commons, Holland Partners, Union & Broadway
1 Crane - Radian, Cisterra, 9th & G, https://www.cisterra.com/radian
1 Crane - The Lindley, Milano, Toll Brothers, Columbia & Ash, https://www.livethelindley.com/
1 Crane - Broadway Towers (Tower 2), Pinnacle International, 11th & Broadway, https://broadwaytowers.com/
1 Crane - Jefferson Makers Quarter, JPI Development, 15th & Broadway
1 Crane - Elevate Hotel, K Elevate 10th Street Property, LLC, 10th & Island

800 Broadway

(I think...)

https://i.imgur.com/Q7w2HBO.jpg

Thanks pswsal! That's a deep hole. I drove past it the other day I'm glad I didn't see this pic beforehand otherwise I'd have been really nervous.

I thought my knowledge of downtown projects was pretty good, but when I drive there and I realize how much is going on and I can't keep up.:cheers:

Mayor recommends Midway Rising for selection in sports arena competition
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...na-competition
Jennifer Van Grove
August 22, 2022
San Diego Union-Tribune

https://midwayrising.info/wp-content...G_75-Photo.jpg

https://midwayrising.info/wp-content....15-PM.png.jpg

https://midwayrising.info/wp-content....15-PM.png.jpg

https://midwayrising.info/wp-content....36-PM.png.jpg

Image Source

Good stuff here, all. Can't believe downtown has 15 cranes in the air right now. I can't recall there ever being that many at one time before.

While looking at the architect's website for the currently under construction Elevate Hotel, I came across the rendering below of Union and B for Urban Housing Partners (Smart Corner, Sapphire, India and Beech, among others). Anyone have more info on this? I like the design elements of the building.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...85362bd2_c.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...abaef394_c.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...d49bab0e_c.jpg

https://www.dbrds.com/commercial/unionandb

Just wish the housing portion of the Midway Rising plan wasn't so bland. Pretty unremarkable, actually. The arena and commercial area looks pretty good.

I haven't seen those renders before, but really like them! The odd part about this project is it occupies 1/4 of the block SANDAG is trying to acquire to build out a downtown bus layover facility. The plan is to build a permanent facility for the busses to park and drivers to take breaks, removing the busses and porta-potties from A street.

SANDAG also mentioned building their new headquarters above the bus layover facility, potentially leasing extra office space to commercial tenants. I'm not sure what the status of the project is beyond what's listed here. https://www.sandag.org/index.asp?cla...rojects.detail

I haven't been following the projects very closely so I went and added floor counts for others like me to get a general idea of the size of these developments. For those following development more closely, which approved projects can we likely expect to break ground within the next year?

1 Crane - Simone, Alexan Little Italy, Trammell Crow Residential, Union & Ash, https://www.crowholdings.com/alexan-little-italy 36 floors
0 Cranes - One Broadway Hotel, Manchester Pacific Gateway, Manchester Financial, Broadway & Pacific Hwy, https://www.manchesterpacificgateway.com/ 34 floors
1 Crane - RaDD Block 2A, IQHQ, https://iqhqreit.com/project/radd/ 4 floors
2 Cranes - RaDD Block 2B, IQHQ, https://iqhqreit.com/project/radd/ 16 floors
1 Crane - RaDD Block 3A, IQHQ, https://iqhqreit.com/project/radd/ 6 floors
1 Crane - RaDD Block 4A, IQHQ, https://iqhqreit.com/project/radd/ 4 floors
1 Crane - RaDD Block 4B, IQHQ, Harbor Drive & Pacific Hwy, https://iqhqreit.com/project/radd/ 8 floors
1 Crane - 8th & B 9th Ave. & B St., Bosa, 8th & B, https://thinkbosa.com/project/ninth-avenue-b-street/ 40 floors
1 Crane - 800 Broadway, CA Ventures, 8th & Broadway 40 floors
1 Crane - West, Courthouse Commons, Holland Partners, Union & Broadway 37 floors
1 Crane - Radian, Cisterra, 9th & G, https://www.cisterra.com/radian 22 floors
1 Crane - The Lindley, Milano, Toll Brothers, Columbia & Ash, https://www.livethelindley.com/ 37 floors
1 Crane - Broadway Towers (Tower 2), Pinnacle International, 11th & Broadway, https://broadwaytowers.com/ 32 floors
1 Crane - Jefferson Makers Quarter, JPI Development, 15th & Broadway 9 floors
1 Crane - Elevate Hotel, K Elevate 10th Street Property, LLC, 10th & Island 8 floors

Ah, this one I have a little bit of second-hand knowledge of. SANDAG is being deliberately obscure in its wording on this web page.

