Padres Have More on Line Than Games
Published 4:00 am, Saturday, October 10, 1998
1998-10-10 04:00:00 PDT San Diego -- How many votes is a Tony Gwynn single worth at the ballot box? Fifty? Sixty? That three-hit shutout that Kevin Brown threw Thursday in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series -- will that bring out the undecided voters in La Jolla?
This is how the San Diego Padres' front office is thinking nowadays. As the NLCS resumes this afternoon at Qualcomm Stadium, with the Padres leading the Atlanta Braves two games to none in the best-of-seven series, there is more at stake than a trip to the World Series. As the Padres see it, the future of baseball in the border city hangs in the balance.
On November 3, nine days after Game 7 of the World Series would be played, San Diego voters will be asked to approve Measure C, a $411 million proposal to build downtown ballpark for the Padres near the sprawling waterfront convention center.
This is Rush Limbaugh and Pete Wilson
country, so even though local taxpayers would not be paying for the ballpark directly, public financing measures are always a dicey proposition here, which is why the Padres feel the better they perform on the field, the better the election will go.
"I think even if we get to the World Series it's going to be very tight," general manager Kevin Towers said. "I think it's going to be 52 to 48 percent, or 51-49. The deeper we play in October the better."
Padres management and the media have driven this point home to the players, who are doing a heck of a job in the postseason considering they have had to worry not only about Randy Johnson, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz, but whether Jake from Mission Valley is going to vote no on Measure C because Ken Caminiti took a called third strike to end a promising rally against the Braves.
"From the beginning of the season, the front office people were saying we need to have a good season to help rally support for the new stadium," center fielder Steve Finley said. "I think we've built enough steam right now so it will pass.
"I still believe it is something that's good for the city. That's the bottom line," Finley said. "We're not going to blow smoke in people's faces and tell them to vote for something that's only going to benefit the team. It's a good project for everybody. That's why it should pass, not because we're winning."
Like so many owners before him, John Moores, who made his millions in computer software, insists that he cannot field a competitive team and still make money at Qualcomm Stadium, which was recently expanded into a 65,000-seat football behemoth like the Oakland Coliseum.
The NFL's San Diego Chargers reap the proceeds of the luxury boxes at the stadium. If the so-called Park of the Pacific is built for the Padres, Moores and his partners would control the entire stadium and the surrounding warehouse district, which would be redeveloped.
Measure C calls for the Padres to put up $115 million. The city would be responsible for $275 million, floating bonds that would be repaid with hotel taxes. That amounts to $390 million. Where would the remaining $21 million come from? That is a mystery as big as the cosmos.
A yes vote would create a beautiful, airy park with a mission-inspired design, within walking distance of the convention center, two large hotels and the popular Seaport Village shopping area on San Diego Harbor.
Opponents argue that the city and the Padres plan to rob the civic coffers of hotel-tax money that now finances the convention center, the arts and even nuts-and-bolts expenses such as filling potholes. They also complain that fans who now enjoy 40,000 affordable seats at Qualcomm will find just 10,000 at the new park.
"The fundamental problem is the Padres are a small-market team," said San Diego businessman Richard Rider, a vocal ballpark opponent. "San Diego has 2.8 million people. We don't draw people from the ocean. We don't draw people from the desert to the east. We don't draw people from Tijuana and we don't draw people from Los Angeles.
"If the team starts to go downhill, so will attendance."
If this debate sounds familiar to San Franciscans, it should. Nine years ago, the Giants reached the World Series while a ballot measure to build a publicly financed downtown ballpark was gaining momentum. Then came the Loma Prieta earthquake. With so much money needed to rebuild the Bay Area's infrastructure, voters were not enthusiastic about paying for a baseball park.
The measure barely lost, and after four failed attempts at the ballot box the Giants, under new managing general partner Peter Magowan, finally decided to build a stadium without public money. The result is Pacific Bell Park, set to open in 2000.
With the Fox Network digging into its deep pockets with the Dodgers, the Giants expected to spend more on payroll when their park opens and the expansion Arizona Diamondbacks throwing greenbacks at players, Towers foresees the National League West becoming another American League East. Without the new park, he argues, the Padres will not be able to keep up with the Joneses and might have to move.