• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

San Diego Chargers plan to announce that they are moving to Los Angeles

Status
Not open for further replies.

jbug617

Banned
@AdamSchefter: A stunner: Chargers plan to announce as early as Thursday they are moving to LA, ending 55-year stint with SD, league sources tell ESPN.
https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/819376593734946816
The NFL had preferred for the Chargers to stay in San Diego but they couldn't reach a deal for a new stadium (I believe the owners wanted some tax money to help build it). My guess they are going to share a stadium with the Rams.

Edit: Schefter's story is up
http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/18455802/chargers-expected-announce-move-san-diego-los-angeles
This is said to have been an extremely difficult decision for Spanos to reach, sources said. While the economics of the decision have been crystal clear, Spanos' loyalty and connection to San Diego have countered it. But in the end, Spanos' efforts to find a new stadium are now in their 16th year, with no solution in sight. This stalemate is occurring at a time when the Rams are becoming more established in the Los Angeles market. Spanos is said to believes he needs to start fighting for the Los Angeles market as soon as possible.

As of Wednesday night, the Chargers' intent is now to become the second team in less than a year to move to Los Angeles, ending the 55-year stint with San Diego and giving Los Angeles two NFL teams after going more two decades without having one.

Schefter also goes on to say that the source says that they may change their mind again but this is what they are leaning towards.
 

SpecX

Member
Eh, I guess. They need to change their colors then and change their style. LA Chargers is going to sound complete odd.
 
They are going to share the stadium with the Rams.

The NFL had been trying to convince them not to close on that option, with the league trying to put together money for a stadium for them after the government and taxpayers in San Diego told them in no uncertain terms that they weren't paying for a stadium the stadium the owner wanted.

The Rams ratings have been bad and the crowds have been poor, and that's for the first year with only 1 team. The Chargers also moving to LA is very likely going to tank both teams, and it will be hilarious.

EDIT 2 (Because I got this wrong twice): Because I forgot the deal with SD. He's got approval to build a new stadium on the site of the existing one, which is at the nexus of a bunch of freeways and has rail going out to it, and get the land for $1 a year for 100 years if he pays to build the stadium. But Spanos wants to be downtown because he wants to get into downtown real estate, where he is getting no deal. So, he's moving the team.
 
Spanos finally gets his wish.

Team still wont spend, nobody will go to the games, and he'll still be stuck in a shitty stadium that's falling apart while also sharing it with his inter-conference "rival" for the area.

Stupid move all around, has been stupid since he got it into his head to do it and sabotaged efforts by the fanbase in SD to save the team.

Raiders to Vegas baby. Lets make it happen.
 

RBH

Member
My gut feeling is that the Chargers in Los Angeles will not work out in the long-term.

In terms of fan support in Los Angeles, I'd imagine that they're behind both the Rams and Raiders by a considerable margin.

They'll be the Clippers to the Rams' Lakers, but the gap may be even greater between the two in this particular case.
 

Arc

Member
Spanos is such an idiot. This will cost him $550 million. Gillette Stadium was built for $325. He could have funded his own reasonable stadium and not shared a market.
 
fWx327.gif
 

enzo_gt

tagged by Blackace
These nature of stadium clauses in team-city agreements are ridiculous TBH. Wonder if they'll ever get firmer regulation from the leagues.
 
The Chargers are so fucked. What happens in five years when literally no one cares about them in L.A. and San Diego? Where do they go from there? Fresno?

Football will be gone again from L.A. in ten years.
 
Congrats LA! You get not one, but TWO dogshit NFL franchises! You must brimming with joy.

I can't wait for five years from now when their respective billionaire ownership each demands hundreds of millions in tax rebates and incentives or else they leave their brand new stadium and threaten go sucker some other city council into buying them a brand new stadium.
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
So the NFL loses another market in San Diego while moving to a market that just got a new team.

