Commissioner officially nixes LA for ’15
The Chargers never wanted to leave for Los Angeles in the coming year.
Any packing up and leaving San Diego, their home for 54 years, would have been a desperately preemptive strike, to block or beat the St. Louis Rams and/or Oakland Raiders.
Even as it seemed unlikely anyone would be in L.A. in 2015, Chargers president Dean Spanos had been gathering intelligence for months on those two team’s plans.
When the Chargers announced Tuesday they would not exercise the termination clause in their Qualcomm Stadium lease, it appeared clear that decision was made after they had received some sort of solid assurance no team was going to L.A. before them post haste.
Saturday, we found out that assurance came in the form of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell telling the three potential nomads that the league would not support a move to L.A. for the 2015 season, according to a report by ESPN.
This does not mean that the Rams or Raiders could not file for relocation prior to the Feb. 15 deadline, but it all but guarantees fellow owners would reject the request. That is something that the Chargers were already reasonably certain of prior to Goodell’s pronouncement.
The Chargers have been trying to get a new stadium built in San Diego since 2002. The team’s latest proposal is a multi-use venue downtown that would be part of a convention center expansion.
The team is eyeing a November ballot measure, likely in 2016. It needs two-thirds approval by voters in order to receive the public assistance it is seeking in the form of land and a hotel tax.
San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer told the U-T last week as part of his strongest and most expansive comments on the issue that the Chargers “need a new stadium.” He said he is working to get all the stakeholders – the City Council, hoteliers, County officials and others – to work together toward a solution. He said he plans to make public his plans beginning in January.
It is widely held among those involved that the NFL, after a 20-year absence, would like at least one team in L.A. sooner than later. And Saturday’s ESPN report cited a source saying Goodell told the teams that they should shift their focus on a possible move to 2016.
Acknowledging the specter of Los Angeles, Faulconer said last week that “2015 is going to see a lot of action.”
The problem for San Diego is that a ballot measure in ’16 could be too late. That puts a great deal of urgency on progress being made in the coming months so the Chargers have a reasonable level of confidence in success.
The team has said it cannot have a team in Los Angeles while it continues to play in antiquated Qualcomm Stadium, which severely limits its revenue potential relative to other teams. The Chargers estimate that as much as 30 percent of their revenue comes from the L.A. market and say a team there would have a detrimental impact.
