Hello, my name is Thomas and I’m addicted to writing about the San Diego Chargers possible move to Los Angeles.
I promised my family and friends that I would turn all of my attention toward what takes place on the football field once the regular season began and let the off-field chess match play out on its own. Then, the NFL owners meeting concluded in New York this week.
I thought one news article that summarizes the events would be fine, then suddenly, I’m speculating that J-ville could be the secret team heading to San Diego if the Chargers left town. After that, I woke up in a haze of possible partners for Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis, who hopes this move gets his team back into the chase to LA.
According to all media reports, the future of the NFL in Los Angeles hinges on Chargers owner Alex Spanos and St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke coming to an agreement, as each franchise have enough votes to block the other’s attempted move to LA.
The league hopes the teams can work out a deal on their own, instead of forcing the other owners to vote on their fate. The NFL has only one chance to get their return to Los Angeles correct, and fumbling this opportunity away isn’t in the gameplan. If the situation remains a stalemate, don’t be surprised if the decision is delayed until 2017 at the earliest.
Being held in limbo is the worst-case scenario for the Chargers, as Kroenke is willing to delay the decision for another year because this move increases the Rams chances of coming to Los Angeles.
Spanos is positioning himself for a big payday coming his way. Since the announcement of the Inglewood project, he has claimed territorial rights to Los Angeles, as the Rams possible move would take away from the Chargers fan base thus reducing team’s yearly revenue. Really, the Chargers have a larger fan base than the Rams or Raiders in Los Angeles…somebody fudging the numbers.
All brokered business deals usually occur after one side blinks before the other. In this case, the final outcome could be decided when Kroenke has enough of Spanos and his far-fetch Carson stadium project; opens his checkbook to sweeten the pot that helps keep the Chargers in San Diego.
Kroenke is putting his own money up to build a stadium in Inglewood, and the NFL will have a hard time preventing this from happening. They tried this approach with Al Davis decades ago and lost badly in federal court, but the league is accustomed to losing high-profile court cases lately.
LA is a trap city, as the fan base isn’t going to pay top dollar for tickets to a non-contending sports franchise. The irony is the NFL has never been successful in Los Angeles. Why? Well, the die-hard Southern California football fan would rather watch the games in the comfort of their home then waste their Sunday traveling on a crowded highway to a stadium. Suddenly, a six or seven-hour adventure turns into a 12-hour nightmare. Spanos better get use to playing in front of a half-empty stadium because his team’s talent-level doesn’t meet the LA fans high expectations.
The possible move to Los Angeles is a tired subject, and nothing will be decided until the next owner’s meeting in December. Until then, let’s keep speculating.