It's not really fair to make comparisons to Green Bay. They are a holdover from a bygone era and the if they didn't already have a franchise, the NFL would never choose to locate one there. That's not to say that they don't support the team, but just that the NFL would never take a chance on locating a franchise in such a small city in the current era.

There isn't much left out there.

You have Columbus, OH but already two teams in Ohio plus Indy and Pittsburgh in close proximity.
You have San Antonio or Austin, TX but already two teams in Texas
You have Orlando, FL but already two teams in Florida
Anything CA is basically worthless unless you locate back to San Diego

That leaves, basically, Portland, OR which would be similar to KC at least in terms of metro area size and city size of Atlanta and Las Vegas. It also has a notable amount of Chargers fans for whatever reason. But you have the earthquake factor for building a stadium. It makes the most sense overall and you're really only competing for Seattle fans.

or

Omaha, NE as the next biggest venture but the metro area included makes it actually smaller than Salt Lake City.

Some other cities like Louisville and St. Louis would be or are tough because of the proximity to other major franchises and established fandom... Chicago, Indy, Minnesota, or KC, especially. Same reason Milwaukee isn't really an option, everyone is a Green Bay or Chicago fan and you're not going to sway enough from 100 years of history. Similarly, OKC, but you're trying to pull fans from Dallas or KC.


It's a tough gig to move the team, honestly.

1. Move back to San Diego where they belong.
2. Move to Portland.
3. Move to Omaha or Salt Lake City.

I don't see too many other very realistic options.

I'm not debating about where or where not the NFL should locate a team, I'm just pointing out that comparing any locality to Green Bay isn't a great argument due to the nature of that particular franchise. The population there is around 100,000. The only reason there is a franchise there at all is the fact that it was located there in the very very early days of the NFL. The fact that the franchise hasn't been moved to a larger city is mostly due to the fact that the franchise is owned by the city of Green Bay. Those two situations make the Packers a clear outlier.

There's other factors at play that help the packers.

They draw about 100k from the Upper Peninsula of MI and another 100k from Northern WI, all within a 1.5-3 hr drive of GB. They draw about 3/4 of the city of Milwaukee and the surrounding metro area. If the team wasn't in GB it would be in Milwaukee, no doubt about it.

That said, you look at Milwaukee, it only has a metro pop of about 1.6 million. Salt lake is about 1.3. The comparison isn't all that invalid.

There is a big difference between locating in a city of about 100,000 with a metro of 1.6 million a couple hours away, and locating in a city of 1.3 million with some smaller metros surrounding. My original point stands that the NFL would never locate a franchise in a city as small as Green Bay in this era if it wasn't there already. However, if you want to dispute me, feel free. I'll let you have the last word if you want it.

You guys are forgetting about financial issues.

There's no way that Salt Lake can build a multibillion dollar stadium, let alone, support an NFL team with the Utah Jazz fan base.

Texas doesn't need three teams, regardless of what Jones wants or doesn't want. The Spanos family doesn't have a ****ing dime to their names, outside of the value of their franchise, so they can't afford build a stadium, period. And the people of Texas aren't going to suddenly decide to tax themselves for yet another NFL team.

The Chargers are just ****ed. No one in LA gives a shit about them and really, very few gave a shit in San Diego. I've been to at least a dozen games in the past 20 years in SD and if Chiefs fans didn't outright outnumber Chargers fans, it was close. Same with the Raiders and practically any other team that visited.

The franchise is a joke and only new ownership can possibly change that.

Since this thread has become all about proposing places that do not have SoFi Stadium, nobody has proposed anywhere in Africa, I always liked the name Timbuktu.

all true.

Oddly, the Chargers as a team don't suck.
The ownership sucks.

The thread is pretty much about the theory that Spanos is out, someone else in. With that in mind, I don't know that the thought that a city can't afford a stadium really necessarily holds as much weight. At least not full funding. I think the NFL may need to also consider ownership that must partially fund the stadium build. That is, if they aren't insistent the Chargers remain in LA.

It's an unfortunate cluster****. Hell, using a 40,000 seat college stadium in San Diego wouldn't be the worst idea. It's probably their normal attendance.

Dude you suggested ****ing Omaha for a NFL franchise. Just take the L and go on.

That's not how the NFL works. Owners are not required to pay for the building of their own stadiums when purchasing a franchise, nor are they required to pay for partial funding.

This is the biggest issue facing the Chargers: The Spanos family did not have the money to build a stadium in San Diego and they certainly didn't have the money to build a stadium in Los Angeles.

40,000? They couldn't even get 20,000 fans in a soccer stadium and 70% of those people (or more) were fans of opposing teams. This has been happening for at least 25 years, as I've seen it firsthand. I can't tell you how many times I sat in the Murph to watch the Chiefs, and against good SD teams with guys like Rivers, Gates and LT, that were barely half full. I mean, I could take up a whole row of seats for myself because the stadium was that empty. And if there were 35,000 people in the stadium, 17,500 were Chiefs fans.

