The group behind the SoccerCity proposal for Mission Valley is now asking the San Diego City Council to put their initiative on the same November 7th special election for the convention center expansion downtown.
On Monday, Mayor Kevin Faulconer called for the election to vote on raising hotel taxes to pay for the convention center expansion, and the next day, FS Investors, the group looking to build nearly 5,000 housing units, a commercial and entertainment district, a 55 acre park and a 32,000 seat soccer stadium on the former Qualcomm Stadium in Mission Valley, asked to be on the same ballot.
The SoccerCity group had originally asked the City Council to directly approve their plan to keep with the Major League Soccer expansion timeline for 2017, but the league has assured the group that the election will work, and Mike Stone from FS Investors made the announcement today, saying "it has become clear to us that MLS will not make final decisions on franchise awards before the end of the year, and we therefore request that the city council place our citizen's initiative on the special election ballot for November 7th".
The group has collected 118,000 signatures over the last two weeks, and will now turn them in to the City Clerk's office to make sure at least 72,000 of them are verified, before asking the council to go to the ballot.
The move to the ballot prevents opposition groups, led by other developers in Mission Valley, from gathering the 36,000 signatures necessary to force a referendum and public vote anyway.