Getty ImagesIn the Bay Area, the City of Oakland and the County of Alameda have come together in an effort to keep the Raiders in town. In the southern end of the state, the city and county of San Diego likewise are joining forces to try to retain the Chargers.
Via Eric D. Williams of ESPN.com, San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer announced Thursday that the two governmental entities will work together in an effort to device a solution to the stadium situation.
“This partnership helps make it official, that the entire San Diego region is united,” Faulconer said. “We are coming together, and there is real progress that is being made.”
But making progress and reaching the goal are two different things. With Faulconer determined to put any proposal to a public vote (a simple majority is necessary if the project requires no public money; if taxpayer funds are involved, two thirds of the voters must approve the measure), the project necessarily will take time — perhaps more time than the Chargers currently have to make a decision on whether they’ll leave San Diego.
And the buzz at the league meetings was clear and unmistakable. The Chargers believe San Diego has had more than enough time to fix this problem, and that any effort now is simply too little and too late.
Screw all these teams moving around like gypsies, looking to hold cities for ransom. I think the majority of fans have grown sick of this, and if anything is going to finally kill the NFL, this is the thing that will do it.
No, the entire southern region is NOT united.
Go away!
And don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out!!!
ABSOLUTELY ZERO taxpayer money for billionaires!
They are gone
-San Diego resident
Theres a reason behind the decision to lift the blackout rule THIS year only. Ticket sales in San Diego, Oakland and St Louis are sure to be light this year. Especially season ticket holders of course.
I wish them luck. Owners use a city’s name and affiliation to make their team worth a billion dollars, then when the town can’t be extorted anymore, they move to a fresher mark. Meanwhile, some poor kid wonders why he doesn’t have a team to root for anymore.
Not gonna help. Spanos is taking the money and Bolting.
The buzz of the league. Is that Mark Fabiani and Bob Kraft? Let’s be clear of Mr. Fabiani. He is a LAWYER. Which means 14 years of delaying a solution meant 14 years of getting paid. He is now thankfully out of the picture, and shockingly to no one’s surprise, progress is being made. Maybe Mark should go back to representing Lance Armstrong.
I know that Spanos has been trying to get a new stadium since *at least* the early 90s.
If the NFL truly wants smaller market teams, they should be stepping in to try to help this situation…20 years ago.
LA, a city that has managed to live without a team for 20 years, does NOT now suddenly need two teams. That logic is ridiculous – it’s just owners being greedy.
La Jolla, just up the coast from San Diego, is where money was invented.
They should hold a fundraiser up there.
NFL GREED BLACKMAIL, if you don’t pay for my stadium we will leave.
As a SD resident + fan, I hope you’re wrong. LA doesn’t want the Chargers – they want the Rams, Raiders or an expansion team before the Chargers. Then the issue of investing $1.7 billion for a facility on a toxic waste dump hard up next to the 405 downwind from oil refineries does not sound like a well thought out business decision. Compared to a replacement facility in Mission Valley? Oh, and the pleasure of having to co-exist with Raider fan in the same house? They won’t be able to have enough security to keep the fights under control – it happens every game. What the hell are Deano + pudding head thinking?
The Chargers as a franchise had their shot last decade, wasting year after year where they had a Super Bowl team in losing in the playoffs, whether it was Peyton or Tom sending them home.
Meanwhile, everyone knew their stadium was a dump. But the owners/city were making hand over fist in that dump, so no one really cared.
Now that they threaten to leave…
“OMG! Please don’t go! We’ll get you that stadium! We love you!”
It’s almost like a love that’s reached the end of the line and the divorce papers are in the mail. You can whine all you want but your *** is heading out of the door of your house when it’s official.
The league is better off with one team in LA and one in San Diego. This isn’t hard to figure out. If the Rams move back to LA, the other team will be the ugly step sister in much the same way the Jets are to the Giants. A move to LA will only work for the Chargers if the Rams somehow stay in St Louis..
Chargers need to stay in San Diego…period! Hopefully this will get worked out. I definitely see the Rams going to LA, but Chargers and Raiders need to stay where they are.
This sounds more like a money grab for the NFL and not a specific owner. They are the ones pushing for two teams in LA and have told the owners to keep their mouths shut about who and when they are moving.
It is sad since San Diego finally has the right political wherewithal to finally get something done and it is out of Deano’s hands now.
As a longtime Charger fan I wish them no ill will but if they move because they were basically told so by the NFL then it will be hard to still be a loyal fan.
Buffalo fan here and I hope no city loses a team to LA. For a decade all we heard was oh the Bills are moving to LA. even when Wilson was still alive and he voted against ever single move in the NFL the media still put it out there. Now they can’t say that anymore so they look around and find other cities to write about even though they were all dead wrong about Buffalo. I said it already, and will say it again, NO TEAM DESERVES TO LOSE THEIR TEAM TO LA. Not SD, not St. Louis, not Jacksonville. No one!
Chargers 1-1 vs. Peyton in the playoffs.
While Peyton is invincible playing regular season home games in a dome against a weak division, he is 11-14 all time in the playoffs with eight of those losses “one-and-done” season enders.
If we don’t keep our chargers in San Diego then we’re going to lose our franchise player in Rivers. But honestly for someone who has been to a handful of games, our crowd is so terrible. Other stadiums have a rocking home field advantage and at our own place it’s almost like 50/50 or like a neutral site for almost every game. It’s crazy, the people of San Diego just have so many other things to do they never go or something? The ticket prices are pretty high too. I think part of the reason is a lot of people come to San Diego to retire so we get nfl fans from all over the states which gives us that mixed crowd you don’t see at other places. Either way I hope we stay put or we might not ever get a team again.
I think the Chargers should be looking at OC locations and not LA.
OC is filled with die-hard Chargers fans, many of whom drive to San Diego for the games. It would also position the team for fans from both LA and San Diego to attend games. The LA Metro trains run through OC, which means it wouldn’t be too hard to make the stadium mass transit friendly.
Hey Chargers! Move to San Antonio like I did! We WANT a professional football team here!
I Am a lifetime fan of the Chargers. I am also from San Diego. When they are winning everyone is happy. But let’s be honest. The team creates a great deal of money for the city. Grow up, find them a place, forget LA, and get back to football like it should be.
Chargers have a larger average attendance per game than:
Vikings
Lions
Bengals
Bears
Cardinals
Jags
Bucs
Steelers
Ram
Oakland
#truth so all this talk about fans not being loyal is just that. Talk.
Yea Bolted4life, and over half those fans in attendance are fans of the other team. Especially when the Raiders come to town.
I don’t want to see Sad Diego lose the Chargers, but lets be real here.