People in L.A. have a lot of options. Every fall they can catch not just USC, UCLA or (now) Rams football, but there’s Galaxy soccer, two NBA teams and two baseball teams, not to mention the beaches, museums, bro bars and everything else that comes hand in hand with LaLa land.
So it shouldn’t be a shocker to see that the San Diego Los Angeles Chargers can’t even come close to filling their temporary home at StubHub Center.
The stadium holds 27,000 people. Their game against the Chiefs on Sunday was, again, a despicable showing of fans in blue.
Lots of Chiefs fans here for Chargers home game pic.twitter.com/pQtxE85VVm
— Jaime Maggio (@jaimemaggio) September 24, 2017
That’s a lot of red. Even more a lot of empty.
Anthem from StubHub – Spanos’ locked arms with team pic.twitter.com/wlFpZeuBKG
— Dan Woike (@DanWoikeSports) September 24, 2017
So a picture says a thousand words. But only those who were there could truly understand how bad it was. Reports are that there were so many more Chiefs fans in the crowd than Chargers fans that the Chargers didn’t even do player introductions, fearing their own players would get booed.
The fight for LA is not going well for Chargers. Lots of red and empty seats. #rams pic.twitter.com/bDsIcjHwPh
— MarkEssa (@MarkEssa) September 24, 2017
National Anthem in Los Angeles ends with a loud “home of the CHIEFS”
— Marty Caswell (@MartyCaswell) September 24, 2017
To add insult to injury, this banner was flown over the stadium during the game.
The SD fans want their team back! Does @Kevin_Faulconer ? @NFL @Chargers @Chiefs #fightforsd pic.twitter.com/GgWz5rCmIJ
— Scott Kaplan (@ScottKaplan) September 24, 2017
This entire situation is something out of a sick comedy. If we saw all of this unfolding in an Adam Sandler movie 20 years ago we wouldn’t have believed it. But it’s real.
Thankfully it appears the league is starting to come to its senses.
The Athletic’s Don Banks stated late this past week that the NFL is quietly discussing the possibility of moving the team back to San Diego.
Here’s a recent excerpt from an interview he gave during the Darren Smith Show.
“I have been painted a picture from people I’ve talked to that the league was sympathetic…to Dean Spanos’ plight. Feels like he had been a ‘league guy’ feels like he had waited kind of his turn on the relocation front, thought he had the votes the year before — Jerry Jones and Stan Kroenke pretty much outmaneuvered Dean and Mark Davis with the Raiders to be the first in line for LA. So it was almost as if this was a bit of a make up.
“I can tell you this Darren, there are people in the league — including the commissioner — they did not want to see San Diego forsaken. They would rather there be a team in San Diego. If there’s anything viable that they could find to put the league back in to San Diego, I think they will be in that camp strongly.”
(in regards to moving the team if things don’t improve)
“I think they’re talking about it. I do. I think there’s already a level of concern at how far south it’s gone, that there are at least people talking about it…I don’t think a true tipping point has been reached, it’s too early for that. But I think there’s enough concern that people are saying, ‘What’s the best option perhaps among bad options?’”
It’s incredibly telling just how bad things are just three weeks into the Chargers’ first season in L.A. And imagine if Philip Rivers wasn’t with the team? There’s no way the Chargers stay in Hollywood if they can’t eventually fill a 27,000 seat stadium, let alone the new one they hope to share with the Rams.
Spanos paid roughly a half billion dollars to move the team to San Diego — money he could have used to help build a new stadium in San Diego.
On the other hand, San Diego sports writers aren’t holding their breath on a comeback any time soon, and reasonably so.
Dan Patrick and Colin Cowherd both had great takes on the situation and why the entire move to LA was a mistake.
Josh Helmuth is the editor of Crave Sports.
Photo: Getty