I hate duel teams in cities as it is both from a fan standpoint and league reach standpoint. Yet I get it for cities where this has just always been. You aren't suddenly gonna move the Giants/Jets or Cubs/Sox for example.

No reason to actively make this a thing though.

I fail to see the upside for the league as whole.
 
Chargers basically riding a broken down Philip Rivers and hoping he can get 3 years more of his old level of play out of him.

If he's done, whoooooo boy is it gonna be ugly. Jags before Shad Kahn bought the team levels of ugly.
 
So the NFL loses another market in San Diego while moving to a market that just got a new team.

I hate duel teams in cities as it is both from a fan standpoint and league reach standpoint. Yet I get it for cities where this has just always been. You aren't suddenly gonna move the Giants/Jets or Cubs/Sox for example.

No reason to actively make this a thing though.

I fail to see the upside for the league as whole.

There isn't any, the league has been trying to cut into LA for 5 decades now and LA has consistently told them "no", especially since the devil woman moved the Rams.
 

RBH

Member
On the bright side, this means that the Raiders will play in Los Angeles at least once a year now.
 

hokahey

Member
Good. Fuck L.A. and the NFL. I want to see this shitshow crash and burn so badly I can taste it.

Gee, I wonder why ratings are down this year. Maybe because the NFL is fucking with or fucking over some good markets (STL, SD, OAK) and are once again going to realize they can't suceed in L.A. with one team, let alone 2.
 
So the NFL loses another market in San Diego while moving to a market that just got a new team.

I hate duel teams in cities as it is both from a fan standpoint and league reach standpoint. Yet I get it for cities where this has just always been. You aren't suddenly gonna move the Giants/Jets or Cubs/Sox for example.

No reason to actively make this a thing though.

I fail to see the upside for the league as whole.

The league doesn't either, they've been practically begging Spanos to stay. They offered him the deal to potentially move in to the Rams new stadium mostly as a negotiating tactic to see if they could force San Diego back to the table on giving Spanos what he wants. But Spanos can't get the San Diego government to give him a free stadium in downtown San Diego, so he's going to take his ball and leave.
 
The league doesn't either, they've been practically begging Spanos to stay. They offered him the deal to potentially move in to the Rams new stadium mostly as a negotiating tactic to see if they could force San Diego back to the table on giving Spanos what he wants. But Spanos can't get the San Diego government to give him a free stadium in downtown San Diego, so he's going to take his ball and leave.

This whole thing really came down to a Billionaire throwing a tantrum.

How fucking bizarre this was.
 

Faddy

Banned
I wouldn't be surprised if LA is just a pit stop for the Chargers and they move on to a new city in 4 or 5 years when they crash and burn in LA.
 
good riddance, i say this as a san diegan. the constant begging for a new stadium was getting old. if sd is going to invest money in something, they should fix up the SDCC and expand it, since that actually brings in good amounts of revenue to the city.
 
It sucks that SD is losing the Chargers but ownership hasn't been really rewarding the fans with a decent franchise so why would the city even think about paying for that new shiny stadium?
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
So this is going to be like La La Land but The Chargers and Rams are Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling?
 
Will that be before or after the Rams do the same, again?

So, the one thing about the Rams in LA is that their stadium deal is actually relatively cheap for the taxpayer and Stan Kroenke is actually paying for most of the stadium.

I say relatively, because it's still $180m in sales tax credits, but in terms of stadium deals it's one of the friendlier stadium deals around and most of the money is coming from the actual owner.

If the Rams do turn around and move again quickly, it's going to cost Kroenke a fortune.
 

It really is kinda gross that he built a cultural institution in a city and formed a dedicated and diehard fanbase that was high in attendance for years and years despite the stadium being a dumpster fire for so long.

And takes his ball and leaves because the city won't front ALL the money for a stadium when he would recoup the cost just from his cut of the NFL profits relatively quickly.

A billionaire fucking over a city because he's not willing to pay for anything is the epitome of gross.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom