San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders sought to reassure a group of hoteliers Thursday that a Chargers plan to build a new downtown stadium will not interfere with a proposed $550 million expansion of the Convention Center.

Mark Fabiani, special counsel to the Chargers, has been pushing for a combination stadium-convention center facility that he says would eliminate the need for a separate expansion of the existing center.

"Let me be real clear on this, the convention center expansion has to be contiguous space," said Sanders, who addressed a meeting of the San Diego County Hotel-Motel Association. "It is not something that can be six blocks away."

His remarks came just a day after announcing he had hired a financial adviser to help craft a financing plan for a Chargers stadium in East Village that would replace Qualcomm Stadium. Sanders said any plan to build a new football facility should be a region-wide effort that doesn't rely just on the city of San Diego.

"We've approached the stadium on a regional basis," Sanders said. "The county has been very clear they want some return on their investment. We want a return on our investment also. What we have now is no return on our investment."

Hoteliers, who've been called upon to help finance the convention center project through a surcharge on hotel room bills, have made it clear they would not support anything other than an expansion of the existing center.