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

O.C. billionaire Samueli beats out Philip Anschutz for San Diego Sports Arena

Lobbyists work the city council

Henry and Susan Samueli
Henry and Susan Samueli

Round one of a high-dollar lobbying war over who will control what was formerly known as the San Diego Sports Arena – for now named Pechanga – has concluded, with the win going to some of city hall's toughest influence peddlers.

Orange County billionaire Henry Samueli, owner of the Anaheim Ducks hockey team and its minor league offshoot, the San Diego Gulls, has come away victorious over incumbent leasee Anschutz Entertainment Group, the entertainment behemoth controlled by Colorado billionaire Philip Anschutz.

Bob White, Craig Benedetto, Ben Haddad

Doing the heavy lifting on the effort to persuade San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer and staffers to greenlight the switch has been California Strategies, the Sacramento-based take-no-prisoners lobbying company founded by onetime Pete Wilson aide Bob White.

The firm is best known recently in San Diego for 2017's Soccer City leak scandal in which Republican city councilman Chris Cate quietly turned over a confidential June 15, 2017 city attorney's memo to Cal Strat's Craig Benedetto, retained by the would-be Mission Valley development project favored by Faulconer.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Just weeks earlier, Benedetto and colleague, Ben Haddad had hosted a reelection fundraiser for Cate that raked in $2850 for the sixth district councilman's cause, according to the lobbyists' subsequent disclosures.

Cate finally admitted he was the source of the leak to the lobbyist and reluctantly agreed to fork over a $5000 ethics penalty in December 2017, complaining in a statement, "I agreed to pay a fine to put the matter to rest,"

Since 2008, city campaign records show, California Strategies and its employees have come up with a total of $94,914 for city campaigns, including $11,780 for the 2014 mayoral campaign of Kevin Faulconer, along with $2600 to the GOP mayor's successful 2016 election bid.

California Strategies lists its arena lobbying client as H & S Ventures LLC, which has the goal of obtaining from the city "Improvement of Pechanga Arena/Sports Arena San Diego...or entitlement of a facility in the San Diego region to host the San Diego Gulls, an American League Hockey team."

H & S Ventures owners Samueli and his wife Susan maintain their investment office in Corona del Mar, according to a 2005 Los Angeles Times account. Anaheim Arena Management, a related Samueli entity, is the formal applicant for the San Diego sports arena lease.

To skeptics, the H & S lobbying disclosure suggests that an award of San Diego's arena lease to Samueli interests may signal the start of plans to grab a taxpayer subsidy for a future venue modeled after the billionaire's lucrative arrangement with the city of Anaheim.

An August 20 Union-Tribune dispatch says details of the proposed arena deal, calling for a three-year base lease with two year-long extensions, "have not yet been revealed," noting that city council signoff is required.

The Samuelis and H&S are major money players in Anaheim politics, coming up with $17,800 for city council and mayoral campaigns since 2013, per the city's disclosure filings. On the other side of San Diego’s arena lobbying effort is Southwest Strategies, working for AEG. Southwest employees have given a total of $24,100 to Faulconer's mayoral committees, filings show.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

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

Air toxins plague Escondido, Imperial Beach, Chula Vista, Tijuana

"The smell has improved since Mexico turned their pumps on"
Henry and Susan Samueli
Henry and Susan Samueli

Round one of a high-dollar lobbying war over who will control what was formerly known as the San Diego Sports Arena – for now named Pechanga – has concluded, with the win going to some of city hall's toughest influence peddlers.

Orange County billionaire Henry Samueli, owner of the Anaheim Ducks hockey team and its minor league offshoot, the San Diego Gulls, has come away victorious over incumbent leasee Anschutz Entertainment Group, the entertainment behemoth controlled by Colorado billionaire Philip Anschutz.

Bob White, Craig Benedetto, Ben Haddad

Doing the heavy lifting on the effort to persuade San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer and staffers to greenlight the switch has been California Strategies, the Sacramento-based take-no-prisoners lobbying company founded by onetime Pete Wilson aide Bob White.

The firm is best known recently in San Diego for 2017's Soccer City leak scandal in which Republican city councilman Chris Cate quietly turned over a confidential June 15, 2017 city attorney's memo to Cal Strat's Craig Benedetto, retained by the would-be Mission Valley development project favored by Faulconer.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Just weeks earlier, Benedetto and colleague, Ben Haddad had hosted a reelection fundraiser for Cate that raked in $2850 for the sixth district councilman's cause, according to the lobbyists' subsequent disclosures.

Cate finally admitted he was the source of the leak to the lobbyist and reluctantly agreed to fork over a $5000 ethics penalty in December 2017, complaining in a statement, "I agreed to pay a fine to put the matter to rest,"

Since 2008, city campaign records show, California Strategies and its employees have come up with a total of $94,914 for city campaigns, including $11,780 for the 2014 mayoral campaign of Kevin Faulconer, along with $2600 to the GOP mayor's successful 2016 election bid.

California Strategies lists its arena lobbying client as H & S Ventures LLC, which has the goal of obtaining from the city "Improvement of Pechanga Arena/Sports Arena San Diego...or entitlement of a facility in the San Diego region to host the San Diego Gulls, an American League Hockey team."

H & S Ventures owners Samueli and his wife Susan maintain their investment office in Corona del Mar, according to a 2005 Los Angeles Times account. Anaheim Arena Management, a related Samueli entity, is the formal applicant for the San Diego sports arena lease.

To skeptics, the H & S lobbying disclosure suggests that an award of San Diego's arena lease to Samueli interests may signal the start of plans to grab a taxpayer subsidy for a future venue modeled after the billionaire's lucrative arrangement with the city of Anaheim.

An August 20 Union-Tribune dispatch says details of the proposed arena deal, calling for a three-year base lease with two year-long extensions, "have not yet been revealed," noting that city council signoff is required.

The Samuelis and H&S are major money players in Anaheim politics, coming up with $17,800 for city council and mayoral campaigns since 2013, per the city's disclosure filings. On the other side of San Diego’s arena lobbying effort is Southwest Strategies, working for AEG. Southwest employees have given a total of $24,100 to Faulconer's mayoral committees, filings show.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

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

Haunted Corn Maze, Great Train Show

Events October 5-October 9, 2024
Next Article

Air toxins plague Escondido, Imperial Beach, Chula Vista, Tijuana

"The smell has improved since Mexico turned their pumps on"
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.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader