For some time now, the Chargers have been embroiled in a battle of sorts with the city of San Diego over the continued refusal of city leaders to commit to any sort of public financing towards the construction and development of a new stadium.

San Diego’s ownership group strongly believes that their current home in Qualcomm Stadium is not a financially feasible option for the future, regardless of any upgrades or improvements the city is willing to undertake, given the lack of premium space to sell in the form of luxury suites. The location of Qualcomm, which is situated due east of downtown in the Mission Valley area, is also a major sticking point for the team, as they would prefer to play closer to the revitalized downtown area, near Petco Park.

So understandably, the news of a city funded study, commissioned to look at the the feasibility of building a football based stadium next to Petco, is being received fairly well by the Chargers. The city itself cautioned that this was simply a preliminary review of the property surrounding the popular downtown ballpark that houses MLB’s Padres franchise, but given the overwhelming business driven to the downtown area in the years since Petco was built, there is no doubt that a stadium for the Chargers would do as much if not more.

The Chargers have previously studied multiple sites on their own, including northern San Diego County near Oceanside  and another along the waterfront in the city of Chula Vista, which is south of San Diego proper. They have also publicly stated that if they were unable to find a usable site in the San Diego area, they would be open to moving the team elsewhere, possibly north to Orange County, to take advantage of their fans in that location.

Obviously, cautious optimism is the route to stay with here, as this study most certainly will not lead to construction in the near term, but given the level of distrust between the two sides in recent years, any softening of their stances should be seen in a positive light.

As always, we’ll keep you up to date on this as more information becomes available.

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