The Public Land Brawl: SoccerCity vs SDSU West

$13.2M of private money to decide 166 acres of public land — Measure E vs Measure G, 2018

In 2018, the fate of the 166-acre former Qualcomm/SDCCU Stadium site in Mission Valley — public land owned by the City of San Diego — was not decided by the elected City Council on the merits. It was outsourced to two dueling citizens' initiatives financed almost entirely by private interests. FS Investors (the La Jolla firm of Michael Stone, Nick Stone, Padres owner Peter Seidler and ex-Qualcomm president Steven Altman) poured ~$5.7M into GOAL San Diego (Measure E / "SoccerCity") to lease the land for an MLS stadium and mega-development. The adjacent Mission Valley landowners H.G. Fenton and Sudberry Properties spent ~$4.86M against it ("No on E"), while simultaneously hedging ~$296K onto the rival SDSU West campaign. SDSU West (Measure G), led by former City Manager Jack McGrory — the same official from the 1990s pension era — raised ~$2.65M from the city's civic establishment. SoccerCity lost (30.4%); SDSU West won (54.9%); the City sold the site to SDSU for $88.2M and Snapdragon Stadium opened in 2022. The lesson of the arc: when public land is up for grabs, the contest is won by whoever can finance the better ballot campaign.