In addition to the fact that the Chargers lost for the third time in three games, the Chargers had a second straight pathetic accumulation of paying customers in a home stadium that is smaller than more than 100 college venues.
The 27,000 seats weren’t fully occupied (the team still claimed it was a sellout), and many of the seats that were occupied ended up in the possession of Chiefs fans. So many that, via TheBigLead.com, the Chargers couldn’t do player introductions for fear of being drowned out by the visiting crowd.
The outcome (with more of the same to surely come) will do nothing to quell talk that the Chargers should return to San Diego. Despite some hot takes and perhaps overly-hyped storylines from last week regarding the possibility, Sam Farmer of Los Angeles Times has explained that a re-re-relocation of the Chargers is highly unlikely unless the Spanos family sells the team, which is also highly unlikely.
The real test will come when the new stadium opens in Inglewood. If the Chargers can’t get more than 25,000 and change to show up when there are more than twice as many seats in the building, it simply won’t be sustainable. If, in turn, the Rams struggle to fill the venue, the league may decide that instead of 20 poorly attended games per year in L.A., there should be only 10 total.
Until that experiment can even happen, the Chargers will need to get through this season and two more at the StubHub Center. Which will mean more and more stories like this one are coming, unless and until it becomes a given that: (1) the Chargers won’t be able to sell all of the tickets; and (2) plenty of the tickets will be used by those who support whoever the Chargers are playing.