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Originally Posted by kccrow
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.
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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.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kccrow
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.
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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.