Chargers get an extra 48 hours

The Chargers today (January 11) got a two-day extension to decide whether or not they will move to Los Angeles. The cutoff date was January 15, but owners, meeting in New York, decided that since Sunday is a playoff day and Monday is Martin Luther King Day, the Chargers should get two more days.

Today's meeting had been set to discuss Oakland's plans to move to Las Vegas and the Chargers' decision whether to join the Los Angeles Rams in the new stadium being built in Inglewood. Chargers' chief executive Dean Spanos was given the January 15 date a year ago.

If the Chargers try to stay in San Diego, Oakland has a shot at Los Angeles. The general feeling is that citizens of Los Angeles would prefer the Raiders to the Chargers. The Raiders played in Los Angeles from 1982 to 1995, when they returned to Oakland. Also, after a long drought, the Raiders had a good team this season; the Chargers and Rams did not.

NFL officials are reluctant to abandon the San Diego market, which is the 17th largest in the United States. Spanos has been hoping the NFL would toss in another $100 million to help the Chargers get a new stadium in San Diego. However, the sound defeat of Measure C in November suggests that taxpayers are not eager to subsidize the Chargers.

ESPN reporter Jim Trotter, formerly of the Union-Tribune, said today that a "Hail Mary is developing to keep the Chargers in SD at least two more years" and that the San Diego situation is believed to be "salvageable," while Oakland's is not.