NFL commissioner Roger Goodell did what commissioners do on Saturday, promising San Diego a Super Bowl if it approves a new stadium for the Chargers. Well, not promising exactly:
“I’m confident that if they can get a stadium built here, the owners will want to support it with a Super Bowl,” Goodell said. “I think that’s what this community deserves, and we’re all going to work to try and find a solution.”
Yeah, you can totally take that promise to the bank. Not that San Diego wouldn’t get a Super Bowl with a new stadium — they hold them every year, after all, and it wouldn’t be too hard to work San Diego into the rotation at least once — but Goodell’s appearance was far less “announcement” than “media event,” designed to help kick off the Chargers’ petition campaign for $1.15 billion in city spending on a new stadium and convention center annex. A Super Bowl also wouldn’t much help in paying that off, as innumerable economists have found, but at least it might be a pleasant distraction, maybe?
Hey, how come he didn’t offer up a Super Bowl to us in St. Louis? Goodel’s a sucker for palm trees.
The only part I found interesting in the article was that the city council could avoid the ballot by simply approving the measure. While I recall Carson did something similar I didn’t know it was applicable in this case.
Now, of course I’m not sure there’s any political will for that, but 9 people are easier to buy off than 1.4 million people.
Did anyone in San Diego NOT think they were going to get a Super Bowl after building a new stadium? They’re one of the 10 best cities for Super Bowls… the only prerequisite being good weather during February.