Chargers file over 100,000 signatures for deal toward new stadium

The San Diego Chargers needed 66,447 signatures from registered voters to get a measure on the ballot for the city to vote on a new stadium for the team. On Friday, the team filed 110,786 signatures to the city clerk’s office, reports Tyler Dragon of NFL.com.

83 boxes with 111,000 petition signatures for @Chargers downtown stadium: Will it make Nov. ballot? 4/5/6PM #NBC7 pic.twitter.com/lNUnx3e9bn

— Gene Cubbison (@gcubnbcsd) June 10, 2016

Chargers chairman Dean Spanos was elated about the news.

“On behalf of the entire San Diego Chargers organization, we want to thank every registered San Diego City voter who signed the petition. We also want to thank representatives of organized labor — and particularly the unions of the Building Trades Council — for their significant help and support during this process. And we are grateful for the volunteer signature gathering work coordinated by the fan groups, including Save Our Bolts and the San Diego Stadium Coalition. The fan groups did a great job, as did the hundreds of other people who contacted us and volunteered to gather signatures. Most signature gathering efforts of this kind take six full months. We had just six weeks to complete our work. The fact that we were able to collect more than 110,000 signatures in that short period of time demonstrates tremendous support in our community for a new, combined stadium-convention center expansion downtown”, said Spanos.

Clearly, fans in the area are supportive of the team and want them to stick around. Will the organization be able to sway city mayor Kevin Faulconer?

In a previous email to ESPN.com a few weeks ago, Faulconer had this to say.

“This initiative, if approved by voters, calls for the largest public bond offering in San Diego’s history — so it’s only fair that the public knows all the facts. The Chargers are making their consultants available to the city’s financial staff to scrub the numbers and assumptions that make up the financial model behind the proposed stadium-convention facility. We must continue to peel back the onion on this plan so the public has a chance to see all the layers. We’re going to be fair, but we’re also going to continue asking tough questions.”

It doesn’t sound like he’s as excited about the plan as the 110,000+ people who signed it. Still, the support that has been shown toward this initiative is quite positive for the organization and it seems like only a matter of time before the whole thing comes to fruition.