Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Comcast to steal Centerplate’s Qualcomm deal?

Changes loom for heavily lobbied stadium food and beverage contract

Qualcomm Stadium
Qualcomm Stadium

San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer, trying to palatably package a billion-dollar-plus Chargers venue, is set to award a new food-and-beverage contract for Qualcomm Stadium, with some of his major campaign donors are already pitching hard for the big-money deal.

Video:

Centerplate CEO Desmond Hague kicks a dog

Centerplate, the stadium's incumbent food-service provider, got a taste of worldwide infamy this past September when chief executive Desmond Hague was forced out of his job after being caught on an elevator surveillance camera abusing a dog.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The timing of the incident in Vancouver, Canada, was inopportune for Centerplate's Qualcomm concession, which runs out next month. Faulconer, whose 2014 mayoral election cause received $2000 from a Centerplate employee, according to city disclosure records, avoided comment regarding the controversy, news reports said.

Under Centerplate's current contract, sales totaled about $15.4 million between April 2013 and March 2014, the request for proposal shows. The city got a commission and bonus of $2,291,000, or 14.9 percent, the document says. Negotiating revised terms, presumably as favorable to the city as possible, are key to the current proposal process.

The new deal will have a term of five or ten years, "as may be negotiated," according to the January 8 Request for Proposals distributed by the city. It requires the concessionaire to make "an initial Capital Investment of $3 million dollars."

Additionally, "Concessionaire shall purchase a Suite from the Chargers at the current annual lease rate. In lieu of payment to the Chargers, Concessionaire will credit the Chargers for all Catering purchased annually up to the amount of the Suite rental fee….


"Should Qualcomm Stadium be closed prior to the year 2020 or the year 2025, Concessionaire shall be granted a First Right of Refusal of Concessionaire Services," the request for proposals adds, presumably at a new Faulconer-built stadium located somewhere in town. 


The document notes "Concessionaire will have no rights under this Agreement for Merchandise sales for the San Diego Chargers or San Diego State University.

"However, it is the intent of the San Diego Chargers, at their sole discretion, to negotiate a separate Merchandise contract with the successful Concessionaire.”

To assist in the negotiations, the city has huddled with stadium food service authority Chris Bigelow of Kansas City "to assist with the Food and Beverage [Request for Proposals] alongside with the City’s Purchasing and Contracting Department," say the September minutes of the city's Qualcomm Stadium advisory board.

Lobbying disclosure reports on file with the city clerk's office show that Centerplate has hired longtime city hall influence peddler Richard Ledford, a cousin to the politically powerful Evans Hotel family, to lobby the city to help the firm "retain the contract for concessionaire services at Qualcomm Stadium."

Ledford gave a total of $3500 to Faulconer's mayoral election cause, according to city records.

Bob White

To advance its cause, another would-be concessionaire, Ovations Fanfare, L.P., owned by media giant Comcast Corporation, which also owns NBC Universal and a vast cable empire, has retained the services of California Strategies, Inc., the Sacramento-based powerhouse lobbying outfit founded by Bob White.

He was the longtime top aide to Pete Wilson during the Republican's ascent from San Diego mayor to the U.S. Senate and California governorship and has close ties to Faulconer and other Republicans as well as to San Diego State University, a major stadium tenant, where he has been on the Campanile Foundation board.

Records show that employees of California Strategies (including White and his San Diego–based executives Ben Haddad and Craig Benedetto) gave a total of $11,780 to Faulconer's 2014 mayoral bid.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Angry Pete’s goes from pop-up to drive-thru

Detroit Pizza sidles into the husk of a shuttered Taco Bell
Next Article

Flowering pear trees in Kensington not that nice

Empty dirt plots in front of Ken Cinema
Qualcomm Stadium
Qualcomm Stadium

San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer, trying to palatably package a billion-dollar-plus Chargers venue, is set to award a new food-and-beverage contract for Qualcomm Stadium, with some of his major campaign donors are already pitching hard for the big-money deal.

Video:

Centerplate CEO Desmond Hague kicks a dog

Centerplate, the stadium's incumbent food-service provider, got a taste of worldwide infamy this past September when chief executive Desmond Hague was forced out of his job after being caught on an elevator surveillance camera abusing a dog.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The timing of the incident in Vancouver, Canada, was inopportune for Centerplate's Qualcomm concession, which runs out next month. Faulconer, whose 2014 mayoral election cause received $2000 from a Centerplate employee, according to city disclosure records, avoided comment regarding the controversy, news reports said.

Under Centerplate's current contract, sales totaled about $15.4 million between April 2013 and March 2014, the request for proposal shows. The city got a commission and bonus of $2,291,000, or 14.9 percent, the document says. Negotiating revised terms, presumably as favorable to the city as possible, are key to the current proposal process.

The new deal will have a term of five or ten years, "as may be negotiated," according to the January 8 Request for Proposals distributed by the city. It requires the concessionaire to make "an initial Capital Investment of $3 million dollars."

Additionally, "Concessionaire shall purchase a Suite from the Chargers at the current annual lease rate. In lieu of payment to the Chargers, Concessionaire will credit the Chargers for all Catering purchased annually up to the amount of the Suite rental fee….


"Should Qualcomm Stadium be closed prior to the year 2020 or the year 2025, Concessionaire shall be granted a First Right of Refusal of Concessionaire Services," the request for proposals adds, presumably at a new Faulconer-built stadium located somewhere in town. 


The document notes "Concessionaire will have no rights under this Agreement for Merchandise sales for the San Diego Chargers or San Diego State University.

"However, it is the intent of the San Diego Chargers, at their sole discretion, to negotiate a separate Merchandise contract with the successful Concessionaire.”

To assist in the negotiations, the city has huddled with stadium food service authority Chris Bigelow of Kansas City "to assist with the Food and Beverage [Request for Proposals] alongside with the City’s Purchasing and Contracting Department," say the September minutes of the city's Qualcomm Stadium advisory board.

Lobbying disclosure reports on file with the city clerk's office show that Centerplate has hired longtime city hall influence peddler Richard Ledford, a cousin to the politically powerful Evans Hotel family, to lobby the city to help the firm "retain the contract for concessionaire services at Qualcomm Stadium."

Ledford gave a total of $3500 to Faulconer's mayoral election cause, according to city records.

Bob White

To advance its cause, another would-be concessionaire, Ovations Fanfare, L.P., owned by media giant Comcast Corporation, which also owns NBC Universal and a vast cable empire, has retained the services of California Strategies, Inc., the Sacramento-based powerhouse lobbying outfit founded by Bob White.

He was the longtime top aide to Pete Wilson during the Republican's ascent from San Diego mayor to the U.S. Senate and California governorship and has close ties to Faulconer and other Republicans as well as to San Diego State University, a major stadium tenant, where he has been on the Campanile Foundation board.

Records show that employees of California Strategies (including White and his San Diego–based executives Ben Haddad and Craig Benedetto) gave a total of $11,780 to Faulconer's 2014 mayoral bid.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

2024’s Best Bitcoin & Crypto Casinos – Play BTC Casino Games Online

Best Bitcoin Casinos (2024): Top 10 Crypto Casino Sites for BIG Payouts
Next Article

San Diego Reader 2024 Music & Arts Issue

Favorite fakers: Baby Bushka, Fleetwood Max, Electric Waste Band, Oceans, Geezer – plus upcoming tribute schedule
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.