A new San Diego Chargers stadium would provide a dramatic jolt of activity to the area northeast of downtown Escondido, with 10 football games per year, roughly 300 smaller events and year-round restaurants and retail shops within the stadium complex, team officials said last week.

So much activity raises questions about congestion, but transit and freeway officials said last week that the proposed area would be ideal because the Sprinter rail line is nearby, Interstate 15 "dropdown" commuter lanes are under construction there and a "rapid bus" line is slated to begin serving the area in 2012.

Meanwhile, team officials said they would like to present their stadium proposal to city voters at some point.

No formal or even informal opposition has emerged since the Chargers revealed recently that Escondido had been added to the short list of cities where they might build a new stadium. But team officials said a "mandate" from voters can provide crucial momentum for such a project, which could cost as much as $1 billion.

The leading potential site in Escondido is the industrial area northeast of the Interstate 15/Highway 78 interchange, where the 12-acre Swap Meet site could be combined with adjacent industrial and vacant parcels to create the 30-acre to 60-acre site required for a stadium.

Team officials have said they plan to leave outdated Qualcomm Stadium in Mission Valley within the next decade for a modern facility in Chula Vista, Oceanside, Escondido or somewhere else. Officials said an Escondido stadium could be built within four years in a best-case scenario.

With significant hurdles emerging for proposed sites in Chula Vista and Oceanside, Escondido has apparently moved to the forefront of the battle to land Southern California's only professional football team.

But there has been speculation that the team would like to relocate to the Los Angeles area, and a proposal to build a stadium in the City of Industry has gained momentum this summer. The state Assembly approved a bill last week that would exempt that city from the state's rigorous environmental regulations for new stadiums, but the bill has stalled in the state Senate. (See Perspective, Page E1.)

The team essentially ruled out staying at the Qualcomm Stadium site about three years ago when San Diego officials rejected a team proposal to use 60 acres of the parking lot for 6,000 condominiums, a hotel, offices and shops. The team would have used profits from that development to cover much of the new stadium's cost.

A similar ancillary development would be required in Escondido, team officials said. The biggest hurdle for such a project is finding adequate land and developers, they said.

An ideal location

The non-football events that team officials envision at the new stadium would generate crucial revenue that would help make a stadium deal financially feasible for the Chargers, said Mark Fabiani, the team's general counsel.

Such events could range from concerts and tractor pulls to weddings and small conferences, he said. And the stadium would also include restaurants and retail shops that would operate 365 days a year, he said.

Fabiani said the new stadium would become a "bustling hub" for the area.

Smaller events at the new stadium could easily be handled by the freeways and surface streets in the area, transit and freeway officials said.

And those officials said they were also cautiously optimistic they could handle the roughly 80,000 fans that would flood the area on game days.

They said the nearby Sprinter rail line could bring in roughly 20,000 people from the west, new commuter lanes on I-15 would provide easy stadium access to drivers from the south, and a series of Bus Rapid Transit stations along I-15 would give San Diego residents a mass transit option.

"A proposal like this really reaffirms the benefits you achieve by building a rail line aimed at supporting future development," said Matt Tucker, executive director of the North County Transit District, which operates the Sprinter.

Tucker said it would take significant effort and planning to continuously run Sprinter trains on game days and to lengthen the trains for extra capacity.

"It'd be a challenge, but it'd be a challenge we would look forward to managing," he said.

Gustavo Dellarda, the state Department of Transportation employee in charge of widening I-15, said he couldn't be sure that more roads, freeway ramps or mass transit would not be needed to support a stadium.

But he also said it was remarkable how much is already being added to the area in such a short span of time.

The 22-mile Sprinter, which began operating in March 2008, runs from Oceanside to an Escondido station within a few hundred yards of the leading stadium site.

A network of rapid bus stations, which are all either under construction or complete, will connect San Diego to Escondido by 2012. Station sites include University Towne Centre mall in La Jolla, Mira Mesa, Sabre Springs, Rancho Bernardo, Westfield North County mall in southern Escondido and the Escondido Sprinter Station.

Construction began this spring on special dropdown ramps that will funnel vehicles from the new I-15 commuter lanes into the neighborhood adjacent to the leading stadium site.

Those ramps would provide remarkably convenient round-trip access for fans from the south, but they would not provide any benefit to fans from the coast, Orange County or Riverside County, Dellarda said.

A public mandate

While the stadium would serve the region, team officials said it was especially important that a stadium proposal receive clear support from Escondido voters.

"We feel this kind of project needs a mandate," said Fabiani, the team's general counsel.

He said such a mandate would influence city officials, who might need to make financial or other concessions to keep the project alive, and regulatory officials at the state and federal level, who might need to approve certain facets of a stadium plan.

Putting a stadium measure on the ballot would also trump anyone with designs of putting an "anti-stadium" initiative on the ballot, he said.

No one in Oceanside used the ballot to fight the Chargers when the team first explored building a stadium there in 2007. But neighborhood groups raised some objections, and a goawaychargers.com Web site was launched.

No such opposition has emerged so far in Escondido, but Councilwoman Olga Diaz said last week that she has seen what might be the early signs of friction.

"I've had several e-mails from people worried about traffic," said Diaz. "I don't see that as opposition, but people are starting to think about the potential pitfalls before it's too late."

Diaz also said that some people have expressed doubt that Chargers officials are being honest when they insist that the team is serious about Escondido. She said some have speculated to her that the team is simply using Escondido as leverage to get a better financial deal from another city.

One source of potential opposition, the slow-growth advocates who make up the Escondido Chamber of Citizens, is firmly behind the proposal so far.

"This could be something really good for Escondido's economy," said Lisa Prazeau, the group's president. "We want to make sure all the right infrastructure is in place, but this could be a major catalyst for the city."

Prazeau, whose group has aggressively fought the proposed downtown Marriott and several large housing projects, said it makes no sense to complain that the stadium would destroy Escondido's rural, small-town character.

Escondido has already become a big city, and more development is inevitable as the county and region grow, she said.

Call staff writer David Garrick at 760-740-5468.