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

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Lorcain

Member
A lot of the people living and working in LA are not from there. If they're NFL fans, they bring their own team loyalties with them. It's a pro baseball, basketball and hockey town, and college football. I used to live near the Rose Bowl and the Bruins games were always a huge deal, even when they weren't doing well. Same with Trojan games.

Every NFL pro team experiment in LA has struggled to get people in the stadiums.
 

SpecX

Member
Chargers won't stay in LA, confident on this. Give it a few seasons, they'll either slither back to San D or go somewhere else like San Anton or even OKC. Being the secondary tenant in the new Rams stadium will make it easy to leave, they won't be abandoning anything.

I get this same feeling as well. They keep going with this message "Fight for LA" but LA doesn't really want them or care for them. I think it will happen later than sooner, after the new stadium goes up. The new stadium will draw in some crowds for a bit, but once that "newness" wears off, the Chargers will really have to debate if staying in LA is right for them.
 

A-V-B

Member
Not a big NFL fan -- can anyone explain why everyone's teams have moved to LA?

And is it anything more than just money?
 

MikeRahl

Member
Not a big NFL fan -- can anyone explain why everyone's teams have moved to LA?

And is it anything more than just money?

Pretty much just money. L.A is a huge media market with no football team. Gate is a tiny part of overall revenue stream so a team in L.A is worth alot more.

The NFL has also used L.A. as an overt threat to cities during stadium construction negotiations they had to follow through at some point or else it ends up meaningless.
 

johnny956

Member
The Spanos family are not that well off, and most of the net worth they do have comes from their ownership of the football team.

They should sell the team, but football is a cartel and it's free money so they won't.


Average operating income is $100 million per team with no team below $40 million. They're making plenty of money and PSL's would have paid a decent chunk of the stadium
 

Arc

Member
He got a loan from the owners to move didn't he?

And there isn't going to be an NFL stadium built now that is less than a billion bucks. Atlantas was 1.6 and Minny's was 1.1.

They are building CFL stadiums that cost 300 million these days.

Both of which are domes with retractable roofs which aren't needed in San Diego. He could have built a more than suitable outdoor arena for $650M in San Diego. Again, Gillette Stadium, one of the best arenas in football, was built for $325M of private money and they have more than enough luxury suites to sell.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Not a big NFL fan -- can anyone explain why everyone's teams have moved to LA?

And is it anything more than just money?

Money, dear boy.

Team valuation is much higher in a huge media market like LA. The problem is that ratings are garbage and gate is garbage. But with revenue sharing and TV contracts it's almost literally impossible to run a unprofitable NFL team.
 

MikeRahl

Member
Average operating income is $100 million per team with no team below $40 million. They're making plenty of money and PSL's would have paid a decent chunk of the stadium

So the plan would be to implement a hotel tax (that was considered pretty far reaching with a shortfall to be picked up by the city) and a PSL for a team that hadn't sold out it's stadium for years?
 

MikeRahl

Member
Both of which are domes with retractable roofs which aren't needed in San Diego. He could have built a more than suitable outdoor arena for $650M in San Diego. Again, Gillette Stadium, one of the best arenas in football, was built for $325M of private money and they have more than enough luxury suites to sell.

Levi's Stadium was 1.3 Billion. Outdoor stadium also in California.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Both of which are domes with retractable roofs which aren't needed in San Diego. He could have built a more than suitable outdoor arena for $650M in San Diego. Again, Gillette Stadium, one of the best arenas in football, was built for $325M of private money and they have more than enough luxury suites to sell.

He wanted a completely impossible stadium built in a completely impossible place within the city.

The reason the stadium vote got like 42% approval was because it was a dumb unfeasible plan that only existed so he could justify moving to LA.
 

johnny956

Member
So the plan would be to implement a hotel tax (that was considered pretty far reaching with a shortfall to be picked up by the city) and a PSL for a team that hadn't sold out it's stadium for years?


I'm saying a hotel tax shouldn't be needed. PSL's are paid for by companies most of the time. At least a decent chunk in St. Louis were when the rams moved here. I'm glad San Diego residents voted no. Just need more cities doing it.
 
