"The Clippers of the NFL," is how I’m referring to the now Los Angeles Chargers.
Chargers team officials announced Thursday that they will relocate the team to Los Angeles, due to various failed attempts, among other things, to rebuild a new stadium in San Diego.
Their last and ultimately final attempt came back in November, when the city of San Diego voted no on Measure C. The measure would have increased the hotel tax in the city to help with funds for a new stadium for the Chargers. This failed measure ultimately lead to the decision of owner, Dean Spanos to relocate his team to LA.
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Much like the Clippers back in 1984, the team’s owners decided to move because they felt it was the right move.
But, was this the right move?
In my opinion, no. I believe this is the worst thing Dean Spanos could have done for his team, the fans, and the city of San Diego. 50 plus years of loyalty, to a team that shows promise in some years, ruined because of a selfish act. Qualcomm Stadium is the fourth oldest stadium in the NFL and some would argue it was reaching it's end. Although, if you wanted a new stadium in San Diego, the team needs to win.
The Bolts have not been in the playoffs since 2013, this very statistic deems them undeserving of a new stadium.
56 years. This move to Los Angeles ruined 56 years of loyal ship by many Charger fans. It was not the fans’ fault that they have been unable to build a new stadium for the Bolts. Many of these fans have been fans of a team that hasn’t produced many wins, and now all of them are angry, even burning memorabilia and jerseys.
Now that they are moving, and the fan base for the Chargers is zero to none. The have minimal fans in LA and other parts of the US. Next season, their stadium is about to be empty because Los Angeles did not want the Chargers to relocate there in the first place. The Los Angeles Rams are not wanted there very much in the area. It is so bad that during Saturdays basketball game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Clippers, the Chargers logo was booed when they put it on the jumbo screen. They are unwanted. My pity these days belongs to those fans. I can’t imagine what they must be feeling in light of all these moves.
On another note, their logo is horrible. For one, as soon as they announced that the Bolts would relocate, the team had a new face lift within hours of announcing the big news. This news was decided for a while, it just hadn’t been announced, and you can tell. The original logo was a slightly different version of the very well know Los Angeles Dodgers logo. On Friday afternoon, the Chargers back tracked, and now have a new “somewhat” original logo. It will be nice to see what this team does for uniforms in the near future, and to see if they keep the old things from San Diego.
Their new stadium in Inglewood, the one they will now share with the Rams, will not be finished for a couple years. In the meantime, they will be playing in the Stubhub Center, the smallest venue in the NFL and venue to MLS’ LA Galaxy. Qualcomm Stadium can hold about 70,000 plus fans, while the Stubhub Center can only hold about 30,000. This is a huge downgrade for this team, but I doubt they will even be able to sell out the smaller venue especially in Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles Chargers seem to be making strides in the right direction hiring their new head coach Anthony Lynn. Although I think it is going to be a long time before we see the Chargers become successful in LA. I am going to make a bold prediction by saying the Rams will do better than the Chargers in Los Angeles.
I wish the team luck in their new journey to the City of Angels, but this was easily the most preposterous decision they could have made. It was a horrible football decision and even worse business decision. Tactically speaking, this decision was unwise.
To read the full press release, click here.
