It's a day of mixed emotions here in San Diego County (I live about 30 miles north on the coast)... after 15 years of talking about it, the Chargers are leaving... I moved here in 1987 and went to 1st Chargers game that fall (Fouts vs. Elway) and have been a fan ever since (I didn't have a particularly strong fan feeling prior to that for any NFL team and instead rooted for individual players who grew up or went to college in my home town)...
Until now... I can't continue being a Chargers fan because of the opposite of good faith efforts by the Spanos family, unwillingness to even sit down and negotiate, unwillingness to even consider any deal that didn't put the stadium in the heart of downtown (where there is already a severe traffic and parking problem), and financed such that the Spanos wouldn't have to pay more than $200 million out of their own pockets on a $1.3 billion stadium -- let me repeat that: they wouldn't even consider any deal that didn't have the stadium downtown and refused to consider any deal where the Spanos had to kick in more than 15 cents of every construction/development dollar from their own pockets... They wanted the league and taxpayers to pay 85% of a new stadium downtown, period -- not negotiable apparently...
The city offered them a 99 year lease for $99 for the current site that includes 166 acres that the city pre-approved options to build a new stadium there and that allowed Spanos to develop all 166 acres, filling it out with residential and commercial developments that Spanos family would also collect profits from on a $1/yr. lease...
Not to mention the current 166-acre location is next to a major E-W freeway, a couple miles from major N-S freeways, and a light rail station right at the stadium -- infrastructure already in place.
OK, that's all history now... I'm also feeling a sense of relief today -- this entire circus is finally over... it has been endlessly discussed for far too many years and finally ends today and won't have to think about it or have it dominate local news endlessly...
The fact that Spanos informed everyone -- fans in particular, but also civic leaders and others who'd spent countless hours over the years trying to work a deal -- with a letter to the league and no phone calls to civic leaders or anyone for that matter... speaks volumes about how little the Spanos care about burning bridges, etc. and demonstrates their complete lack of civility and refusal to work with the public and civic leaders -- it is consistent with the feeling that Spanos doesn't give a crap about anything but spending other people's money to line his own pockets... not quite as bad as some teams that literally packed their bags and left without warning in the middle of the night (like the original Cleveland Browns, now Ravens, did).
I'm not going to throw out all of my Chargers fan gear... I'll probably keep my Tomlinson jersey, but that's it... all other clothing, hats etc. I'll donate to Goodwill or DAV... for probably the next 4-6 years at least, I'm a Steelers' fan... in general, though, I'm less of an NFL fan in general now than I've ever been in my life -- just losing interest... |
