Chargers’ fanbase has work to do to be considered among league’s best

A move from one California city to another along with the battle for supremacy in the city the team moved to have made things difficult for the Los Angeles Chargers to amass one of the NFL’s best fanbases.

Now of course, we would normally consider something like this nothing more than an opinion. But Michael Lewis and Emory University say that this can actually be tracked using several factors.

Lewis measures a team’s fandom using three key pieces: Fan Equity, Social Equity and Road Equity. Fan equity is measured by the amount of fans contributing to the team with money out of their own pocket. Social Equity measures how much a team’s fanbase engages with the team on social media and Road Equity measures how a team does on the road in terms of traveling fans while keeping in mind several contributing factors such as winning and losing streaks as well as key injuries.

You get the gist of it, right? Right.

Now that we have all of that info, here’s the list from 1-32 of the NFL’s top fanbases, according to this research.

The Chargers come in at No. 27 on the list. Now, are we really surprised by that? The only teams ranked lower are the Cleveland Browns, Jacksonville Jaguars, Kansas City Chiefs, Los Angeles Rams and Tennessee Titans.

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It’s interesting to note that the other Los Angeles team, the Rams, is ranked next to last in the league. We always knew the L.A. market would be tough to break into and that has proven to be true.

The Chargers had a tough time filling the small StubHub Center last season as home games were often littered with fans of the opposition. But another interesting note in this study is the fact that the Bolts come in at No. 16 in terms of Road Equity.

That’s right in the middle of the league and it’s higher than teams that have found tremendous success over the years such as the Denver Broncos, Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers.

The Chargers came in at No. 26 in both Fan Equity and Social Equity.

Still, it will be tough for the Chargers to build a large, loyal fanbase for the foreseeable future as many former fans and even some current ones are and forever will be furious over the team’s move from San Diego as well as the way the front office runs the organization.

Obviously, having fan support helps breed a winner. Can the Chargers overcome this obstacle and how long will it take for them to move up much higher on this list?

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