Apart from the bright-line rules that were (and weren’t) adopted at the now-concluded annual league meetings, one thing became clear via the chatter among those in attendance: The Chargers are determined to leave San Diego for Los Angeles.
They haven’t said so publicly, and they likely won’t for months to come. But enough is being said privately to lead to the inescapable conclusion that the Chargers are destined to escape from the city they’ve called home since 1961.
With public money no longer a viable option in California (or pretty much anywhere) to construct an NFL stadium, the money necessary to build a new building in San Diego won’t be offset by the kind of revenue that justifies the investment. Instead, it now seems to be far more likely than not that the Chargers will partner with the Raiders in Carson, or that the Chargers will become the second team in the Inglewood stadium that will house the Rams.
It means that the Rams or Raiders will be shut out of the market. The most common theory making the rounds in Arizona this week had the Rams joining the Chargers and the Raiders possibly filling the void in St. Louis created by the departure of the Rams.
Regardless, 20 years of talk about a team moving to L.A. will soon be ending. In 2016, it now seems inevitable that the Chargers and another NFL team will be back in Los Angeles.