I want to hate the Chargers, but I’ve never really been given a reason to

I was never a fan of either franchise, but that's not really fair. Cheap Ass Bidwill's Cardinals were putrid, yet he demanded a new stadium. The city basically told him that his shitty team didn't rate one. Instead of improving his team he left, and the Cardinals continued to be shitty in Phoenix.

As far as the Rams are concerned, that **** Kroenke basically bought the team to relocate it. Before that, they were popular locally and successful.

It's not like they ran off two organizations that loved the city.

Looks like Kings Landing in the last GOT episode.

Cry Baby Rivers, Hot Dog Junior Seau, Cheap Shot Rodney Harrison and Merriman, Bandwagon Charger Fans to name a few.

The land was sold to SDSU, who is building a 35k seat stadium, a 34 acre park, and various school complexes. At one point in time, the stadium was said to be expandable for an NFL team, but not sure if that was the final plan or not.

The Cali guys would know better than me but IIRC Spanos was a **** on a lot of levels and it’s hard for taxpayers to sign onto that shit when they’re not going to get anything back, the owner is a **** and was going to keep the money anyway.

Los Angeles could get away with charging for seats just to have the right to buy season tickets. It cost $7,500 per seat (one time fee) with season tickets at $150 per game. Club Seats range from $15,000 to $80,000 per seat and accompanying season tickets are $375 per game. There was no way that Charger Fans in San Diego were going to shell out that kind of money. Crazy.

Oh damn, I didn’t know they were going to tear down Jack Murphy, thought it was still being used by a college team or something.

San Antonio wouldn’t be in contention?

Over Jerry Jones dead body and even then..

Salt Lake would be interesting. The Mormons seem to love BYU, why not a pro team?

They are lucky to still have the Jazz. It's an alcohol thing, and gambling. It's also a very small, isolated market.

True. Maybe I'm just looking at "new" places for an NFL team that seem like decent destination locations.

For selfish reasons, I sure wish St Louis could pull them in... it'd be SO easy for me to see the Chiefs twice a year

I don't hate them as much as the Raiders and Denver, but playing them twice a year breeds natural contempt.

And when they have players such as Phyllis associated with their franchise for 15+ years it enhances the hate factor.

He’s not getting any younger and I don’t think he has the clout that he used to when $$$ is at stake for the league and the other owners.

But maybe you’re right.

Portland is out, only about 2 and a half hours from Seattle.
San Antonio same reason. Too close to Houston & Dallas.

Oakland.
St Louis.
San Diego.
Orlando.
Hampton Roads, VA.

There's no way Oakland or San Diego get an NFL team again because their cities and voters do not want to shell out $2 billion for a stadium.

I'd be very surprised to see an NFL team in St. Louis again and really the only way to even get interest is to build a palace for an NFL team in advance, something that seems very unlikely.

I don't know much about the city of Orlando but with Jacksonville's continuing and never-ending struggles, I doubt Orlando would be a viable option for any team.

Oklahoma City perhaps.

Great movie

Paying for seats should be criminal. Kroenke ****ed over plenty of fans in his process of moving too.

NFL is running out of viable US cities that can support a team. One of the reasons they are looking at cities outside the US I imagine.

ABQ never makes the list.

I think London will be next.

One day we will be watching the Mars City Rovers play KC in the Superbowl.

That would be STUPID.

Mexico City or Montreal/Toronto should be before London. Travel required for a team in Europe is very problematic.

With an extra game to boot.

Money talks. The new Spurs stadium there is already fully fitted for an NFL team.. Think a deal might alright be done with the NFL behind the scenes.

As long as Jerry Jones is alive, it will not happen, period.

Jerry has made the other 31 owners far too wealthy through his TV contact negotiations for them to turn their back on him.

And why does Texas need a third shitty NFL team?

Two shitty teams isn’t enough?

Lake Havasu needs a team. Go for the tailgate parties and nothing else.

Honestly, I could see Canada or Mexico City getting a team before an American city would at this point. The NFL has not even tried to hide their want of foreign dollars pouring into the league, so I feel the effort would be for a move like that by the league.

