Sports on Draft

After 55 years in San Diego, CEO Dean Spanos stuns Charger fans with an impulsive decision to relocate the team to Los Angeles for the 2017 season. The Chargers are moving back to Los Angeles, since the team’s first inaugural season in 1960.

While there was the sense of drama and rumors throughout the 2016 NFL season, Spanos’ announcement to move the San Diego Chargers to L.A. still awe Bolts’ fans as well as the league itself. The reaction across the league was universal, for the decision not only felt sudden, but strange.

San Diego Radio host of Mighty1090AM, Scott Kaplan, expressed an emotional, but real perspective of the hasty move.

“There is zero appetite for the Chargers in the Los Angeles market,” Kaplan said. “Getting it right for Los Angeles, was bringing back the Rams.”

The downpour emotions of heartbroken San Diego fans, are justifiable, and too felt in the city of Los Angeles. Being a Los Angeles native myself, the general consensus is that it would make more sense if it were the Raiders, not the Chargers.

The Raiders have a huge fan base in this city, and for many of us in the “City of Angels”, the initial thought would be the Raiders and the Rams. Well, it looks like we were wrong after all.

The Chargers will be held in a much different hiatus now that they are now in Los Angeles. The Chargers have always had support for their team no matter what, win or lose, but not anymore.

Kaplan highlighted earlier that Lost Angeles has a must- win mentality, “You either win in Los Angeles or you don’t.” This is definitely true, and the Ram’s 2016 season at the
Coliseum is a great example of this.

While the Rams set the U.S. preseason attendance record of nearly 90,000 fans in their opener in Los Angeles against the Dallas Cowboys, the final game of the season did not even record half of that number of people.

With a game nothing to play for, it was expected to see a bleak attendance in the final home game of the Rams – well, somewhat expected.

When you stop winning games, people stop showing up. That’s just how it is in LA, but also in most fan bases throughout the world.

The Chargers and Rams have much to prove, for these organizations have proved to be dysfunctional at times, but are looking to make a redemption in their second chance in Los Angeles.

Photo by Bspangenberg (Own work) [GFDL or CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons