Yeah but he might get some new ones. I suspect it will be a net loss in total numbers though. People will show up to the new stadium if it’s blingy enough. The owners will probably do better over the next ten years than they would have in SD. I get that people get crazy emotional over sports teams (I used to be one of them) but in the end this is a business and it’s probably the correct business move.
We haven’t had a team abandon us in quite a while. We have missed the drama.
The franchise will be under pressure to perform. That way they get fair weather fans to inflate the numbers. And then later you can have fans that reminisce about the good old days back when the team was good (like Niners fans).
But they need to start winning first.
Boy, I sure hope that new logo is going on the helmets! You may have picked up that I have mixed feelings regarding their departure, and never seeing the uniforms I’ve loved over the years will sure ease the pain.
By reports, the Chargers will have to pay:
$650 million to the NFL for a franchise relocation fee
$20 million or so to San Diego to get out of the stadium lease at Qualcomm
In addition, there will be lost revenue of 40,000 seats, times 16 games, which, even figured at a conservative $75 per ticket per game (the stadium they are moving to will be losing top-end seats most certainly), yields a loss in two years of $50 million.
Adding it all up, they will be out around 3/4 of a billion dollars for making this move. If they have calculated that moving in two years into a stadium that they won’t even be the primary tenants of (let alone owners!) is financially advantageous under this circumstance, then all I can say is that financing of NFL teams is seriously weird. :eek:
ETA: then there’s the cost of building a new practice facility…
You’re forgetting that the NFL gave Spanos a debt waiver on that $650 million which means the Chargers can take forever to pay it. And now in LA, the Chargers will benefit from a tidal wave of new revenue streams that they were never going to get in San Diego. Stadium naming rights, seat licenses, corporate sponsorships, more luxury boxes, etc. Plus, they will only be paying $1/year as tenants. And I don’t know the specifics of the lease tenant deal, but if Kroenke lets Spanos come in on the entire development project (the mixed-use development surrounding the stadium), Spanos stands to make even more money. So the Chargers are going to have to invest a lot (which was never their plan), but they are going to make a shitload more money than they ever would have in San Diego. To say nothing of the fact that their valuation as a team probably just went up as much as a billion dollars.
To me that just reinforces the prior statement by DSYoungEsq that, “financing of NFL teams is seriously weird.”
Well, he seems to be saying that it will cost the Chargers $750 million+ to move. If the story ended there and everything stayed exactly the same, yes it would be weird. But in reality, they will pay out that amount over (I’m guessing) 20-30 years, during which time they will see vastly improved revenue streams as well as a huge increase in their valuation. A couple seasons at the StubHub Center and a new practice facility are drops in the bucket. They are going to pay a lot, but they are going to get even more back. Where is the weirdness?
Herpes is more popular than the Rams.
As a San Diego resident I am sad to see the Chargers go. I was sadder last year when it looked like they were leaving to have the joint stadium with the Raiders. The game last season that looked like it was going to be the last one for the Chargers in San Diego had some emotional punch but this year not so much.
But lets not kid ourselves the Chargers fan support from San Diego wasn’t that great. A few years ago we had blacked out games and the threat of blacked out games because ticket sales were poor.
The decision isn’t weird. It’s sensible and smart business. The weirdness is the convoluted way in which the deal is made favorable to the Chargers. Let’s say weird as in “unexpected”, to a person who doesn’t frequently follow the financial machinations of stadium deals.
I went to UC San Diego in the 80s and went to a few Chargers games. Even back then, there were more Raiders fans in the stands when they came to town.
Is it just the relocation fee that seems unexpected/convoluted? I guess the way to look at it is that, in the NFL, everybody gets a taste. While the teams might play against each other on the field, off the field they all (well, mostly all) pull together on revenue. The bulk of NFL revenue, such as TV rights and merchandising, is shared across all the teams evenly (except, I think, for the Cowboys who keep their own merchandising revenue. There might be other side deals, but you get the point).
Whatever makes them all richer is what’s best for the NFL. So if it means the other 31 teams are going to have to wait for their share of the Chargers $650 million relocation fee, that’s probably just fine with them, especially considering the Rams just paid their own $550 million relocation fee to the NFL in one lump sum (so I’ve read anyway).
Let’s not kid ourselves, the Spanos’ support of San Diego wan’t that great.
They are also going to have to suffer the indignity of being at the mercy of MLS, because unlike the other shared stadium situations, StubHub Center is designed as a soccer-only stadium. And AEG, the group that owns it, is the same group that owns the MLS team that plays there, and has no NFL interests. The stadium’s communications director has already said that the Galaxy will have priority and that the NFL will have to schedule around them.
Halve that: in a 16 game season, a team plays 8 road games. There are two preseason home games, and the top teams can get two playoff games at home, so the absolute max is 12 games a year at the stadium.
Such a bargain for the taxpayers, probably more than half of whom give not a shit in any given metro area – well, maybe a little more than half if they haul in the Lombardi that year.
The Chargers are at the stadium for two seasons. Hence, 16 games. 
As for the relocation fee to the NFL, that’s been pro-rated over only 10 years. $65 million a year, maybe with interest on it (?). $65 million is a lot of money to give up in one year. And the Chargers will not have naming rights for the new stadium, since it’s owned by the owner of the Rams, as I understand it.
And it’s hardly going to be better in LA, as the second team in a zero-team town.
Look on the bright side - you finally get to see Chargers home games on network TV!
<sarcasm>The teams should get smart about this going forward - why bother including the city where their stadium is located their name. It should just be “The Chargers”. Then, the owners can pick-up and move to the next shiny deal any time they feel the need. I mean, why bother being associated with a city in the first place?</sarcasm>