He wanted a completely impossible stadium built in a completely impossible place within the city.

The reason the stadium vote got like 42% approval was because it was a dumb unfeasible plan that only existed so he could justify moving to LA.
And it's scary that it got that much support still.
 

Higgy

Member
Both of which are domes with retractable roofs which aren't needed in San Diego. He could have built a more than suitable outdoor arena for $650M in San Diego. Again, Gillette Stadium, one of the best arenas in football, was built for $325M of private money and they have more than enough luxury suites to sell.

Vikings stadium isn't a dome nor does it have a retractable roof.
 

Juicy Bob

Member
As a British NFL fan who loves this league and thinks Europe could learn a lot from the North American approach to professional sport, the idea of moving franchises is fucking grotesque to me.

Fuck Spanos and fuck these LA Chargers. I hope they fail and become the laughing stock of the league.
 

Dishwalla

Banned
As a British NFL fan who loves this league and thinks Europe could learn a lot from the North American approach to professional sport, the idea of moving franchises is fucking grotesque to me.

Fuck Spanos and fuck these LA Chargers. I hope they fail and become the laughing stock of the league.

Well if it weren't for teams like the Browns and the Jets, even though they aren't abandoning fan bases, the Chargers likely would be that.
 

Swiggins

Member
Miami has the Dolphins, the greatest football team

The only thing I know about the Dolphins is that ya'll had Dan Marino and you're Daniel Tosh's favorite team. Love to know more.

Quit the league entirely and follow the Winnipeg Blue Bombers!

They are pretty much the Chargers of the CFL. Wasting the prime of a GOAT player. History of terrible GMs (the current one is good), revolving door of coaches for the most part. Questionable offensive strategy.

TIL that Canada has a Football league, I genuinely thought that the US was the only country that gave a rats ass about this sport, lol. I like Canada, no reason I shouldn't like Canadian football teams.

Join the Falcons fan base!


julio.gif

Every time I've been to Atlanta I've had a wonderful time, if your football team is as amazing as your city I'm already sold.

You should be miserable with all the other Niner fans out there.

As a Southern Californian it's against the rules for me to even acknowledge that we share a state with San Francisco. No sale.
 

Chris R

Member
Hope ticket prices don't crater toooooo much. They shouldn't since the game against the Broncos will probably be the only sold out game.
 

Thaedolus

Gold Member
I mean, this shouldn't be surprising. Locking the Raiders out of LA was the stupidest shit the NFL could've done. LA fans are going to drive/fly to Vegas over seeing the fucking Rams and Chargers.
 
Feel bad for Chargers fans who drove up 2+ hours to to go the game, only to see them lose it in the final seconds again.

Not a big NFL fan -- can anyone explain why everyone's teams have moved to LA?

And is it anything more than just money?

It's all for money, it's always money.
That said it makes perfect sense that there would be an LA football team, in that it's the second largest city in the US and it did not have an NFL football team for ~20 years. The Rams and Raiders both used to play in LA but both left in 1995. There were rumors of teams moving to LA for the last 20 years... the former Seahawks owner tried to do it in the 1990s. It's just a huge market and unusual that there's no professional football team.

You hate to see any franchise move but the NFL, like the NHL, is a sports organization that has weird historical locations for teams because the sport was widely popularized with blue collar workers (same with hockey), and so teams would be in odd locations and once those cities shuttered with industrial failure, it becamse common for the franchises to move as well. The most notorious move is called "The Move," and was the Cleveland Brown's owner abandoning Cleveland and moving to Baltimore, to become the Baltimore Ravens.

Both of which are domes with retractable roofs which aren't needed in San Diego. He could have built a more than suitable outdoor arena for $650M in San Diego. Again, Gillette Stadium, one of the best arenas in football, was built for $325M of private money and they have more than enough luxury suites to sell.