The Chargers are just a sad sack franchise. If they want to become successful in Los Angeles, they'll not only need new ownership but they'll need to drop the name, mascot and records, then start over, much like the Titans and Ravens. And even then, there's no guarantee that people will take to them when they already have the Rams, USC Trojans, UCLA Bruins, Dodgers, Kings, Clippers and Lakers filling up their schedule.

There was no void that the Chargers filled, no lack of college or professional football, or any other sport for that matter, which is why no one cares about that team.

Omaha?!?!?!!

ROFL

Last I checked, halfwit, I wasn't trying to win anything.

There is a clickbait that pops up....cities that may be getting an NFL team. It has been a while since I have seen it.

It mentioned, Omaha, Duluth and Des Moines. What a crock.



Maybe the Chargers should move to Anchorage, Alaska.

Good thing, because that was a truly horrible take.

Where/what would you two cognitive prodigies suggest?

Well, I did say Portland and Salt Lake were better options. I just don't know, myself, where exactly would make the "most" sense. A lot of dynamics in play.

Yes, Omaha may not be the best, especially in terms of taking fans from KC. It would definitely be a smaller market but the only major markets available would struggle too.

I basically view Orlando, Columbus, St. Louis, and Austin/San Antonio as unlikely/no go just because of the amount of teams already in those areas. St. Louis may be the most viable. I can't see Ohio, Florida, and Texas supporting another team. It would be LA part II.

Omaha is a horrible option. It's not a very big market, and halfway (roughly) between two entrenched NFL markets. The Chargers would do far worse there than in places like LA and SA/Austin (which aren't exactly great markets for them as is).

At this point, the best option might be for new ownership to try and heal the relationship with SD. Not sure if that ship has sailed and the relationship is beyond repair, but at this point its better than options like Omaha and Columbus and Orlando and Portland etc....

That whole org has been a mismanaged cluser**** for 30 years. When Marty went there and finally got them back to competitive petty personal BS drove him off. They can't find or keep a good GM and even though they're swimming in talent they can't hit .500...

Texas easily could. The main issue for Texas would be if the Cowboys and Texans would allow it.

Well, it'll be curious to see what happens. To see if a franchise that is brand new to a city with an exciting young QB and a relatively good team can even sell out out the stadium when you would expect the buzz to be strong.

Just wait until they go on a losing streak.

And the Rams have rolled the dice with Stafford. I would suppose they have a short window before they are looking at some type of rebuild.

San Antonio's problem is lack of major corporations in the city.

The Rams are constantly rebuilding, which is to say, they're constantly trying to improve the team through trades and the draft. Giving up 1st and 2nd round picks for players is nothing for them.

Swapping Goff for Stafford is a massive upgrade for the Rams. They have a good offensive line, some nice skill position players and a great defense.

The Rams are like if you told poster JakeF to run an NFL franchise like he was Brett Veach.

Would get basic gist of it, but there's no real strategy in place because they operate basically day to day.

Yeah, they’ve basically adopted their strategy from the Dodgers and Yankees, which is sign and trade for superstars but have the organizational structure in place to draft and develop well.

Quite honestly, that about the only way a franchise in LA can exist: Load it with superstars that actually want to be in the entertainment capital of the world.

I'm sorry... wut?

No one gives a shit about San Diego in SLC.

San Diego is just not a good sports town. Sure they’ll show up when the teams winning, but SD is also a big military town which means a significant part of its population is transient. Throw in the best weather in the country and a million better things to do on a Sunday and the Chargers have to compete with going to the donkey show in TJ.

How about London, since the Jaguars appear to be too chickenshit for the move?

"Pip pip cheerio bob's your uncle... young mister Justin 'Ehbeht is a waste o' me Sunday tea time if he can't ever bloody beat Sir Patrick at colony football!"

Understand, but they are a bigger city with a history with the team. If they did not have that history, I would fully agree that they are an awful choice. It's that history that gives them the edge over all the other places mentioned who are also either smaller, or just poor fits due to geography.

That's a problem everywhere outside of the top 30 markets or so.

Yeah but the history just isn't good and it's only in the minds of those who watch the Chargers on TV. The old stadium was hardly ever sold out because the people that live in San Diego just didn't care about football enough to show up in droves every Sunday.

They never had a parking lot filled with people grilling and drinking like at Arrowhead and the actual core fan base there was very small. When a hotel and car rental tax was proposed to build a new downtown stadium for the Chargers a few years back, it was easily defeated. Contrast that to the hotel and car rental tax that was proposed (and approved) for Arrowhead renovations. It passed and the stadium received nearly $400 million in upgrades.

