Chargers move closer to vote on new stadium

The Chargers have collected enough signatures to put their plan for a new stadium in downtown San Diego on the November ballot, the team announced Saturday.

If successful, the franchise would stay in San Diego, as opposed to exercising its option to relocate to Los Angeles as a tenant to Rams owner Stan Kroenke at the stadium he has under construction on the former site of Hollywood Park racetrack in Inglewood.

Chargers Chairman Dean Spanos said the club is grateful to those who helped the club qualify the stadium initiative for the 2016 ballot.

“We gathered more than 110,000 signatures in less than six weeks, an extraordinary result that demonstrates the high level of community interest in a new multi-use stadium and convention center facility downtown,” Spanos said in a written statement. “I would again like to thank all of those who signed the petition along with the fan groups, labor organizations, and businesses large and small that helped with our effort.”

The plan for the $1.8-billion, retractable-roof stadium calls for the Chargers to contribute $650 million – which includes $300 million from the NFL – and for the city to pitch in $1.15 billion, raising that money by selling bonds that would be paid back at least in part with hotel-tax revenue.

It is unclear whether the Chargers would move if they didn’t get the stadium vote in San Diego, but they had hoped to get approval from the NFL in January to share a stadium with the Oakland Raiders in Carson. Instead, the league approved the Rams to leave, and gave the Chargers a one-year window in which to decide whether to be the second L.A. team. If the Chargers do not exercise that option, the Raiders then have that option for the following year.

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