San Diego Chargers to move to LA

[Mightygoose]

This saga has been going on for a long time and it looks like Spanos will make it official as soon as tomorrow.

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/18455802/chargers-expected-announce-move-san-diego-los-angeles

From no NFL in LA for 21 years and quickly they're at 2 again.

[ArgoZ]

This saga has been going on for a long time and it looks like Spanos will make it official as soon as tomorrow.

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/18455802/chargers-expected-announce-move-san-diego-los-angeles

From no NFL in LA for 21 years and quickly they're at 2 again.

I always enjoyed watching the Chargers, particularly in the Junior Seau and Flutie era. Some great games. Too bad for the city. I stayed up late last night trying to figure out a way the multi billionaire owner could bridge the gap of 175 million for them to stay. Good on the city for not using public money. Their whole country is bankrupt but private businesses like sports teams still manage to get free dough. An article like this always reminds me how there is much more important things are in life than sports. The business side can be so frustrating.

[jerrym]

As much as I like sports, I admire San Diego, which, unlike so many other American cities, refused to go along with the $1 billion stadium or move gambit. There are more important things to spend tax dollars on.

[Will]

So why can't the Chargers and Rams share the coliseum for 2 years? Got to beat playing in a 30,000 seat stadium, no?

[Mightygoose]

A lease at the coliseum would have to go through USC which is not too keen on having a 2nd NFL team as the Trojans games need to be worked into the schedule as well.

I actually think playing in StubHub is a good plan for 2 years. The Rams had a built in fan base waiting upon their return. The chargers playing in a 30K venue will be a unique experience that will likely not seen again once they're in Inglewood. Be right on top of the action.

Sell the experience, not necessarily the Chargers themselves, build the fan base and hopefully they'll be competitive again soon and they'll have their share of the market

[ArgoRavi]

So why can't the Chargers and Rams share the coliseum for 2 years? Got to beat playing in a 30,000 seat stadium, no?

I read an article out of LA which said that the Chargers have almost zero following in that city. Filling a 30k seat stadium regularly might be a challenge for them.

[shayman]

Hmm, they're moving to a soccer-specific stadium. I wonder how that will work out.

[1971GreyCup]

Hmm, they're moving to a soccer-specific stadium. I wonder how that will work out.

I am the LA Galaxy fans will be up in arms sharing the pitch with a football team! Just like the riots in Seattle and New England.

[Will]

I read an article out of LA which said that the Chargers have almost zero following in that city. Filling a 30k seat stadium regularly might be a challenge for them.

Then what's the logic here?

[paulwoods13]

By many accounts from people who cover the NFL, the Chargers have at least doubled the book value of the franchise because of this move. Presumably because LA is a bigger market and the new stadium will be a big revenue generator. So it's a long-term play for the ownership group to eventually score big through a sale.

[AngeloV]

By many accounts from people who cover the NFL, the Chargers have at least doubled the book value of the franchise because of this move. Presumably because LA is a bigger market and the new stadium will be a big revenue generator. So it's a long-term play for the ownership group to eventually score big through a sale.

From what I heard on a sports radio show today, Spanos would have received 300M from the league towards building a new stadium in San Diego. Add that to the 550M transfer fee he had to pay to move them to LA, I don't see how he comes ahead in this move. No the LA market has 2 teams it doesn't care about. Absolutely ridiculous.

[ArgoZ]

From what I heard on a sports radio show today, Spanos would have received 300M from the league towards building a new stadium in San Diego. Add that to the 550M transfer fee he had to pay to move them to LA, I don't see how he comes ahead in this move. No the LA market has 2 teams it doesn't care about. Absolutely ridiculous.

If he wasn't willing to pony up 175 million himself and put that on the people of San Diego, I'm sure it's all calculated $. As Paul mentioned, it's believed a move would double the value. If the lowly Buffalo Bills sold for a billion, how much are the Los Angeles Chargers going to be worth in a few years?

