The Los Angeles Problem
Los Angeles has a football problem, and it’s a big one. The city that went from not having a football team in decades to having two of them in just over a year’s time hasn’t exactly lived up to the NFL’s expectations.
The Los Angeles Chargers opened up in their new city to a crowd of 25,381. You read that right, 25,381. To put that in perspective, the worst average attendance last year in the NFL was posted by the Oakland Raiders at 54,584. It wasn’t exactly the “Welcome to LA” party that was expected, or was it?
The NFL owners were reportedly very skeptical about putting a second team in Los Angeles so soon after the Rams arrived before the San Diego franchise relocated in January, and they should have been. From a personal standpoint, the Chargers’ move seemed idiotic. The Rams were already at an advantage in the Los Angeles area since they would have a pre-established fanbase from decades before, on top of the fact that the Rams would get a year-long head start tapping into the new market who wasn’t around during the first Rams stint in LA. The Chargers would be playing catch up from day one.
But, the owners put aside their skepticism last year when they allowed the Chargers to have a one year option of moving as part of the Rams’ relocation vote. Maybe they were hopeful that the nation’s second largest metropolitan area would be able to fill the demand that two NFL teams requires. Maybe they were fueled by the idea of getting their share of the $645 million relocation fee, of which each NFL team besides the two LA teams will get over $21 million. Maybe they were excited about the idea of the proposed joint Inglewood Stadium, which will undoubtedly be a sports and entertainment mecca. Whatever their reasoning, they voted to allow two teams to travel to Los Angeles.
Now, this week, the regret seemed to begin to sink in. Reports started to roll in that the NFL was “discouraged” by what they saw in Los Angeles this past weekend. That’s putting it kindly. Reports are also coming out that some people in the league office are already trying to come up with the next steps, including the potential idea of taking the Chargers out of LA.
So, what’s the solution to the Chargers’ woes in Los Angeles? There’s no ideal answer, and no matter what happens, this will be a huge failure on the part of the league. Here are the options:
- The Chargers stay in LA. This would certainly be the best way for the NFL to save face, and would be ideal for everyone involved, but it seems clear that this is extremely unlikely to work out. If the attendance numbers continue to look like this, the NFL will have absolutely no choice but to announce changes after a season or two.
- The Chargers move back to San Diego. I’d argue that this scenario is actually more likely than the Chargers staying. Roger Goodell never wanted the Chargers to leave San Diego, and even offered to give the city a Super Bowl if they built a new stadium for the Bolts. The biggest issue? San Diego lost their team for a reason. They posted the second lowest attendance numbers in the NFL last season, and got punished for it (as did the lowest attended team, the Raiders, who will move to Las Vegas in the near future). Not to mention that the people of San Diego haven’t exactly taken kindly to their team leaving, as should be expected with any relocation. The Chargers would have an uphill battle to reestablish themselves and try to regain the trust of the city. However, if the San Diego government can get plans together for a new stadium, this isn’t unlikely.
- The Chargers relocate elsewhere, even outside of the US. This would likely be the most costly move of the three, with money already being poured into LA, and money previously poured into San Diego. But, there’s one option that the league would be happy about and that would be more cost-effective for the Chargers: London. The NFL has long talked about putting a franchise on the other side of the pond, and even enacted a goal of potentially getting a team to England by 2022, which is now only five years away. The league has also invested millions into several venues and facilities in the city, and even has plans in place to potentially create a ‘home base’ of sorts for a London team in the southeast of the US to help give the team a home in the states. Of course, there’s still plenty of issues that would need to be worked out with this plan, but it’s not out of the question.
While we’re at least a season or two away from truly knowing the results of the LA project, the league knows after just two weeks that they have a huge problem on their hands. We’ll just have to let this one play out and see what happens.