As they say, two of the landowners have agreed to be bought out by SANDAG. But the third is some sort of group of lawyers, and they do not want to sell. Apparently they want to build an HQ of their own? Something of that nature, in any case they want an outrageous sum of money to sell.

Now in normal circumstances all one would need to do is break out the eminent domain proceedings, and indeed SANDAG is already moving in that direction. The issue here is that, as has been so well established in this thread before, SANDAG is flat broke. The only way they could pay for their fancy new office tower (with a bus depot in the basement) is a public-private partnership.

All well and good, but the CA state constitution prohibits the use of eminent domain if the property will then be conveyed to a private entity. Does a public-private partnership fall afoul of that? No way of knowing, it's a grey area in the law. But you can bet your britches that this gaggle of lawyers is going to drag SANDAG into court to find out.

So at the moment SANDAG and these lawyers are in a bit of a cold war, neither really wanting to test this out in trial, so they try and negotiate. Or at least that's where they were last I heard, this may be the legal group deciding to push ahead regardless of what SANDAG wants.

Interesting crane choice they decided to go with for The Lindley.
https://i.imgur.com/5bkqsBc.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/FjqIbUA.jpg

:previous:
16000 seats, Midway District. Almost seems the Mayor and others in power are trying to bury any chance of San Diego getting big league basketball and hockey teams. This arena will be underutilized, mostly vacant and a waste of taxpayer money. The Midway should be primarily high density housing.

An 18000-19000 seat Arena should be built downtown, and give San Diego a high probability of getting the teams. Build it, and they will come. Midway, 16000 seats, no hope. The downtown interests and financiers, and maybe the Padres and Convention Center authorities need to get involved and get the arena downtown where it belongs before it is too late! Talk to the basketball and hockey leagues, to see if they will say it is likely such an arena would give our city the likelihood of getting teams. I think it would, given the massive success of Petco Park.

San Diego is a beautiful city and has the money and population in the metro to support big league basketball and hockey. It is so much bigger and more urban and beautiful than when the Clippers were here. It is a big, cosmopolitan, interesting, increasingly important and influential city, and the leagues will want to be here.

Any attempt to build a major-league quality arena capable of attracting an NBA or NHL team needs to be the centerpoint of any construction project, and surrounded by entertainment and retail. In these Midway projects it seems the arena is farther down the list and not the central focus of the overall project. You need an arena with an outdoor district, like a Petco Park at the Park, for an additional 10,000 fans to congregate for big events (like Milwaukee or Toronto has) outside the arena. You need a district like LA Live or a better version of Downtown Disney, with restaurants, sports bars, hotels, retail. A mini Gaslamp. There's probably no room downtown to do all of that, and in this day and age you won't get away with building just an entertainment district without a bunch of housing. So this would need to go somewhere where there's already housing.

Also, I think they could easily get away with a 17,500 seat arena and be right in the middle of the other existing professional league arenas. Make it creative and add standing-room only areas to maybe add an additional 1,000 bodies inside. The almost-new Chase Center in SF only has an 18,000 capacity. Fiserv in Milwaukee and Golden 1 in Sac are both at 17,500. The new Intuit Dome in LA for the Clippers is only expected to have a capacity of 18,000. It's less about size and more about amenities these days, but 16,000 would be the smallest in the NBA, New Orleans is at 16,867. The smallest in the NHL is 15,321 but then the next smallest is 16,514. 17,500 I think is the sweet spot.

The region still needs to have a viable major league team interested in San Diego before they build an arena for them. However, if we did have an interested team and people want the arena downtown, a developer could partner on the Central Mobility Hub concept. An arena on-top of a train station isn't unheard of, eg. Boston Garden, but there are also some terrible implementations of it, eg. MSG & NY Penn Station.

