Let me remind you why 56 years of solid San Diego Charger fans loyalty was thrown down the drain. Going on three years, it still does not make sense for the Chargers to be in Los Angeles. Seemed like The City of Angels was perfectly fine without an NFL franchise for more than two decades, after the Raiders and Rams dipped out of town for Oakland and St. Louis, respectively, in 1994. Soon, Los Angeles will have two NFL teams, sharing the same stadium. Seems weird, for example, here we are going into the third season of the Los Angeles Chargers and it still seems like a really bad dream.
Regarding the Chargers move to Los Angeles, Spanos had once said to the San Diego fans “Get over it”, move on in other words. After all, that is what he did after 56 years of loyal support, he moved on. He told San Diego bye bye. The Chargers fans were left in the dust.
Some fans say they will never drive to Los Angeles to watch them play. Some fans burned all their Chargers stuff and are still really pissed that the team moved north to LA, to a rival city no less. Some fans still watch the Chargers (to lose). And others from San Diego, still support the Chargers, but not so many as before, that is for sure. All that once proud San Diego Super Chargers feeling is not in San Diego anymore. It is easy to see why most San Diego fans feel totally burned and have no desire to want to support the Bolts anymore. All that loyalty, down the drain.
So why did Spanos leave San Diego? In a nutshell, he did not get a new stadium deal. For whatever reason, it just did not get done. So now the Chargers are trying to win over brand new fans in Los Angeles, but it sure seems like an uphill climb. Remember, LA never asked for the Chargers, so it is somewhat like the Bolts are literally an expansion team. Kinda like a runaway child heading west to LA, looking for any angle or break they can find.
Take a look at this old news clip: (This tells the story)
San Diego Chargers general counsel Mark Fabiani confirmed on the Mighty 1090 that the Chargers will file relocation paperwork in January 2016 to move to Los Angeles.
According to Fabiani, the expectation is that the St. Louis Rams and Oakland Raiders also plan to file for relocation to Los Angeles. “We’ve got to stay in the game to protect the franchise,” Fabiani said. The Chargers cannot afford to lose “the roughly 25 percent of our season ticket holders that live in Los Angeles and Orange counties.”
So way back then, Spanos said he had to stay in the game. Is he staying in the game sharing a stadium with the Rams? Seems weird. Los Angeles is a Rams town first, so the Chargers have to continue their so called “Fight for LA” for some more love. Fight for LA? What about San Diego? Any way you slice it, those loyal San Diego fans got left behind. Circling down the drain. Here is another reminder: (How it went down)
With an open invitation to Los Angeles and one foot out the door in San Diego, the NFL’s Chargers are not only demanding a stadium from their current hometown but mapping out its location.
Well, Jim Webb, Lincoln Chaffee and Rick Santorum all wanted to be president, and there’s a better chance of any of them unsuspending their campaigns and winning the whole thing than there is of the Chargers and the Spanos family of owners getting what San Diego’s been unwilling to give.
We’ll remind you that, every time San Diego taxpayers have heard the Chargers and the Spanoses put on their tough-guy routine and demand tax dollars to help replace the nearly 50-year-old Qualcomm Stadium, they’ve laughed in the team’s face. That was before this time last year, when the Chargers and their ownership decided that teaming up with their hated AFC West rival, Oakland Raiders, on a $1.7 billion stadium in Carson, Calif., that they’d build with no tax money was preferable to their situation in San Diego. That idea was OK’d by the NFL’s planning committee, but the NFL instead offered the Chargers a spot in the Rams’ new building in Inglewood, California. They’d only be a tenant, but they wouldn’t have to pay much more than relocation fees.
However, the NFL also offered the Chargers $200 million to help build a new stadium in San Diego and sweetened the pot to $300 million as an alternative to the Inglewood offer. Meanwhile, since the Los Angeles Coliseum has room only for the Rams, the Chargers are putting the best face on spending the 2016 season in San Diego. With the NFL’s blessing to move the Chargers to Los Angeles any time he’d like, Chargers Chairman Dean Spanos knows he has free rein to try and pry more cash out of San Diego and make more statements like this one:
“This has been our home for 55 years, and I want to keep the team here and provide the world-class stadium experience you deserve.”
Sounds like a bunch of hot air. At one point, Team Spanos wanted to team up with the Raiders. Think about that for a moment. Now Spanos is teaming up with Rams. Why all this teaming up and sharing? Just because you own the San Diego Chargers, it does not give you the right to demand a stadium or leave. But that is exactly what Spanos did. Just the idea of teaming up with the Raiders really hurt Spanos already spotty reputation. But Spanos not only demanded the new downtown Stadium, he took away San Diego’s NFL team when he did not get his way, like a big baby.
Spanos totally screwed up by giving up on the City of San Diego. He was not supposed to actually move to Los Angeles, why do you think the NFL raised their contribution to $300 million? They wanted to keep the Chargers in San Diego. Or did they? Perhaps it was all planned out this way. I doubt it. The bottom line is the San Diego fans did not matter to Spanos. This is what is important to remember. Again, the SD fans went down the drain.
It is very fair to say there were many magical Chargers moments at San Diego Stadium. Think about all the great tailgating throughout the years. Hell, I even remember when Snoop Dogg and his crew would roll down from Long Beach. The Chargers team really did have a great following in San Diego. 56 years of support was simply overlooked for new pastures. Just like when an injured played gets cut, San Diego was handed its walking papers. Its really sad. Most people you ask still say they can’t believe the Chargers are not in San Diego. Spanos really let San Diego down.
There is not much loyalty in the NFL. There was no loyalty by Deano. Yes Spanos did try to get a free stadium (built for him and the SD Chargers), but San Diego voters said no. They knew Spanos was playing them. They knew something was not quite right. You think? Seems like the San Diego fans were treated like an injured player. Once they voted no, they were cut. Kicked to the curb. Or should I say, poured down the drain!
In closing, the Chargers will play in Inglewood in 2020. The stadium may be nice, shiny and new, but it could be full of visiting teams fans on a huge scale, just like most of their home games played at Stubhub. If it is, it will be tough to see the once proud San Diego Chargers team, reduced to a visiting team at its own digs, ouch! Sorry to remind everyone, but it seems like a really bad dream. Remember San Diego Super Chargers? So do I.
So it really is 56 years of fan loyalty down the drain.
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