Shits given by NFL owners and Roger ****ing Goodell = zero. They'd put a team in Antarctica if they thought they could make money doing it.

Imagine a west coast team playing a game in London. If there was an actual team there and they weren't just playing random games that the schedule could work around, it would be business as usual, with an 11 hour flight each way.

Moving them to St Louis would provide some hate.

The Dubai Chiefs in 2032

That would actually be pretty cool because we’d get an extra home game every year that the fans could drive to.

If we got to an 18 game season with two bye weeks and they surround those games around those bye weeks it would lessen the "issues" but there are still the first 4 weeks of the season and the last 4 weeks of the season when there are not any bye weeks for teams.

Is it 1993? San Antonio's stadium isn't new.

Its not a question of need. San Antonio is, I believe, the biggest or at least one of the biggest markets that doesn't have it's own NFL team and Texas is pretty football mad.

I'm not saying it'll happen but I wouldn't rule it out.

The Chargers would sell a hell of a lot more tickets in SA than in LA.

Out of curiosity, I looked it up in the census. Here are the ten largest American metro areas without an NFL team.

Riverside, CA
San Diego, CA
St. Louis, MO
Orlando, FL
San Antonio, TX
Portland, OR
Sacramento, CA
Austin, TX
Columbus, OH
San Jose, CA
Virginia Beach, VA
Providence, RI

Who are the best candidates to get an NFL team?

That's a tough call. I say San Diego.

Jerry Jones already conceded Houston to the Texans and has already claimed San Antonio as his territory, so it's not going to happen while he's alive, if ever.

The owners owe JJ more than they could ever repay him because he's the guy that negotiated their huge TV contracts which took the owners from being mere millionaires to becoming billionaires.

The NFL is the tightest 32 man "club" in the world and they do not forget their own, unless an owner damages or potentially damages their revenue stream.

Jerry Jones has done neither.

Here are the 10 largest US television markets without a NFL team in the US.
Orlando
Sacramento
Portland
St. Louis
Raleigh-Durham
San Diego
Salt Lake City
San Antonio
Hartford
Columbus

If the chargers cant find a fan base--they will be looking to relocate

Oakland or SD makes the most sense. Unless they go international.
Mexico city/Canada/London/

Why isn't Oakland on either list? Doesn't compute for me.

Is San Diego vehemently anti-NFL, or did the Spanos' just kill their own personal golden goose there and make the city anti-Spanos?

The city voted to build a $1 billion dollar stadium on the same grounds as The Murph but the Spanos family refused because they wanted the stadium downtown.

There was a measure that went out a few years back about taxing hotels and rental cars but it was voted down because San Diego is a HUGE tourist destination and the city didn't want the taxes to interfere with their revenues.

The Spanos family, like Mark Davis, has no wealth outside of their NFL franchise so it would either take a partner, which the Spanos family refused or a city to build their stadium. AEG offered to build a stadium next to Staples Center and even had $20 million dollar per year naming rights set with Farmer's Insurance but Anschutz wanted a 51% share, to which the family said "No". He then offered a 49% share but the family said "No".

The Spanos family is their own worst enemy.

Oh FFS. Now that you say that, I remember hearing the part of wanting the stadium to be downtown, and I think the city did all they could to negotiate to no avail. Fk'n idiots.

I'm going to go ahead and assume the Spanos family gets their taxes done at H&R Block.

Man, how do you **** up calling San Diego your home. I've never even been there, just heard the stories of many friends and others that have, but I think I might concede a few bucks on the front end to stay in near paradise for decades on end. MAYBE THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG WITH MY LOGIC WHO KNOWS

Some can be eliminated due to proximity to existing teams.

I think you could eliminate Orlando too, since it's halfway between Jacksonville and Tampa if you're going to eliminate Portland, San Antonio, or Columbus.

All Orlando would do is cannibalize the other Florida fan bases.

You can scratch Sacramento due to its proximity to San Francisco as well. And Orlando is right in the middle of a state that already has three teams.

