San Diego Chargers Will Play at Home, Qualcomm Stadium Ready for Football
by 
David Kindervater on October 26th, 2007
AFP/Getty Images/File/Sandy Huffaker
Blogging the National Football League, Blogging the NFL
I am shocked that this Sunday’s game between the San Diego Chargers and Houston Texans is going to be played as originally scheduled — in San Diego. A few days ago, with California wildfires raging out of control, my money was on the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, AZ — on Monday — as a “home field” for the Bolts. But even though they practiced in Arizona while the Cards were on a bye and Qualcomm Stadium was being used as an evacuation center for those people affected by this tragedy, the Chargers will return home and play football this weekend. In an interview with Chargers.com, team President Dean Spanos said:
“I think everyone feels very good about being able to play the game. The Mayor, top City officials and I think just about everyone really want to get things back to normal as quickly as possible. Obviously the players and the organization want to get back to normal as quickly as possible. San Diego has gone through a terrible tragedy this past week. To get to this point, it really shows how resilient the people, the fans, our organization and everybody in San Diego are following this disaster.”
While several fires still burn across San Diego County today, three items come to mind regarding playing this game Sunday — 1.) the remaining evacuees, 2.) the readiness of the stadium, and 3.) policing the game.
While Qualcomm Stadium was in use as a safe haven in this emergency situation, it was never intended as a shelter because there are no showers available and it doesn’t have a roof. So, evacuees have left. The stadium officially closed as an evacuation center at noon today and the necessary preparations for a game will be able to be made. That takes care of two points. Then Mayor Jerry Sanders assured that the city would be able to provide sufficient public safety, so I guess that answers my questions. But many of the evacuees will be returning to neighborhoods that were stripped bare by the fires. I’m sure they still have many questions unrelated to a football game.
I agree that returning to a sense of normalcy is good for San Diego, but there is no quick fix in recovering from over a million evacuations and a billion dollars in damage. The area is still under a state of emergency.
Tags: california_wildfires, dean-spanos, houston_texans, mayor_jerry_sanders, qualcomm_stadium, san_diego_chargers| 2.5 |
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POSTED IN: San Diego Chargers
1 opinion for San Diego Chargers Will Play at Home, Qualcomm Stadium Ready for Football
Oct 27, 2007 at 3:01 am
Yeah, this doesn’t make any sense to me, especially since every other sporting event in the county has been postponed or canceled. In addition to the three issues you mention, there’s also the question of air quality for players and spectators. It seemed better today, but still…
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