The Chargers will spend the first three seasons of their return to Los Angeles playing in a 27,000-seat soccer stadium (it was originally characterized as 30,000; apparently, they rounded up). The Chargers may have a hard time filling it up with Chargers fans.
Via Ryan Phillips of TheBigLead.com, both of the preseason games played at the StubHub Center failed to come close to selling out. Last Sunday, 21,054 tickets were sold for a game against the Seahawks. This Sunday, 21,197 tickets were sold for a game against the Saints.
Ticket sales and actual attendance are two different things, especially since season-ticket holders typically must buy seats to the preseason games in order to get seats for all of the regular-season games. But wouldn’t the curiosity factor draw fans to the venue for the first two games there, regardless of whether the games count?
None of this means that the Chargers will have empty seats starting in September, when the games do count. But there’s a chance that the fans of the opposing teams will be seen in relatively large numbers -- and that given the size of the venue and the proximity of the seating area to the field they’ll be heard, too.