The Norfolk/Virginia Beach area would, I guess, be as good a spot as any. The only problem is so much of the population is military that a large portion of the potential fan base isn't from there, is by the nature of military service transient, and would already have loyalty to other teams in the areas they're originally from. I ended up living in the Chicago area after being stationed at Great Lakes over 30 years ago, and I really don't give two shits about any local team except the Cubs, whom I hate.

I wonder if San Diego and St. Louis would support a new franchise after getting burned so badly?

I'm guessing that it's officially part of the San Francisco metro area.

Always thought Virginia Beach would be an interesting choice. Or maybe put it near Williamsburg and try to capture both the Hampton Roads and Richmond metro areas. Would be an issue with the Redskins and to a lesser extent the Panthers though.

San Diego is an amazing city and county. Clean, well kept and a bit less expensive than Orange County and definitely less expensive than Los Angeles or Marin County.

If you're into sun, the beach, beach bars, chillin', California Cuisine, Baja-style food and the best Cali vibe without being surrounded by 19 million other people, San Diego is the place for you.

If it wasn't for my need to be in the Hollywood area, I'd pack up and move down there next week.

Oh yeah, and very little humidity.

Sacramento can barely support the Kings and there's just not enough money for there to support an NFL franchise.

The Spanos family is actually from Stockton, which is only about 40 minutes away from Sac but there's no one wealthy enough to build them a stadium.

Plus, the people up there are hardcore fans of both the Raiders and 49ers, just as they're hardcore fans of the Giants and A's. I don't think the Chargers would draw well there, either.

The Chargers are just ****ed. :D

Pretty spot on. :thumb:

Most of those areas already have allegiances to nearby existing NFL teams (i.e. Bucs fans in Orlando, Cowboys fans in San Antonio, etc.) which would make it difficult for a new franchise to establish a local fanbase.

So the London Chargers or the Mexico City Chargers is what this boils down too.

Vancouver Chargers?

Hawaii Chargers.

Move them to N San Diego / S Orange County and call them the "SO-Cal Charger." Plenty of dads with money down in those burbs that wanna take their kids to a game on Sunday. OC and SD both have equal hate for LA as well, and no one in LA gives a damn about the Chargers. Hell, the Rams are an afterthought here in LA.

Put a second team in Vegas. Its all going to be visitors anyway, right?

:shrug:

Would probably work better than two teams in LA.

NFL helps them build a stadium in St. Louis with the promise of the city dropping the lawsuit against the Rams - St. Louis Chargers....

I was a cHargers season ticket holder first in 1984. And was a cHargers season ticket holder for probably 15 to 25 seasons. I have always been a CHIEFS fan first but living in Southern California and being a fan of the NFL we loved going down to Jack Murphy Stadium on Sundays. I had no idea until yesterday that the stadium I went to for decades was been demolished. I went to over 250+ games there and was a cHargers season ticket holder the year they went to the Super Bowl. I had a lot of great times there. Kind of sad to see it like this - http://youtu.be/qi5kHUe7no4 the rise and fall of the San Diego cHargers stadium ->http://youtu.be/LXeKjrE5BnI

St. Louis has 0 interest in the NFL if there's any tax payer $ involved.

The Cardinals left because Bidwill didn't want to spend money to build a stadium as he felt the Cardinals were second tenant to the baseball Cardinals in Busch(which they were).

Then the city built the Dome as a result using all tax payer money to lure the NFL and gave the Rams one of the dumbest leases ever(they gave them an opportunity to get out of the lease before the bonds were paid off)... AND then would've paid more than 50% of the construction cost for the proposed stadium, which is something that no city had done twice within a 20 or 25 year period for the NFL.

Kroenke's intention was to move the team after he became the controlling owner after Frontiere's kids sold the team. Fan support wasn't the reason why they left.

Also, by your logic, LA shouldn't have a NFL team, much less 2, because they've lost 2 NFL teams as well.

Stan Humpries, Marion Butts and Natrone Means would torch those Marty defenses in the early 90s. Humpries was a good deep ball thrower. Bobby Ross was an underrated coach.

