SAN DIEGO -- The United States Football League will soon award a San Diego franchise to a San Diego partnership, it was reported Tuesday.
Bill Tatham Jr., lawyer for his father, Fresno businessman Bill Tatham Sr., told the San Diego Union that the league was prepared to expand to San Diego next spring after a few details pertaining to a stadium lease were ironed out.
Tatham said his father would be the majority owner of the team and would run the team along with San Diego political consultant Kenneth Rietz.
The elder Tatham, 48, is a real estate investor in the San Joaquin Valley and is a minority owner of the Utah Jazz of the NBA.
Rietz said it would not take long to put together a final lease agreement for San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, home of the NFL Chargers.
'I think it will be only a few days to reach a basic agreement,' Rietz said. 'The problems are not monumental.'
City officials stressed that the proposed club would have to arrange a schedule around the San Diego Padres and Sockers, the stadium's other tenants during the spring and summer.
Tatham Jr. said there was also concern that football during the rainy spring months could damage the natural turf, but he was confident it was a problem that could be resolved.
San Diego had a USFL franchise, but it was moved to Los Angeles before the fledgling league began its first season.