Kraft's hand was forced a bit with that. He had sought funds from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, and at least with Connecticut, it was approved that the state would spend some $1b on infrastructure changes, and part of that would be for a new stadium for the Patriots outside of Hartford. The plan fell through when the public rejected it by referendum, and because Kraft was rejected by the public in Hartford, Boston, and Providence, he was pretty much left with Foxborough.

A stadium could be built 15+ years ago, in Foxborough MA (a town 45mins from any major city, that literally has nothing but the complex that Kraft has built), for $325m, privately funded. They used the existing "parking lots" for the construction site of the new stadium, so there wasn't much demo needed.

If Gillette were constructed today, I'd imagine the project would be much, much more expensive, especially if it were around any of the major New England cities... Boston, Worcester, Providence, Hartford, etc.
 

MikeRahl

Member
TIL that Canada has a Football league, I genuinely thought that the US was the only country that gave a rats ass about this sport, lol. I like Canada, no reason I shouldn't like Canadian football teams.

There are 12 people on the field and you have to line up a full yard off the ball! The field is 10 yards longer and 15 yards wider! The uprights are on the goal line and the end zones are 30 yards deep! We had Warren Moon and Doug Flutie before they were Warren Moon or Doug Fluties (also Cameron Wake).

There are 9 teams in the league, including the oldest franchise with the same name in North American sports the Toronto Argonauts. This year teams will be playing in the 106th Grey Cup. In a 9 team league, there was for a period of time 2 of the teams named the Ottawa Rough Riders and the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Professional* Football's top 2 all time passing yardage leaders played in the CFL.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders and Winnipeg Blue Bombers play a home-and-home series starting the week of Labour Day. The second game is always played in Winnipeg and is referred to as the 'Banjo Bowl'. This is because the Blue Bombers kicker at the time referred to everyone from Saskatchewan as 'Banjo picking Imbreds'. He later apologized and acknowledged that barely anyone from Saskatchewan probably knew how to play a banjo.

The Games start just before July and run until November. Games can (sometimes) be seen on ESPN2.

The CFL cares about player safety! As of last week they have completely banned full-contact practices.
 

smoothj

Member
Im still a charger fan but spanos can eat a dick and I hope he regrets this decision and is now one of the most hated people in his hometown.
 
It totally is, picture is taken before the actual game even started. Take a picture of Dodgers Stadium before a game and you'll get an empty stadium as well. Add to the fact that the coliseum is huge, ~90k, even selling about 60k would look empty as someone previously mentioned.
I sincerely doubt that the seats were that empty at the inaugural LA Dodgers game while they were announcing the team.

There is a stark difference between the seats being filled during the pregame of a franchise's first game and the seats being filled during the pregame of the Dodgers 63rd home game this season.
 
Good on SD for telling Spanos to go get fucked, and good on LA for not showing up to the home debut.

If Spanos thinks he can pull his normal bullshit in LA he's in for a rude awakening. That town does not deal well with losing or sub-par product.

Again, Spanos can go get fucked.
 

ReAxion

Member
I get this same feeling as well. They keep going with this message "Fight for LA" but LA doesn't really want them or care for them. I think it will happen later than sooner, after the new stadium goes up. The new stadium will draw in some crowds for a bit, but once that "newness" wears off, the Chargers will really have to debate if staying in LA is right for them.

they're not leaving LA. like, ever. first of all, there's the debt they've incurred. it's over a billion dollars. that's going to take a long time to pay back, they already asked for and received an extension. if by chance it doesn't take them decades to pay back, that means they're printing money - why would they leave then?
 

ZeoVGM

Banned
That's an embarrassing first home game.

I liked San Diego having a football team. Screw Vegas, the Raiders should go to SD.
 

Chris R

Member
I'm in LA that week and was kind of looking at prices. Kind of stinks that that's one of the only ones that's gonna be sold out.

Ya, I'm visiting from out of town as well and just said fuck it and grabbed a ticket direct from Ticketmaster since it was cheaper than the seats on Stubhub :(
 

Lenz44

Banned
We couldn't be duped into building them a Stadium downtown for free so Dean Spanos threw a fucking temper tantrum and decided to take his ball and leave.

