Holiday Football: Chargers Playoff Hopes To San Diego Bowl Games

MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: This is KPBS Midday Edition I am Maureen Cavanaugh. The San Diego Chargers are still in the running for a spot in the playoffs and that is both good news and bad news for Chargers fan. The team has pulled off impressive wins recently including an upset of the Denver Broncos last week that the start of the season with a new coach and general manager many fans were hoping for something more than two-week out a spot in the playoffs. Joining me to talk about the Chargers chances and some other big holiday season football in San Diego is my guest San Diego sports columnist Jay Paris. It's so good to see you, Jay. JAY PARIS: Hi, Maureen. Good to see you and a happy holidays to you. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Doing pretty good. Okay first of all what you think the chances are the Chargers will get a spot in the playoffs? JAY PARIS: Slim and (inaudible) it's best bet. They need the Miami Dolphins to lose both their games coming up. And that is a bit of a stretch and the Chargers have two when both of their games against the Raiders and against the Chiefs so it say, seven and seven it makes for good during this time of year but not a good football record. And it looks like they're going to end up one game short. So close. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Tell us about the highs and lows of the charger season this year. JAY PARIS: It's what it's amazing really do one adventure Denver they won in Kansas City arrowhead Stadium in the one of the most loudest venues in the NFL so to win at those two places is quite a feather in the hat but also beat the Cowboys and they beat the Colts at home. That being said they lost some real drugs a loss to the Tennessee Titans, the Houston Texans and teams of that ilk, most Oakland Raiders even [inaudible] in Oakland in October so it's been a roller coaster ride, but this is a work in progress if you will. There is some rebuilding going on and really they are probably about where they should be for what they are undertaking. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Okay so those great expectations when they got the new general manager Tom Telesco and coach Mike McCoy, they were little overblown do you think? JAY PARIS: Usually when you get new job or guys, usually one reason because the other team stinks the new guy gets a pile of stuff that is not really goods and says here make something do with this. If they were stock they would be a buy. They are trending upward. Seems like there's new culture over there, their previous regime had gotten a little stale so they'd rather be, have one more win, but big picture things are looking good over at Chargers Park. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Tell us about the game coming up this Sunday. JAY PARIS: Oakland Raiders coming to town coming off an embarrassing loss yesterday with the Kansas City Chiefs were to give up some 15 not point to do some other where the records is, doesn't matter where the teams have gone when the Oakland Raiders San Diego Chargers the blood boils especially on the charger side this is the most hated rival. Among the charger stinkers is your was losing up in the East Bay in October. That game really, looking backward gosh, if we just beat the Raiders because everybody else has Raiders last three, four in a row, they are reeling. So that means the Raiders, this will be like their Super Bowl, their playoff game because they would love to knock the Chargers are completely. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: and we have one black whatever Chargers game this year, almost 2, since the game against the Giants this month was almost blacked out what does that say about San Diego support of the Chargers? JAY PARIS: It says that the tickets are pretty expensive. Also said the team, this'll probably the fourth straight year they don't make the playoffs. They're coming off a losing season and it says the San Diego loves their Chargers, they love them a lot more when they are winning. Some cities around the nation it almost doesn't matter if your team is winning or losing, out here in San Diego there is so much to do and you go to the beach for free or go to the charger game sometimes people go to the beach. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: What does it say about charger management that they don't will adopt the relaxed bracket rules that are now available from the NFL. JAY PARIS: That's a great point. You can get to 85% capacity which would lift the blackout. Another option is you can purchase the tickets for 34 cents on the dollar which would satisfy the revenue for the visiting clubs. So that being said, they say they are in the business of selling tickets and that's what they are trying to do. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Okay now the Chargers as you know have been pushing for a new stadium for more than a decade now according to the Utes San Diego the team has spent $10 million trying to find a new stadium where is that debate now? JAY PARIS: I think the debate is still they would like to put it next to him that co-Park. I think they took a bit of a haymaker when the coastal commission approve the convention center to be expanded. They were hoping to corporate data into a new stadium over there. But SLA tries to steal the Chargers the Chargers are trying to steal and Nelly idea and that is the LA live complex. If they can sell this as an entertainment complex a place you could have super Bowls and final fours and concerts instead of the stadium for the span of family you might have a little bit of a chance of flying. It's going to be interesting to see how the mayoral race turns out. Kevin Faulconer certainly has the downtown business people in his ear. But then again Mr. Alvarez is big with the labor unions and if they could get a stadium project going, that's a lot of jobs. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Okay so we're just going to wait and see what happens. Now moving on to the other football team in town, the Aztecs, SDSU is on its way to their fourth straight bowl. Were they playing? JAY PARIS: They're playing the Buffalo Bulls. Buffalo is known a little bit more for the wings, so they've got a decent profit college team as well. It's impressing it you've got to remember the first 41 years at San Diego State was Division I football. They've gone to four bowl games since 2009 is going to four straight that the tip of the hat to what they're doing over here at Montezuma Mesa and it's a long way to go in cold weather for a lot of San Diego fans, probably won't travel real well, but it's going to cost the schools money but it's great exposure as well being on ESPN all by yourself. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Because the ballgame is in Idaho. JAY PARIS: Yes it's Boise, mashed french fries whatever the potatoes will be flying and it'll be a hard sell to get people to leave sunny San Diego for brr-brr Boise when you are freezing, but it's great exposure for the ballclub and for recruitment and going forward. