Low blow to SD. The chargers sue to leave.

[LTEC!]

Chargers Sue City To Break Stadium Lease
Team Is 2-9

POSTED: 8:55 a.m. PST November 26, 2003
UPDATED: 11:52 a.m. PST November 26, 2003

SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego Chargers want out of their lease with Qualcomm Stadium.

The team filed a lawsuit Tuesday in Los Angeles, asking a judge to determine whether the team has met the criteria to allow them to renegotiate their lease.

The renegotiation trigger can only be activated if the team's salaries and benefits exceed its salary cap -- which the team claims has been surpassed by more than $4 million.

The Chargers signed a lease in 1995 to keep the team in San Diego until 2020, but a provision in the contract allows the team to reopen negotiations with the city if conditions are met.

The Chargers say they need a new stadium to remain economically competitive with other NFL teams.

There has been speculation that the Chargers may move to Los Angeles -- a city without an NFL team. The earliest the team could leave would be after the 2003 season.

San Diego city officials have yet to take a formal stance on whether the Chargers have met renegotiation requirements. They said they were unaware of the lawsuit.

Representatives for the Chargers said the team would drop the lawsuit if the city agrees to binding arbitration and also that the Chargers would refund nearly $4 million in current rent rebates under its controversial unsold-ticket guarantee.

Mayor **** Murphy said the city was blindsided by the suit.

"You know, I've been a judge or an attorney for 30 years," said Murphy. "I don't think I've ever seen a more egregious act of bad faith by a party that is supposedly trying to work with the city. The people of San Diego ought to be completely insulted by this.... It completely poisons the atmosphere."

Murphy and City Attorney Casey Gwinn are preparing a formal response to the suit.

[Timexwatch]

Let them go. Has there ever been an instance where building a taxpayer-funded NFL stadium has been anything less than a boondoggle costing everyone $100m+?

[Inverse Icarus]

is that football thing still around? jees.

[Dinner]

The answer is for Congress to remove the NFL's special exemption to the Federal anti-trust laws. That way the bastards would have to give a franchise to every city which wants one and the owners wouldn't have any leverage when they try to black mail cities.

The other option is to let these bastards keep their exemption but to give the citizens of the city partial ownership or veto rights. The team could leave if voters vote to let them leave but I doubt that would ever happen.

[SlowwHand]

I don't blame the Chargers.
Any jenny should know Chargers is capitalized.

[Imran Siddiqui]

The answer is for Congress to remove the NFL's special exemption to the Federal anti-trust laws.

Um... Oerdin? The NFL doesn't HAVE an exemption to anti-trust laws. Only MLB does. That is why no one moves in baseball, but teams move in football all the time.

[Ted Striker]

let them go

and give the clippers back to them

[Zopperoni]

Have them relegate to the NFL Europe.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

The answer is for Congress to remove the NFL's special exemption to the Federal anti-trust laws.

Um... Oerdin? The NFL doesn't HAVE an exemption to anti-trust laws. Only MLB does. That is why no one moves in baseball, but teams move in football all the time.

No, I think you are wrong. Proffesional sports teams cannot be sued for anticompetetive practices under the anti-trust laws. Congress gave them a get out of jail free card. BTW the exemption means they can let in as few or as many new teams as they want and no one can sue them to force them to let more in.

Naturally the owners try to prevent most expansions because they know the value of their francise is directly connected to the supply of availible teams.

Another good way to solve this problem would to have multiple leagues like the European football teams have and then let the teams go up or down leagues depending upon how well they do during the season. I.E. If you are in the major leagues but you finish in last place you get kicked down to the minors and if you finish in 1st place in the minors you get to go up to the Majors. This would solve the problem of crap owners sitting on teams and never investing any money into them. If they don't get the team to perform then the value of the team crashes as it sinks into the minor leagues.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Ted Striker
let them go

and give the clippers back to them

I actually have a vintager San Diego Clippers jersey. Still, I agree. No sports team is worth $100million when the schools are underfunded and a million other things need to be done.

[ICBM]

Originally posted by Oerdin

No sports team is worth $100million when the schools are underfunded and a million other things need to be done.

That's the reason I hate the Redskins.

[JohnT]

The renegotiation trigger can only be activated if the team's salaries and benefits exceed its salary cap -- which the team claims has been surpassed by more than $4 million.

Whoever on the SD side who signed onto that clause oughtta be fired.

[Ben Kenobi]

Send 'em to Canada. We'll take 'em.

[DanS]

That's the reason I hate the Redskins.

The Redskins? Their stadium is privately funded. And their franchise is the most lucrative in the league. But the Redskins model isn't being used in most situations, because everybody wants a free lunch.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by JohnT

The renegotiation trigger can only be activated if the team's salaries and benefits exceed its salary cap -- which the team claims has been surpassed by more than $4 million.

Whoever on the SD side who signed onto that clause oughtta be fired.

Tell me about it. They can trigger renegotiation just by going on a spending spree.

What's even worse is the "ticket guarentee" in which the city agrees to buy every ticket to every home game which isn't sold. This means the Chargers make the same amount of money whither they win or lose so the bastards immediately went out and gutted the team in order to minimize expenses. The owners actually make more money if they have a losing team which costs next to nothing.