So interesting. The additional renders on the website make it look like a 600ft tower. Tired of these design firms fu*king with us! From what it sounds like though, this is a lame duck. Lol

Oh man thanks for the insight. What a waste of SANDAG's time trying to do some regulatory gymnastics with that one when the counterpart is as you said "a gaggle of lawyers." They would have better luck with the city in closing a street segment or two to get the real estate they need.

I also don't see how a new headquarters fits with the 5 big moves, but I digress. Plus they're leased offices are entirely adequate. They need to keep their eye on the ball and not fall into a "boondoggle" rebuttal when trying to sell the taxpayers on new transnet or whatever they will call it (already can't get it on the ballot) as it will distract from their main objectives. Seems like a replacement City Hall would be a bigger priority since it crumbles as you look at it.

:previous:
The trend in arena capacity is up. 17,500 is at the lower end, 18000 seems about in the middle now. 18500-20000 is probably where things are going in 5 years, which is probably about how long it would get it to completion. Capacity matters to te NBA and NHL--just go to at least 18000 to be in the middle, or 18,500. We are not far apart. 18500 is my sweet spot, which is less than half Petco capacity. Downtown can handle that since they already handle Petco. Rare if ever would be the times when both Petco and the arena would have games on the same times and days. Scheduling would see to that, plus the basketball/hockey seasons are mostly in the time when baseball is off.

As far as location goes, I think downtown is best, near Petco or in the East Village. The numerous entertainment, eating, parking and other needs and amenties are already in place. Plus the arena basketball and hockey games would mostly be in the time when baseball is off season, so the Gaslamp and East Village restaurants and bars would be happy with the year around traffic. Downtown would rock year around.

Midway is off the beaten track as far as capacity and amenities and transportation infrastructure. The infrastructure is downtown, not in Midway, which should focus on high density residential which is badly needed, not some useless second rate half assed arena below league standards. I can just picture it sitting vacant most of the time, an instant useless white elephant. Mission Valley would also not be as good a location as downtown. Build it downtown where the trolley lines converge and we already have a large food and amenities infrastructure in place. I hope the Mayor and other city leaders come around to this position.

San Diego is a big city now, and it needs its big league basketball and hockey as well as baseball (we'll leave pro football for later debates). A league standard arena downtown is the correct path.

Actually if you average the arenas built in 2010 and later compared to those built before 2010, the average capacity is lower, 18,342 vs 18,941. So arenas aren't getting bigger. The money is in luxury suites, so arenas are replacing more regular seats with suites. I'd say there's still a minimum that the NBA would consider, so a 16,000 seat arena better be decked out with all of the latest and greatest amenities to attract a team. Teams want to generate revenue, and suites do that much more than individual seats.

My feelings echo yours CaliNative... build the arena at Midway if you want, but don't use it as your hook for an NBA or NHL team. For that you need prime real estate, and downtown is it. There's some prime oceanfront spots; a surface parking lot just south of the airport right on Harbor Dr, you'd have to bisect Pacific Hwy probably, which you could run underground maybe. Or buy the Wyndham Bayside hotel property and put it there. Walking distance to Santa Fe Depot and Little Italy.

:previous:
I am somewhat puzzled why you keep pushing for a smallish arena at or under 17,000, near the low end of current arenas. It will hurt the effort to get teams in my opinion. Very happy you agree on downtown location. Little Italy/North Embacadero area might work, although I still prefer the Petco/East Village area. On the same page with downtown. Can we meet at 18,000 (I prefer 18,500), about the sizes of those being built recently? Note I didn't say 19000-20000,. Cheers.

Gonna throw a bomb in the arena conversation by saying that I don't think SD needs or will ever be able to attract another professional sports team. Our media market is too small and niche to justify the expense for a team to be created for, or moved to, SD. That's one of the primary reasons we lost the Chargers, we could not turn them a high enough profit with our limited market and fan base.

We also lost the Chargers because a majority of San Diegans time and time again refused to subsidize billionaire team owners and leagues, making the financing for professional sports venues much more difficult. Yes, Midway is an opportunity for a privately funded arena, but it's clear based on the top proposals that no one expects the NHL or NBA to look our way. If that was the case there would be an arena proposal that fits the bill, but there isn't, because the market and the financials don't make sense.