San Diego isn't a sports town, period. The Chargers are a shit franchise run by a broke ass family whose only wealth is in the franchise itself. Los Angeles doesn't want them, nor does San Diego. They're stuck in LA for the next 20 years and if they did attempt to move again, the new owners would have to pay yet another $650 million dollar Relocation Fee.

They should have moved to Las Vegas and shared the Raiders stadium but that is no longer an option.

Kansas City used hotel and rental car tax increase to fund Sprint Center which is now T-Moblie Center.

Jackson County used 3/8 cent sales tax increase to fund improvements to the K and Arrowhead.

A business use tax would have funded rolling roof that could cover either stadium, but that did not get majority vote.

Perhaps you are right. I am basing everything off of what I grew up seeing on TV. I thought I remembered hearing that part of the issues with the city and the franchise was the hatred the city had for the Spanos family.

Well if they are truly stuck in LA then hopefully they can get competent enough ownership to market them in the city along with a quality enough product that perhaps LA can buy into them. If not, I don't at this point see a viable long term location for them.

That is true

It's never going to happen in Los Angeles for the Chargers. They're not a Los Angeles team and they'll never be a Los Angeles team.

As I mentioned earlier, the unlike the Tennessee Titans or Indianapolis Colts or Baltimore Ravens, the Chargers aren't filling a void. 100,000 fans routinely pack the Coliseum for USC games and more than 90,000 routinely pack the Rose Bowl for UCLA games. 35,000+ show up at Dodgers stadium every game and Staples is packed for the Lakers. The city is excited about the Rams at Sofi but no one even speaks of the Chargers because no one cares.

There's just no passion for the Chargers in Los Angeles and even if there was a little passion, most people would rather sit at a bar on the beach and watch them on TV as opposed to shelling out $500-$1000 dollars to sit in a stadium filled with opposing fans.

That franchise is ****ed.

Even in the big markets, there's so much global consolidation.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/news/story?id=2397151

Kansas City OKs sales tax for sports renovations

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Voters on Tuesday split on a pair of measures to pay for upgrades to Kansas City's sports stadiums, approving a sales tax for renovations but rejecting a plan for a rolling roof to make both facilities climate-controlled. The measures in Jackson County were designed to raise more than $500 million to renovate Kauffman Stadium, where baseball's Kansas City Royals play, and Arrowhead Stadium, the home of the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs.

Voters supporting the tax increases feared the teams might leave without the improvements. Opponents decried giving aid to millionaire team owners. A three-eighth-cent sales tax will raise $425 million over 25 years to renovate the stadiums and add such amenities as a pavilion behind the baseball stadium.

A separate user tax would have generated about $200 million for the rolling roof. With all precincts reporting, the sales tax won by about 5,000 votes, while the roof plan failed by under 4,000 votes. The teams' owners have pledged, together, more than $125 million toward the renovations.
--------

Later, The Hunt Family threw in nearly $100 million more for renovations out of their own pocket.

I clearly remember when this happened because the first time I rented a car while visiting in 2009, I couldn't ****ing believe the taxes! I paid like $199 for an SUV for the week but paid like $150 in taxes alone.

From that perspective, I totally understand why a city like San Diego, which thrives via tourism, would reject a car rental and hotel tax to build a stadium for the shitty-ass Spanos family.

I do not think there will ever be passion for the chargers in LA.
So time to move to Oakland, London, Mexico City. (or omaha :p)
Or retract them.

The article you quoted confirms the content of my post.

The rental car tax you paid was raising money for the Sprint Center. The stadium renovations were funded by the 3/8th cents sales tax.

That sucks for them and the franchise as it doesn't look like there is much of a solution for them at this point.

Yeah, I posted it for people that were unfamiliar with the taxation because we have many members that don't live in KC.

Again, it's totally understandable why the people of San Diego opposed a car rental and hotel tax.

I personally have no interest in paying for a rental car at MCI ever again because it's just a complete waste of money for someone visiting family.

If I remember correctly, Spanos never really believed his downtown stadium idea would actually work. He proposed it knowing it would get turned down so he could use that as a reason to move.

The idea of building a downtown stadium in the area he proposed was laughable to San Diegans. Traffic is utterly ****ed in that area as is and the idea of building a stadium there for years and making the people pay for it themselves was never going to pass.

And good for them for standing up to an insincere fake rich guy but also they lost their football team because of it.

Dean Spanos is trash

Yes, Sprint Center has been worth it for KC even though no NHL or NBA team, just because nearly every concert tour has a show there.

The rental car taxes are too high. Not sure if the Sprint Center one sunsets soon.

The Rams definitely have some potential. I don't follow them that close so I did hedge a bit when I said I supposed they would be looking at a rebuild in the not so distant future.

I was thinking they were probably facing salary cap issues but may be not and perhaps they haven't mortgaged as much of their future as I thought in draft picks.

Of course it all turns on how long Stafford plays and at what level.