The 2016-2017 football season brought several major changes to the National Football League and the southern half of California. Starting with the relocation of the St. Louis Rams to Los Angeles in the beginning of the year, the National Football League was already in for some serious changes. Add in the fact that the commissioner is under serious heat from players and fans and a recipe for disaster is born. Taking this into consideration, the San Diego Chargers are not helping the cause by moving their franchise to Los Angeles as well. Looking at it from the standpoint of a fan, the San Diego Chargers have committed the unforgivable sin and betrayed the city that had loved them for so many years. History has shown that this is something that is not easily forgiven. Financially, there are even more issues with this relocation. Given that the Rams have already made Los Angeles their new home, there is a slim chance that both them and the Chargers will experience the same level of success. The Los Angeles market is a large one, but it does not compare to the New York’s or the world, where having two teams is the same league makes sense. Both logistically and financially, allowing the San Diego Chargers to join the Los Angeles Rams in LA does not make any sense. Not only will the teams suffer to hold a strong fan base and support from the tax payers, but the National Football League will find it very difficult to govern the rest of the league and their desires to either move locations or make other major changes to their franchises. 

On January 12, 2017, the San Diego Chargers ownership group officially announced that they would be moving their operation from San Diego to Los Angeles, a city that is already home to the Los Angeles Rams. This decision is not one that experts around the league did not see coming. In fact, these individuals had predicted that the franchise would leave based on the power struggle that owners have been through with the City of San Diego. After the city failed to pass a bill that would fund a new venue for the Chargers, the team decided that it was time to try a new home (Garcia, 2017).  Financially, the Chargers are looking for somewhere that will help pay for a new stadium. The city of San Diego was not on board to shell out the millions of dollars in taxpayer money that it would take to pay for one, so the team decided to cut their losses and leave town. The unfortunate consequence that comes with moving the center of football operations is that they are abandoning a fan base that has loved them for 56 years. 

The city of San Diego has been known for their strong support of their sports franchises. While both the Chargers and Padres have had their fair share of struggles as of late, the fans never left their teams hanging. This loyalty is not something that any NFL team has the luxury of enjoying. In fact, many other franchises would be happy with a portion of the love that the city of San Diego has shown to the Chargers. Keeping this in mind, one cannot help but see the urge to move out of the city as a “knife in the back”. In his article, “Please LT, say no to L.A. Chargers for the love of San Diego”, Kevin Acee goes into the emotions that San Diego fans are going through as they watch their team’s most famous player, LaDainian Tomlinson accept a position with the team in the new city. “The biggest star on our small stage is forsaking us for the bright lights of Hollywood. That’s how it feels. Perhaps the best San Diego Charger ever is becoming a Los Angeles Charger of his own free will and for what will be seen by many as, essentially, a mere 30 pieces of silver”, he says. For many of the San Diego faithful, this was the final straw. At one time, they had chosen to keep their beloved Tomlinson jerseys as far from the riots and fires as possible, but now they have no reason to. Their golden boy for so many of the prolific years in the franchise had switched sides and gone over to the enemy. In this sense, the previous fan base in San Diego have every reason to continue their resentment towards the Chargers. In an interesting and unfortunate twist for the owners, the new fans in Los Angeles are not too thrilled to become the home to a second NFL team either. 

Perhaps the most ironic part about the situation with the Chargers moving is the surprising lack of support coming from both fans and taxpayers in Los Angeles and the surrounding areas. Instead of having a certain buzz and excitement about a new star attraction making its home in the region, the people are boarder line dreading the impact that the Chargers will have. On one hand, a bid for a new stadium will bring millions of new tax dollars in from the locals, meaning they will be giving more of their hard earned money to the local government. Helene Elliot, who is ironically a writer for the Los Angeles Times wrote an article entitled, “Chargers’ move to L.A. is just like their new logo: unoriginal and uninspired”. In this article she goes into the problems that the Chargers organization brings with them to her home city. She says, “The NFL seems to view Los Angeles as a gigantic, personal ATM and has allowed the Rams — and now the Chargers — to migrate here to make large and frequent withdrawals from fans’ wallets. At some point the well is going to run dry, not only financially but emotionally, too”. As the upcoming season may prove, the “well” may be at the point of drying up, leaving not one, but two franchises with a mountain of debt and a disappointed fan base who is reluctant to give back to their teams. 

 

Perhaps the biggest obstacle standing in the way of the newly located Los Angeles Chargers is the struggle to establish their own personal brand in a new city. Leaving San Diego not only meant leaving somewhere that offered them familiarity, but now they will have to re-establish everything that they had in San Diego. The most obvious of these obstacles is the venue that they will call home for the next two years as they patiently await the construction of their new stadium. In an absurd downsize from their 70,000 seat stadium in San Diego, the Chargers will be moving to The Stub Hub Center, a 30,000 seat soccer venue that will also host the LA Galaxy during the same time (Wilson, 2017). This will make them the proud renters of the smallest venue in all of professional football by about 30,000 seats. How they plan to make enough money to sustain their exponential team expenses is yet to be seen, but the chances that their plan will work is extremely slim. If they were planning on using this smaller stadium for a few games in their inaugural season they could still salvage some of their losses by moving up to a bigger venue later in the year. It will be very surprising if the Chargers will make enough money to compete with the rest of the National Football League. 

