The Padres last roamed the clubhouse in 2003. The Chargers want out, sooner than later. These days, Qualcomm Stadium is mostly dormant and lifeless, as empty as a hot-dog wrapper blowing across the outfield.
Worse, the stadium San Diego opened so proudly almost 40 years ago now costs taxpayers millions of dollars a year.
Erik Stover wants to change all that. The city's new stadium manager said no venue should lose that kind of money, especially one with so much to offer, the only place ever to host a World Series and Super Bowl the same year.
Stover, who arrived in San Diego late last year from Giants Stadium in New Jersey, is floating a novel concept: market Qualcomm Stadium as the ultimate party and banquet destination.
He wants to boost the stadium's sagging fortunes, literally and figuratively, by convincing corporate planners and event coordinators that the restaurants, lounges and playing fields inside “The Q” are a great place to gather.
“You can do small intimate functions for a dozen people or you can have 70,000 people,” Stover said. “We can do a bachelor party flag football game on the field.”
In a typical year, the stadium hosts about three dozen football games – professional, college and high school – and other attractions inside and more than 100 parking lot events, so the schedule for corporate parties is wide open.
On Thursday night, Stover invited more than 200 event planners into the stadium to size up its facilities. They dined in the EndZone Club, Murphy's Pub and the Loge Lounge, tasting gourmet food, sipping exotic cocktails and listening to live music.
They toured the bowels of the beleaguered stadium. They attempted field goals from inside the 10-yard line; some even made them. They watched replays of themselves on the Jumbotron.
The party cost about $80,000, with expenses split between the city and Centerplate, the stadium's food concessionaire that will take on the new catering business generated by the red-carpet promotion.
Some guests clearly were sold.
“I didn't know any of this was here,” said Anna Schuenemann, an event coordinator with the local American Red Cross chapter who was among those sampling lobster martinis and curried chicken risotto with mango.
Like many nonprofit organizations, the Red Cross regularly hosts events for donors, volunteers and others that could be held at Qualcomm Stadium, Schuenemann said, even though they likely would need an underwriter to pick up the rental cost.
Minutes later, after emerging from the tunnel the Chargers use to run onto the field on game days, Schuenemann booted a field goal from the goal line – on her fifth try.
“Now I can scratch that off my life list!” she said, while her friends cheered. “I kicked a field goal at Qualcomm Stadium!”
Bargain for Qualcomm
Qualcomm Stadium long has been a money pit – at least for the city – even though the staff has been trimmed and maintenance deferred.
Two seasons ago, during a Chargers broadcast, CBS Sports announcer Jim Nantz was drenched with rainwater when the ceiling in the press box collapsed. Fans in the stands were flooded because of the failing drainage system.
Even so, tenants have profited handsomely by working in what first was called San Diego Stadium and later, Jack Murphy Stadium.
Over the years, city officials negotiated a series of less-than-favorable deals that cost the stadium tens of millions of dollars in potential revenue.
For example, the Chargers share none of their $1.7 million in parking revenue with the city. The San Diego State University Aztecs pay the city 8 percent of their parking proceeds, which came to $360,000 last season.
Before the San Diego City Council pulled the plug on the lopsided “ticket guarantee,” which had taxpayers ensuring the sale of 60,000 seats for every Chargers home game, the city rebated some $35 million in rent to the football team. The ticket guarantee was set to expire next year and the city would have begun collecting millions of additional dollars in rent.
San Diego still owes $60 million on the bond it issued in 1997 to pay for an expansion and upgrades that were supposed to keep the Chargers happy for decades. This year's payment is almost $5.8 million.
Even the agreement with Qualcomm Inc. to rename Jack Murphy Stadium proved to be a bargain for the Sorrento Valley telecommunications giant.
Qualcomm paid $18 million in 1997 to have its name attached to the building for 20 years. By comparison, Petco gave the Padres about $60 million to name that club's new venue Petco Park.
Since the Padres moved out of Qualcomm, stadium revenue sank from $21.5 million in 2004 to $12.5 million in 2006, according to the city budget. This year, San Diego will spend about $2.4 million more to operate Qualcomm than it will take in. More than half of the revenue – $6.3 million – comes from hotel taxes, unrelated city leases and other subsidies.
Beyond football, the stadium hosts car sales, monster truck rallies, motorcycle races, paint-ball contests and other attractions. Last year, the two-day music festival Street Scene moved from downtown to the 18,500-stall parking lot. It will be held at Qualcomm Stadium again this year.
All told, those events raise relatively little money for the city. According to city projections for the current fiscal year, all special events combined will earn the city just more than $2.6 million.
Without subsidies from other city funds, Qualcomm Stadium would cost nearly $9 million a year more than it generates.
“The city hasn't been good at promoting it,” Stover said.
Creativity required
Many other publicly owned sports arenas and ballparks wrestle with generating enough income to pay their bills.
When the Los Angeles Raiders moved back to Oakland after the 1994 professional football season, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was left with the USC Trojans as its only major tenant.
Jon Lee, who does marketing for the historic venue, said his staff works constantly to attract new tenants to the stadium. Unlike Qualcomm Stadium, the Coliseum receives no government subsidies.
A special commission of city, county and state officials oversees the Coliseum and its next-door neighbor, the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. The venues have to host enough events besides Trojans games to meet their $6 million annual operating budget.
Lee likes the idea of marketing Qualcomm Stadium to corporate event planners, wedding coordinators and others, although he's not sure it would work for his stadium.
“Either you're moving ahead or you get left behind,” he said. “You can't just sit there. When you're a venue operator, your job is to fill your venue with events that make sense.”
Fran Rickenbach of the Association of Destination Management Executives, a Dayton, Ohio, group that represents event coordinators across the country, said more arena operators are marketing their sites to corporate America.
Success requires imagination and creativity, Rickenbach said – like Stover's idea of allowing guests to kick field goals or play flag football on the same field the Chargers use on fall Sundays.
“The general public is not necessarily allowed on the field, so an event where they become the star of the show can be very attractive,” Rickenbach said. “It can be a very memorable corporate event.”
Ken Day liked what he saw Thursday night.
Between the costumed pirates, the sports lounge, the fine cuisine and on-field entertainment, Day, an event promoter for 26 years, predicted he would have no trouble selling the party destination to clients.
“It really is a versatile venue for all sorts of events,” said Day, who calls his company Movin' Tunes. “What a great way to continue revenue in off times.”
Jeff McDonald: (619) 542-4585; jeff.mcdonald@uniontrib.com