I also don't buy that TJ or Mexico market could save the day because I don't think professional leagues want SD repping their brands. Why elevate the Chargers when you have the Cowboys and Patriots? Why the Padres when you have the Yankees and Dodgers? In fact, I think the Padres "City Connect" campaign has been interesting in that they lean into marketing to Baja and TJ ("two cities, two cultures, one home team") but they barely if at all mention Baja, TJ or Mexico, which indicates that MLB is being very selective in how the Padres market themselves.

Anyways, just my two cents :)

We're a major US even without an NFL team. It shouldn't be that a hard to build a Pro level Arena. Besides the minor sports teams that would play there Arenas bring in lots event through the winter months. The city can't even solve the convention center. Put the Arena on the bus yard downtown. What? Would it wall off the 5 and skid row? Good.

:previous:
I heard the same give up attitude before the Petco construction got the go ahead. It took a lot of people pushing for it, including me, and there were doubters everywhere. For a long while it looked like Petco might not be built. What a success it has been! It has transformed the east side of downtown. What kind of "fan" cuts down his own city? The San Diego metro market is bigger than many cities that have teams. Join the effort. The Petco success can be replicated in getting an arena and teams, but it takes effort.

I am calling for the Padres ownership, the convention center board and the downtown developers to get behind a big league arena downtown. Perhaps the Padres ownership could be part of the ownership group. There are plenty of very wealthy people and corporations in the San Diego area who could join the ownership, and maybe the people could be invited to invest in arena and team shares. A few pro teams are owned in part by the citizens. A high level of public support for a team could convince the leagues, as well as wealthy investors stepping forward. The NBA responds to public interest.

The population of the city and metro area is double that of when the Clippers were here. Downtown is booming, and a new arena would carry the boom forward, and intensify it to new areas.

As far as hockey goes, the pretty good Gulls who have good fan support could be upgraded to big league by an expansion draft, much like the minor league L.A. Angels became major league in 1961 with a few added players from the other teams.

The Chargers didn't leave because the market was too small, we're the 8th largest city in the US and at the time there were no teams in LA at all. They left because they are one of the poorest ownership groups if not the poorest, they don't have any money to build their own stadium so they asked the city to, and when the city said no, they got an offer to rent a room from Stan Kroenke, the richest owner, who privately financed a $5 billion stadium complex. Chargers pay $1 in rent each year for SoFi stadium. They barely got that deal because the Raiders are still the most popular team in LA. They also has a terrible stadium that generated little revenue.

The market can easily support more than 1 professional team, it did so for 50 years. Here in Salt Lake City, the new owner of the Jazz, founder of Qualtrics, is putting together an investment group to maybe go after a third professional team here. They won't get it, no way SLC is big enough for MLB or NFL when there are much bigger cities also waiting for a team. But that's what SD needs, a group of deep-pocketed investors to form a group and start moving. There was the talk of Joseph Tsai building an arena, but it's not a big enough focus. Someone can make it happen, but that someone needs to start buying the land in downtown first.

Y'all need to do some basic research. Yes, San Diego is the 8th largest city in the country by population, but its media market is...28th. That's >1% of the national market, compared to LA, which is 2nd at nearly 5%.

Don't take my word for it, see from the experts at Neilsen:

https://www.lyonspr.com/latest-nielsen-dma-rankings/

Our metro, by the way, is only 17th in the US with 3.3 million people. If we are being generous and throw in Imperial County we bump up to 3.5 million. That still keeps SD at 17th below Detroit, Minneapolis, and even the Inland Empire.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/...eas-in-the-us/

https://worldpopulationreview.com/us...nty-population

I wish folks would spend more time and energy focused on what San Diegans really need. More housing. Better transit and public infrastructure. Lower cost of living. Vanity projects like arenas and stadiums should not, and are not, a priority for San Diegans. Especially with a cash strapped city like SD. Sorry!

However, I will say that if a billionaire or two wants to throw their cash around, fine. But it shouldn't be on our backs. We have too many things we need to address before investing in entertainment that's currently free on TV or a hour+ away in OC and LA.

It looks like East Village Green construction is FINALLY beginning!

The entire block between 13th St., 14th St., F St. and G St. has been fenced off with new construction fencing, as well as the old bakery and historic homes across 14th St. behind Smart and Final. I think demo of the existing 1 story buildings scattered across the two lots will commence, and maybe removal of the historic homes for relocation/rehab.

I almost thought this project would never come. I hope the construction of this park will finally kickstart all of the seemingly dead proposals in this part of East Village, south of City College.

There are the two blocks demolished for the Kilroy Development.
https://kilroyrealty.com/properties/...-east-village/

The block behind Smart Corner on Park Blvd. and Broadway
https://upzone-socal.com/park-broadw...vic-san-diego/

The Father Joe's highrise at 13th and Broadway
https://timesofsandiego.com/business...-for-homeless/

The Street Lights project between F St., G St., 15th St. and 16th St. but I think this project is officially dead.

There was also a highrise residential proposal across the street from F11, at Park Blvd. between E St. and F St. -- was this another Bosa proposal?

Does anyone have any updates for these projects?

That's great news about EV Green!

I haven't seen any recent news about those projects but did stumble across one named Logan Yards that's looking to put 900 apartments (mid-rise 7 stories) on the site of the EV pond down by National Ave., Newton Ave., & 16th St. Does anyone know more about this one?

Agreed, which is why team owners are going to have to find ways to privately finance these construction projects. Cities may agree to do some tax benefits but that happens for all sorts of private corporate investment so that's not a sports-specific practice.

And while I also agree that the number of pro sports teams does not have a big effect on your city overall, I see this huge Midway project spending hundred of millions probably to renovate the Sports Arena but not going that one extra step to make it ready for an NBA or NHL team. Even if that's not the ideal location (and most NBA arenas are not in the most ideal location), at least it shows a commitment to the leagues that the city is ready for a team whenever that team is available. Get a team in here and THEN do a search for the ideal location to build a new arena. Clippers shared Staples Center for a LONG time and are now building their own state-of-the-art arena next to SoFi Stadium.

San Diego now has a Roman Catholic Cardinal, the only one on the west coast. Even L.A. and S.F. don't currently have cardinals, just archbishops. Now why can't we get a basketball team?

San Diego's Bishop was picked as Cardinal because of internal church politics not because of SD's status as a major metro. It sounds odd, but supposedly SF and LA's bishops were a bit too conservative for the more progressive Pope Francis.

I was speaking tongue in cheek, but we need big league basketball and hockey! Football can wait. Big league arena downtown! The place would packed. Downtown interests & politicians & big investors, get on it!!!

A couple of pics from Terminal 1 looking at the construction.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...8b3f86cf_h.jpg


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...f68631b1_h.jpg

Seems like a terrible place to park buses, doesn't it? This prime location deserves something much better. Maybe they can put it closer to the airport runway where it would be a better fit.

Will be interesting to see where this all goes. I'd much rather see building development at this location instead of a bus lot. Keep us posted.

I'm in total agreement with everyone say they should build a new arena in the 17-19k capacity range. It wouldn't just be for a potential hockey or NBA team ,but for concerts, too.

Speaking of arenas, the 7600 capacity Frontwave Arena in Oceanside for the Sockers will be great for North County. Just wish it didn't look like a distribution center.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...1e8c7370_c.jpg

https://frontwavearena.com/


Now that Seritage is selling off all of their properties, I wonder if what will happen to their plans to redevelop the parking lot around the former Sears building at UTC mall.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...8eea2d14_c.jpg

https://www.universitycitynews.org/w...Feb-9-2021.pdf

Also at UTC, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield is tearing down the old Nordstrom store/wing before year end. Even though they are selling all of their US assets, they appear to moving forward with another development phase. Hotel? More retail space? Housing? Eataly has confirmed they are scouting out a San Diego location and UTC would be a perfect fit. We shall see.

https://www.sandiegoville.com/2022/0...-location.html

https://www.lajollalight.com/news/st...ng-at-utc-mall

Here's a current list of Downtown projects and their statuses from The City of San Diego. I think most projects listed have been mentioned here but it's a great cheatsheet.

https://www.sandiego.gov/sites/defau...s-log-2022.pdf