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: It was kind of dicey as to whether or not the Aztecs are going to get a bowl game this year, right, because they started off the season a little badly? JAY PARIS: Great they started off 0-3 and are going to finish six and two it was conference which was good for third place butt here were seven teams eligible in the Mountain West conference and six bowl spots where they could go so they almost got squeezed out by San Jose State. A lot of backroom dealing going on. A lot of you know, wink wink and nod when he gets the bowl season it revolves around the money, revolves around how well the school travels revolves around the TV contract. So even six and two in the conference you would say you are in automatically, Jim Stewart had to jump through some little hoops to get the Aztecs in the bowl game. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: What is up between Aztecs and the bowl, what does it look like to you? JAY PARIS: It's going to because I know how you like to bet on all these games. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: I do. It's a problem. JAY PARIS: Try to get a handle on that. It”s 1.1 Buffalo favorites basically heads or tails flip a coin and pick when they both like to run the ball they both like to our defense very similar teams Buffalo is 84 and city the state was a and five so a good matchup on that level. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Whats with the bowl games are going to be played here. Two postseason college football games. Was added to the holiday bowl? JAY PARIS: We've got Arizona State out of the pac 12 and Texas Tech out of the big 12. Holiday bowl is known for one thing, and that's for a lot of points. It's always a lot of offense, exciting game called America's most exciting team and these two teams fitted perfectly. Arizona State figure probably two touchdown favorite but they average 41 points a game, Texas Tech they average 35 points. So regardless it's not going to be a soccer score or something, it's not going to be 5 to 7 or 322 it's going to be a wild game, wild shootout and that's really what you like and not ballgames a lot of offense of excitement. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: And the Poinsettia bowl? JAY PARIS: December 26 northern Illinois almost defeated this year, almost got to the big boys in the BCS as they almost only lost one game with George Lynch finalist for the Heisman Trophy is in the northern Illinois team Utah state of the this conference just like San Diego State eight and five and they are really coming that the program on the rise and they're going to bring a lot of Utes too, so should be a fun game. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: A lot of people connection with the bowl games played in San Diego has to do with how much traffic they generate during the holiday season, and not much further than that. What are the bowl games bring to San Diego? JAY PARIS: I we say the ballgames usually resolves around 2.3 rings on the seats and heads on the bellows of the hotels because this is usually a quiet time for the tourism industry which means so much to San Diego economy. A lot of people usually travel during the Christmas or holiday to San Diego. The quiet time. This was a way of generating more hotel nights, generating more tourism. That's why there's so many other events around you know, then I sprayed, you have the luncheon scummy to the tourists and for three or four days instead of just the one ballgame, have them open the wallet up and spread the love. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Do you have find that San Diegans, it generates excitement among San Diegans to have the ballgames here? JAY PARIS: I think what it helps local charities there's a lot of people that donate their time and running all these periods and the big balloon parade down by the bay, the holiday bowl, that's a fun day. And it's a civic part, to, you would believe from people who come into town how much fun they have and I know the holiday bowl is not the Rose Bowl or the Orange bowl, it's not one of the upper tier ones, but if you're going to one of the upper tier once the holiday bowl is really a kick in the britches for program two, number 12, San Diego and the guys in the redcoats and ladies do a heckuva job. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: And it sure looks nice on TV for San Diego. JAY PARIS: A great commercial for tourism. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: I'm going to ask you in the minutes that we have left here, as you look forward to 2014, what would you like to see happen with San Diego sports here? What are the problems that we have? What would you like to see resolved? JAY PARIS: I'd like to see the Padres turn the corner a little bit and the competitive in the longer-term. Seems like it's been a couple years since we've still been in contention late in the year and they are such a wealth and a deep baseball fan base here in San Diego. It's like you know, being in Utah or being in Breckenridge or something in Aspen and not having a good ski teams baseball so ingrained in the entity. We are lucky we can play year-round and that filters down to the colleges high schools even the Little Leagues you see winning. Any good teams are in the Little League World Series. I'd like to see the Padres be real competitive and the Chargers to keep building them for San Diego State football to get maybe some more support it's tough. They were down for a long time and in a big city even when there's 35, 30,000 people there is still looks half-empty which is an there's also been some comments about possibly building the stadium here on campus if they can The shoehorn and find some land around here that would be so exciting because you can see the effect of the basketball team has had on the campus and community. I mean those men's basketball games here on campus are, that's a big night out. And that's leaked over even to the amount of applications that they get. I think Sandy goes to got 74,000 applications for the upcoming semester. So the exposure you can have through sports I know it is still about education and sending our students into society with a good noggin, but you know, that marriage of sports and what it can do in society and even about Mr. Mandela and how he embrace sports and United so many people, so if the Padres can be competitive, if the Chargers can keep growing and San Diego State, more people can get it into the joy which is college football. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Does that transfer over to the Chargers? You mean the Chargers are important to San Diego for the reason too? JAY PARIS: Absolutely, it is such a unifying event. When the Chargers are going good and everybody is wearing a lightning bolt brown, black, white, it's just for those three hours at QUALCOMM Stadium it is such a community that everybody wrapped their arms around and have a common goal and common ground and for those three or four hours you know you are all pulling the rope in the same direction. Such a joy to see. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Okay for those of us who don't usually follow sports what do we have to see the Chargers do in order to get a playoff? JAY PARIS: They need to win the next two games starting Sunday against the Raiders and San Diego Chiefs and many the Miami Dolphins to lose their two games to the Buffalo Bills and against the New York Jets. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Okay. JAY PARIS: Write that down. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: And I've been speaking with San Diego sports columnist Jay Paris. Thank you so much, Jay. JAY PARIS: All right. Thank you for having me in.