[jerrym]

From what I heard on a sports radio show today, Spanos would have received 300M from the league towards building a new stadium in San Diego. Add that to the 550M transfer fee he had to pay to move them to LA, I don't see how he comes ahead in this move. No the LA market has 2 teams it doesn't care about. Absolutely ridiculous.

Spanos has been haggling with San Diego for 16 years over the city paying for a new stadium. It wasn't working. He expects to make a lot more money from TV in the bigger LA market, but that remains to be seen.



The Chargers (http://www.latimes.com/topic/sports/football/los-angeles-chargers-ORSPT000056-topic.html)’ dramatic split from the city of San Diego may be a sign that California is officially done spending public money on sports franchises.
California voters have grown more skeptical of pouring billions of dollars into football stadiums, which have been shown to generate less of an economic boom than the National Football League (http://www.latimes.com/topic/sports/football/nfl-ORSPT000007-topic.html) has advertised. That’s upending the traditional relationship between billionaire franchise owners and their hometowns. ...

“Gone are the days where there is broad public support for taxpayer-funded stadiums. It’s very difficult to find a rate of return in that investment,” said Kristin Gaspar, who was elected as a county supervisor in San Diego in November.
After haggling with the city of San Diego for years to secure tax money to build a new stadium, and getting snubbed by voters, the Chargers announced Thursday that the team would move to Los Angeles. The team will share a privately funded new stadium in Inglewood with the Rams when it opens in 2019. ...


Football stadiums aren’t spurring local economies, a growing body of new research shows, because they’re used infrequently and don’t offer consistent, year-round employment. The facilities are also becoming more expensive, especially over the past two decades as owners have pushed for renovations, contending that their stadiums need luxury boxes and other niceties to stay competitive.
“Stadiums that used to cost $300 or $400 million, now it’s $1.2 or $1.3 billion,” said Marc Ganis, president and founder of the Chicago-based sports consulting firm SportsCorp. “They cost more and have a shorter life cycle.”


The Chargers budgeted $1.8 billion for a new stadium and convention center annex in San Diego, and sponsored a measure asking for $1.15 billion in taxpayer funding, via a hotel tax. Voters who went to the polls in November overwhelmingly rejected that measure, 57% to 43%.
Since 2000, most of the major new stadiums in California have been built or are being planned without any direct subsidy from the public. No taxpayer money went to constructing AT&T Park, where the San Francisco Giants (http://www.latimes.com/topic/sports/football/new-york-giants-ORSPT000197-topic.html) play; Avaya Stadium, where the San Jose Earthquakes are based; or the StubHub Center, which houses the LA Galaxy and, for the next two years, the Chargers. ...


For decades, Angelenos went without a hometown NFL team in part because they were notoriously loath to spend taxes on one. Rams owner Stan Kroenke (http://www.latimes.com/topic/business/stan-kroenke-PEBSL0000935-topic.html), worth $7.4 billion according to Forbes, made the league’s return to Los Angeles possible because he was game to use his own money to develop the $2.66-billion Inglewood stadium that, starting in 2019, will be home base of his team and the Chargers.
Inglewood will ultimately pay the project an estimated $60 million as a reimbursement for the development of roadwork, utilities and public parks on the site of the property.
James T. Butts Jr., mayor of Inglewood, said he would not have agreed to a new NFL stadium if it required fans to chip in. ...
But analysts say there could be a more straightforward reason that Southern Californians, rather than, say, Philadelphians, don’t want to spend much on their teams’ digs: They have more entertainment options and aren’t as die-hard fans. ...

Whether the move to Los Angeles pays off for the Chargers remains to be seen.

Like the Rams, the Chargers are required to pay a $650-million relocation fee, to be split among owners of other NFL teams, over 10 years. But the value of the former San Diego franchise is also expected to increase dramatically in L.A., the second biggest television market in the U.S., according to analysts. The team will pay $1 a year as a tenant in the Inglewood stadium and will help finance the project with a $200-million loan from the NFL, in addition to contributing revenue generated by the sale of personal seat licenses.




http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-chargers-taxes-nfl-20170113-story.html