What You Need To Know About The Latest Stadium News

Over the past week or so, we’ve all heard some news regarding the stadium issue in San Diego and with Los Angeles looming over our heads. Public remarks have been made, and punches have been thrown between Mark Fabiani and the Mayor’s office. And all of this is beside the fact that the Chargers just lost to a potential roommate in the Oakland Raiders, at home, and now are just 2-5.

Last week, Fabiani went on the Mighty 1090 and said that the team does plan on filing for relocation in early 2016. Honestly, that’s not really news now. We all expected it, and he even mentioned that they have to because the other teams, the Raiders and the St. Louis Rams, plan on doing the same.

A second piece of news: the NFL plans on holding a public forum in at the Speckles Theater in downtown San Diego, which is technically opened to the public, however all attendees have to go online and register for a ticket. The NFL has plans on doing the same in each of the other markets, for fans to turn out and plead to the NFL to keep their teams there. This is just a formality for the NFL, according to their by-laws.

And finally, a citizens’ initiative, spearheaded by environmental attorney Corey Briggs, was formed in order to create a pathway for a potential stadium site in downtown. It should be noted that it wasn’t specifically created for a new stadium, but what it could do is unify all parties involved and forces everybody to work together on a brand new stadium and/or convention center expansion. But that can only be started once their GoFundMe goals are met at $50,000. This option is exactly what the Chargers successfully accomplished in their potential project in Carson.

After ALL of that information, what should we think about all of it? That’s a really good question, and it certainly depends on who you ask.

What really needs to be thought about and considered is that, really all this whole mess is about is money. Sure, it could be obvious to some, but it’s worth mentioning. Whether Dean Spanos and the Chargers really want to leave America’s Finest City or not, only they can answer that question. But what it really comes down to is money. The potential move to Los Angeles has nothing to do with a disdain for San Diego, or because Los Angeles is a bigger market. It really is all about some form of compensation in the form of money.

Yes, if they move to Los Angeles, their franchise value will almost double.  But really what they could be playing for is some form of fiscal compensation from the NFL, or even from Stan Kroenke himself. There’s a reason why they partnered with Mark Davis and the Raiders, instead of Kroenke and the Rams. There’s a reason why Spanos had to come up with Carson to rival the Inglewood project. To many of us fans, Inglewood is hands-down the best option in Los Angeles. I don’t think Spanos actually thinks he will lose the 25% of their revenue because fans will choose to drop the Chargers for the Rams or Raiders. It’s just a convenient fact that he’s using.

So what’s that compensation he’s seeking? It could be one of two things: either he moves and his franchise does increase two-fold, or he’s seeking hundreds of millions of dollars to put towards a new stadium here in San Diego. It could potentially come from the NFL or it could come Kroenke himself in the form of a settlement. Or both, as the league could tell Kroenke to pay his relocation fee directly to Spanos.

The bottom line is, be careful with what you read and how you read into things nowadays. It’s a chess match that will all be over sometime in January.