STADIUM TALK: Mark Fabiani is right, and has been this whole time

Here's what happened yesterday:

I wanted to talk about the Los Angeles/San Diego stadium situation. Why? Because, despite the fact that Mark Fabiani has been mostly quiet recently, plenty is happening. In fact, I wanted to play music and celebrate the death of the Carson stadium project (which I believe to be very, very dead).

I asked Scott Kaplan, who has become one of the experts on the stadium situation in San Diego and has the office right next to mine, if he'd like to podcast together. We did this once before when I was getting nervous about Farmer's Field, and for a few minutes another time before Dan Sileo took over and it became a loud argument.

At first, Scott agreed. Then, we found out, that due to the way the commercials had played out during the Padres game, the first 45 minutes of Scott's show on Wednesday would be commercial-free.

"Come on the air," he said, "It'll be just like a podcast, but don't curse!"

Long story short, this didn't work out as I had hoped. Scott talked for the first 23 minutes or so before I got a chance to interject, and then I only got about 8 minutes of talking time before Padres GM A.J. Preller called into the show.

That being said, this is still a 30 minute segment worth listening to. Scott does a fairly good job of detailing what I've been saying (with broad strokes) for some time now: Mark Fabiani is doing everything exactly the right way, and he's right to have been pushing the Mayor to get the hoteliers involved from Day 1.

Mark Fabiani is a PR guy, and a high-priced one at that. That means that, most of the time, he's a hired bad guy who is paid to make sure good things happen in favor of the person that is paying him. To that extent, he has done a marvelous job (using a mirage like the Carson stadium project to inject leverage against San Diego).

To hate this man, to speak ill of him, is silly. That's like filing a police report against a garbage man for stealing the trash you left out on the curb inside of a trash can. The man is simply doing his job, and doing it well, and in the end he's going to get Dean Spanos the best deal possible.

In that same vein, it's silly to speak ill of Dean Spanos for trying to do what is best for his company, whether that's moving it or simply threatening to move it to get the best deal possible back home.

The NFL has passed some barrier, and this situation with Los Angeles has helped it, where it's now more of a business than a game. That will happen when millions turn into billions and guys like Steve Ballmer and Mark Walter are using professional sports teams (in smaller sports/leagues!) as investments. Fabiani is simply here to make sure that the Spanos family, as the owners of the San Diego Chargers professional football organization, do and get what is best for that business.