Chargers Relocate to L.A.

The San Diego Chargers announced that the team will be moving to Los Angeles. This ends a 56-year stay in San Diego the place where they called home for a long time. The team’s officials and most importantly the team’s Owner Dean Spanos announced that they would be relocating and would play in L.A. for the 2017 NFL season. The team feels like this is the best option and is in their best interest.

“After much deliberation, I have made the decision to relocate the Chargers to Los Angeles, beginning with the 2017 NFL season,” Spanos wrote (Around the NFL Staff at NFL.com).

Shortly after the announcement, the Chargers revealed the 30,000-seat StubHub Center on the campus of Cal State Dominguez Hills in Carson will serve as the team’s temporary home until the stadium it will share with the Rams in Inglewood is built.

Arrowhead Senior and NFL enthusiast, Chris Marmes, commented on the Chargers move.

“Now there are two teams in L.A.,” said Marmes. “And guess what? They are both garbage. Both lost against the worst teams in the league.”

The Chargers have until May 1 to terminate their lease with Qualcomm Stadium and with their training facility. They also now owe a $12 million termination fee to the city and will have to be out of Chargers Park by July 1, Rapoport reported on NFL.com.

The Chargers spent their first season as a team in the American Football League in 1960 before moving to San Diego. This was before they NFL and AFL merged before the 1970 season in 1960 before moving to San Diego. In the 34 years since the merger, the Chargers have made seven trips to the playoffs and three appearances in the AFC Championship game. At the end of the 1994 season, the Chargers faced the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XXIX and fell 49-26.

The Chargers launced a website www.fightforla.com where fans can see what is happening with the team, the new stadium, and how to buy tickets. The Chargers new team motto is “Fight for L.A.”.

Los Angeles will play host to two NFL teams in 2017 for the first time since 1994, when the Raiders and Rams left for Oakland and St. Louis, respectively. The Rams returned to L.A. last January.

The Chargers attempted a rebrand of the team since they are moving to L.A.. People on all media outlets including other sports teams, called it terrible and basic. The Chargers added an alternate logo with the word mark LA interlocking and added a lightning bolt at the end of the L. Also the color scheme is dark blue and white. The logo looks like the Los Angeles Dodgers logo with a lightning bolt on it according to anyone that has seen it. They quickly changed it to their old powder blue and bolt yellow color scheme, but people are still criticizing the logo. The Chargers have since stated they aren’t using it going forward it was simply used for marketing purposes.

Let’s see if this move to L.A. pays off for the Chargers and if it was the right move in the end.