**** that. I would be forced to kind of like the Chargers if this were the case.


Obviously, would never happen, but still....

No US city could do an NFL team. without spoiling loyalties to another.


Canada? No. They have their own football.

So that leaves London, Mexico City or Cairo.

Anchorage Chargers?

Oakland Chargers

Heh, that would be crazy.

I always kind of figured they would be the team to go to Mexico City, if we ever go that route. Though I'd be hard pressed to tell a bunch of Americans to move their families there at this time.

false

And it will never happen, either.

Oakland can barely support the A’s, who have wanted to move to San Jose for more than a decade but the Giants claim that territory as theirs.

I’ve been to many stadiums in North America and the Oakland Coliseum is by far the shittiest (no pun intended) stadium by a wide margin.

The Murph was a palace in comparison.

The Atlantis Chargers. It's time to dump this garbage franchise into the ****ing ocean.

Here's what I'd do if it was up to me.

1. Force that asshat Spanos to sell the Chargers, and send them back to San Diego under new, community-based ownership. Build them a new stadium at league expense to soothe fanbase butthurt. They could play at a college stadium until the new facility is completed.

2. Relocate the Raiders to L.A., where they actually have a ready fanbase.

3. Use the Vegas Stadium to host one game per week, preferably a marquis matchup. Since they are now going to a 17 game season, this could be done without stealing an extra home game from anybody. Perhaps they could even make it the permanent home of the Super Bowl.

4. No more games in London or Mexico City. **** that shit.

Of course, none of these things will actually happen.

Agreed.

Los Angeles does not want the Raiders, specifically, their fan base, and fought hard to exclude them from the AEG/Staples Center deal and the Carson proposal.

The only community based team in the NFL is the Packers and the NFL has a bylaw against that now, so they'll always be unique.

I just don't know of a municipality that would support the Chargers. Maybe St. Louis, but it would take a new ownership group, a new team name and a wealthy owner willing to make not only a $2 billion dollar investment in the team but at least another billion for a stadium.

That's a big ask for a smaller market.

Plus, there's the pesky Spanos family, which absolutely refuses to sell and has no money to build their own stadium. They're also locked into a 30 year lease at Kroenke World, although I'd think the NFL would help them dig out of that if there was a community willing to embrace the Chargers.

I just get the feeling that no one wants them.

I bet someone would want them pretty quickly if you scraped the Spanos barnacles off of the team. The Spanos' are basically Marge Schott-ing the team without all the racial blasts - just totally screwing up a sure thing. It's fascinating to watch, really.

I actually like Fraz's idea of turning the Vegas stadium into a game of the week matchup site. Rotate it evenly between all the various networks and profit. Vegas during the NFL season would become even more of a destination every weekend than it is now. It's kind of a shame they won't consider it.

Why are we wanting to move the Raiders out of Vegas already?

The people haven’t been given a chance yet to show if they will support them.

The only place that the Chargers name holds any value is San Diego. Shame on the NFL and the Spanos that they can’t make it work there somehow.

When I lived in LA we'd take the Amtrak from Union Station down to see the Chiefs game there. Drink the whole way on the train, was basically our tailgate get to the stadium around noon for the 1pm kickoff. Good memories. I mean ,what I can remember of it. The train ride back at night after drinking since 7am was a bit of a blur.

one year we all pitched in for a stretch limo to take us there, it was about the same price as 8 train tickets. we tailgated out of a limo with an ice chest and a tiny weber Smokey Joe tabletop grill on the ground. After the game we were offering Krispy Kreme donuts out of the sunroof (not a euphemism) and met a couple girls two cars back. I got into their car with the donut box and a six pack and was hanging out eating donuts and beer with them on the way out of the lot. We followed them to Seau's bar. Some Chargers Cheerleaders were meeting them there.

Like five years later I was art work and a new girl comes up to me in the kitchen area and says "you look familiar" it took us a couple seconds to figure out she was one of the girls in the car I brought the donuts to.

lols