In the Los Angeles market, the area is home to two NBA teams, an MLB franchise, NHL team, and a Major League Soccer powerhouse in the LA Galaxy. Until last season, the city was only missing a football team in their pursuits to host a team from each of the top five sports leagues in the nation. In a market that is already very loaded with the preexisting five franchises that already call Los Angeles home, the case can be made that adding two new football teams into the mix may overload the fans in the area. Financially, another major professional sports team moving to the area raises stress levels on everyone. Taxpayers will feel the burden of the new multi-million dollar stadium that has been planned out. The local governments will now add another sector to the numerous tasks that they are in charge of. Frankly, there does not seem to be any positives coming out of this situation, and the fans are not too thrilled about it either. Victor Mather from the New York Times says that as much as the Chargers have struggled in recent years, they are still the better team in the Los Angeles area (Mather, 2017). The Chargers posted a 4-12 record in their final year in San Diego, and as bad as their season was, the Rams were even worse, finishing last in the league statistically in yards per pass, yards per play, and second to last in yards per rush. These numbers are reflected in their poor attendance numbers throughout the year. Establishing a strong fan base in a new city is difficult enough. Throw into the mix that the team is struggling and making a profitable franchise is nearly impossible. The impracticality of having two professional football teams in the city of Los Angeles is apparently only seen by those who have no bias on the matter. 

The only way the Rams and Chargers will survive is if they learn to coexist and help one another through the first rough years in a new city. Starting things off, the two have agreed to go in together and invest in the building of their new home for the coming years. This will be a stadium with an agreement much like what the New York Giants and Jets have concerning The Meadowlands in New Jersey. In the case of LA, the stadium is reported to cost around $2.6 billion to complete. Compared to what the city of San Diego was willing to shell out for the Chargers, the partnership was able to more than double what they could pay for on their own (Williams, 2016). This deal optimizes the Hollywood spirit that the teams are striving for. The bigger the venue and the more flashy, the better impact they will have on their respective markets. Now, this monstrosity of a stadium will not see the light of day for another two years, but starting the partnership between the Rams and Chargers with a good, beneficial deal for both teams is a sign of good to come. However, this is not to say they will not have a multitude of issues to struggle through respectively, but the future is a little brighter due to how their agreement has been laid out. 

Much like the rumors surrounding the Chargers in the past years, the Oakland Raiders have also expressed a great deal of interest in moving their operations rather than shell out the money to pay for a new stadium. Now that the Chargers have agreed to partner with the Rams in Los Angeles, only two solid options remain for Mark Davis and his ownership group; stay in Oakland, or move to Las Vegas. The Chargers were awarded first pick as to what direction they would shift their franchise, and now that they have solidified their choice the Raiders are the next team on the chopping block. In recent events, the city of Las Vegas has extended a $750 million funding plan to the Raiders in hopes to lure them into agreeing to set up operations in their city. This money will be topped off with an unknown amount from the NFL ownership group pending a vote that is to take place in early April (Purdy, 2017). At this position in time, the odds are looking to reflect that the Raiders will pack up and move east to the City of Sin. The fan demographic in Las Vegas is one that the Raiders will try to use and play into as they have the reputation for having a very diverse fan base throughout the United States. There are plenty of questions that remain, but perhaps the biggest is how a deal like this will impact the rest of the National Football League and what kind of precedent it will set for relocations of other teams in the future.

The NFL is currently going through changes that will rock the league for years to come. Hypothetically say that the Raiders in fact decide to move to Nevada, the question then is how does it impact the way relocation is gone about for the other owners and teams? With the Chargers and Raiders moving, that leaves two decently sized markets untouched in the state of California. The state itself is a draw for players as it features warm weather and evolving ideals. Mike Ozanian from Forbes says that we could see a remarketing strategy emerge from either the San Diego of Oakland market. He talks about a campaign that the Cleveland Browns used in their near relocation to Baltimore (Ozanian, 2017). In this case, the Browns began to search for a new home outside of the Buckeye state and found refuge in Maryland. Before the Browns wrote up a deal with the city of Baltimore, the city of Cleveland stood fast on their stance to not give the franchise funding for a new stadium. Once the deal was on paper, however, the Browns called the bluff of the city government and ended up with the needed funds to begin construction in Cleveland where they still play today. As Ozanian calls it, the financial moves in the business side of the NFL are more closely resembled by a chess match rather than a football game. Moving forward, one may expect to see a similar strategy used involving San Diego and Oakland. Whether a team uses them to get funding in their current home or goes through with a move to California, these two cities will play a large part. 

The NFL has seen its fair share of trying times throughout its 97 years of existence, and the recent events involving the Chargers and the city of Los Angeles is no exception. The odds are stacked against them as they move their operation, and there is a slim chance that they will succeed. Between fighting for a market with another NFL franchise, having to reimagine the image that has worked for so long, and the turmoil of trying to work through stadium negotiations, it is hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. At the end of the day, the Chargers will fail at their attempt to move to a bigger and better market. The questions that are left to be answered is whether they will drag the Rams down with them and what they will do to attempt to combat the impending struggles that they will face. 
