Chargers to stay in San Diego for 2016 Season

Polarizing Chargers owner Dean Spanos today issued a statement addressed to fans, declaring his commitment to San Diego and determination to keep the Chargers in the city they have called home for 55 years.

This letter of assurance comes with news that the Chargers will spend at least one more season in San Diego, despite the allure of shacking up with Stan Kroenke and the Los Angeles Rams in Inglewood.

The letter, in its entirety, reads as follows:

Dear Chargers Fans,

Today I decided our team will stay in San Diego for the 2016 season and I hope for the long term in a new stadium.

I have met with Mayor Faulconer and Supervisor Roberts and I look forward to working closely with them and the business community to resolve our stadium dilemma. We have an option and an agreement with the Los Angeles Rams to go to Inglewood in the next year, but my focus is on San Diego.

This has been our home for 55 years, and I want to keep the team here and provide the world-class stadium experience you deserve.

Everyone on both sides of the table in San Diego must now determine the best next steps and how to deploy the additional resources provided by the NFL.

I am committed to looking at this with a fresh perspective and new sense of possibility.

With deep appreciation for your years of support,

Dean A. Spanos

Chairman

The document doesn’t exactly do a great job of allaying fears that the Chargers will jump ship as soon as the following NFL season is over. Spanos may be saying all the right things, but it is those same false assurances that fans expect will be the end of the team’s stay in San Diego in the first place.

Spanos claims to “resolve” his “stadium dilemma”, but with no evidence that the city will agree to his demands. And while it is Kroenke who owns the land on which to build a state-of-the-art stadium in LA, the deal remains open for Spanos to also occupy the building, either as a tenant or co-owner.

Frankly, the “world-class stadium experience” Chargers fans deserve is not currently a viable one in San Diego. The outdated, dilapidated and poorly attended Qualcomm Stadium simply cannot compete with the concept designs in Inglewood, and to tell diehard fans of the franchise otherwise is nothing short of patronising.

A bulk of the work regarding the Chargers’ future will be done behind closed doors, but it’s hard to see Chargers fans forking out more money to feed Spanos’ wealth when the outcome of their team’s future seems inevitable.