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San Diego Is Chargers' Problem
Don: Thanks for reminding readers that you've been predicting the Chargers move to Los Angeles for years. Those of us who've been around awhile have grown accustomed to your conspiritorial Charger predictions that haven't exactly split the uprights. This most recent effort is the weakest yet. It offers absolutely no hard evidence that the team is on the way to LA. In fact, your "analysis" fails to consider basic business common sense, shared economic and political realities, or actual public statements made by the pricipals involved. The Chargers have invested and continue to spend millions of dollars studying options for a new stadium in San Diego. If they secretly long for LA, why would they be doing this? Perhaps it's intentional misdirection in your eyes, but their actions to remain here are stronger factual evidence than any conjecture you present. If they really wanted to move to LA, they could have easily negotiated their way to LA by paying off the most recent stadium improvement bonds and throwing money at a cash starved city. Small sums in comparison to the riches you seem to think that LA would provide them with, not to mention the overnight increase in franchise value you infer. You cite a sour economic and political climate in San Diego as the main reason that the Chargers can only have their dream home built in LA. Perhaps you just overlooked the poor economic conditions and political opposition to a new or remodeled stadium in LA that mirrors San Diego's current situation. Did you consider that the escape of LA's previous NFL teams were due in large part to their inability to get the sweetheart deal you assume the Chargers will be gifted? What has changed since then? Using your own words, since their departure governments are MORE broke than they were then. You trot out Ed Roski's proposed stadium in the City of Industry as the "glass slipper". Do you really think that this stadium is viable without majority ownership of the team that plays in it? Of course not, because that relies on surrounding development facing the same economic pitfalls you point out. You've never forgotten to remind us that publically subsidized stadiums don't pay for themselves. Please explain how a privately financed football stadium without tenant ownership produces a better bottom line. You must have missed Ed Roski's statement that his place can't be built without a team he has ownership in. What makes you think that the Spanos family would give up even 1% of the best investment they've ever made? You've accused them of many things over the years, but never being poor businessmen. In fact, the Spanoses have been given lots of offers and proposals for their team. They continue to decline all of them and work instead on a solution in the greater San Diego area. Their actions and statements are clearly those of a team that is working to stay in San Diego.— August 15, 2008 3:10 p.m.