1-Man’s Opinion on Sports-Friday “Chargers-Welcome To Your New Home”
Welcome to Your New Home-Chargers”
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So the Chargers arrived in the Los Angeles market…hours after their heartless owner issues a 7-sentence letter, announcing he was moving the team out of San Diego.
Dean Spanos, a coward, refused to face the San Diego media, after stonewalling everyone in town, taking the fans money, treating them with disdain.
Didn’t matter, because the jilted San Diego political leaders did all the talking.
Mayor Kevin Faulconer called the Chargers owner spiteful for the way he treated city negotiations, trying to get a new stadium built. San Diego didn’t lose the Chargers…the Chargers lost Ssan Diego.
County Supervisor Ron Roberts said the Chargers leaders treated San Diego civic leaders with dis-respect.
Adam Day of CSAG said the civic nightmare was over in San Diego.
Elliot Hershman of San Diego State said your word has to be your bond-the Chargers never kept their word.
Spanos and his entourage flew to LA to begin a media tour, expressing excitement about moving into a new market.
Wait till fans get a grasp of the product they are getting, 26-losses in 36-games. Wait till the media gets a taste of the stand-offish arrogant way the Chargers conduct their business.
Wait till the embarrassment of playing in a small soccer stadium sets in, and see how the national media describes the semi-pro atmosphere the Chargers will play in the next two years. You know, Carson, the city skyline with all those oil refineries, sitting next to its former preseason camp home Cal State-Toxic Waste (Cal State Dominguez Hills).
See Roger Goodell issue his own press release, full of lies, how Spanos exhausted all efforts to get a stadium built in city, working a full year with city officials. Hard to work and accomplish anything when you don’t ever meet and negotiate.
And then there is the reception from the working press.
The LA Times headlines blaring ‘we don’t want you’…The LA Daily news comparing Spanos to disgraced Dodgers owner Frank McCourt…
The Riverside Press calling the situation a bad franchise with a bad owner….the Orange County Register telling fans you will witness dysfunction and irrelevant…
The San Francisco Chronicle saying by this move, the NFL loses another piece of its soul….and the New York Times writing ‘congrats LA now you have two losing teams’.
So history will write the Chargers left town during a driving rainstorm. Their fans dumping all their Bolt memorabilia in the front parking lot, then setting it on fire at Chargers Park.
A sad ending for a franchise so beloved in our community, but owned by someone who has become most hated.
At the end of the day, Dean Spanos was born with a silver spoon. Had he not been given the franchise to run by his father, he’d be on a street corner with a tin cup.
Looking forward to seeing the new franchise in its new home. Waiting for it to fail, and he be forced to sell it.
Dean Spanos can take the team and his tainted reputation out of town. He cannot take its history, its Powder Blue jerseys, nor the memories from us.
YOU KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPEN LAST YEAR.THE ONLY THING SPANOS EXTENDED HIS STAY WAS TO TRY GET THE DOWNTOWN SITE.
OK NOW THEY’RE GONE. WILL SAN DIEGO TURN TO THE NBA TO GET BACK A TEAM? OR JUST WAIT FOR 20 YEARS FOR THE NFL TO COMEBACK?
I am a Los Angeles native who was a Ram fan until they left in 1995. After a while (10 years) I came around to the Chargers. All their games were televised and on radio here – they grew on me. Once the Rams returned (issues included) I forgave and became a Rams fan.
Had the Rams not returned I would have stayed a Bolts fans. Still I did not want the Chargers to leave S.D. They are an institution down there. Will the Chargers build a loyal fan base here? It could take a generation or more.
I truly wish that for a day in the future that ownership changes hands and the team is returned to San Diego. Hopefully it will be a lot sooner than 22 years. I have felt your pain. Do not despair.