The Chargers are dead to me and I've stopped caring about football entirely as a result...need a new surrogate team...taking all suggestions...I'll root for anybody but the Patriots and the Raiders.

Try the Broncos, they will beat all of the above for you. Plus Denver is pretty awesome. Embrace the love that is John Elway.
 
Eh, people from LA will start going if they get good. And then loyalties will get built. Unfortunately the Rams are getting good faster right now.
 

Saganator

Member
We couldn't be duped into building them a Stadium downtown for free so Dean Spanos threw a fucking temper tantrum and decided to take his ball and leave.

The Chargers are dead to me and I've stopped caring about football entirely as a result...need a new surrogate team...taking all suggestions...I'll root for anybody but the Patriots and the Raiders.

Hate the Raiders and Pats? Congratulations, you've met the prerequisites for being a Bronco fan. Come join the club!
 
Hate the Raiders and Pats? Congratulations, you've met the prerequisites for being a Bronco fan. Come join the club!

The Broncos / Patriots rivalry is a lot like the Dartmouth / Harvard rivalry, in that it's very important to everyone at Dartmouth, and nobody at Harvard knows that there's a Dartmouth / Harvard rivalry.

On an aside, though, I'm headed to the Patriots @ Denver game this November and can't wait to see the city / stadium. Trying to get to an away game once every few years, and this is the first we're going to.
 
I sincerely doubt that the seats were that empty at the inaugural LA Dodgers game while they were announcing the team.

There is a stark difference between the seats being filled during the pregame of a franchise's first game and the seats being filled during the pregame of the Dodgers 63rd home game this season.

Not in Los Angeles
 

Saganator

Member
The Broncos / Patriots rivalry is a lot like the Dartmouth / Harvard rivalry, in that it's very important to everyone at Dartmouth, and nobody at Harvard knows that there's a Dartmouth / Harvard rivalry.

The real rivalry is and will always be Raiders and Broncos, but ever since Brady and the Raiders being consistently crappy except a couple years, the Broncos/Pats rivalry has grown. Considering the Broncos are the only team Brady has a losing record against, I'm betting there are plenty of people in New England who consider the Broncos a rival to the Pats.
 

Dishwalla

Banned
The Broncos/Pats rivalry is a thing because the Pats notoriously always struggle against the Broncos at Mile High. Add into the fact that the Broncos had Peyton for a few years.

Fuck both those teams though.
 

Kelsdesu

Member
LA is a Raiders city, there was no way this could have turned out well.

But at least I might be able to score some tickets on the cheap later this season.


Knowing that LA is in fact a Raider city these dipshits still tried to push their narrative, but alas the fans are having none of it. Now they stuck basically building a billion dollar *insert visiting team* stadium.
 

grandjedi6

Master of the Google Search
Chargers won't stay in LA, confident on this. Give it a few seasons, they'll either slither back to San D or go somewhere else like San Anton or even OKC. Being the secondary tenant in the new Rams stadium will make it easy to leave, they won't be abandoning anything.
Yep. I don't expect them to stay either. The Raiders are LA's team but just happen to play several hours away in a smaller market. Kinda like how Milwaukee is Green Bay territory. At least the Rams have enough money to be foolish and try to be the Jets of LA. At least until Kroenke decides he wants a new stadium again and moves to another big market. The Chargers though? They're not gonna last being the 3rd string.

For reference, the biggest TV markets without NFL teams are now (in order):

Orlando
Sacramento
St Louis
Raleigh
Portland
San Diego
Hartford
San Antonio
Columbus
Salt Lake City
Greenville–Spartanburg–Anderson
West Palm Beach
Austin
Oklahoma City*

Obviously a lot of these cities are still too close to existing NFL teams but all of them are bigger than Vegas, Jacksonville and New Orleans. Guess what I'm saying is have fun with the Utah Chargers and Oklahoma Rams in a decade
and Portland Jets.


*Oklahoma City is technically slightly smaller than Vegas but I felt it deserved to be included.
 
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