London would treat Chargers better, but move shouldn’t happen

A recent report suggested the Los Angeles Chargers were mulling a move to London but that move across the pond can’t happen, even if fans would buy in.

The Athletic has reported that the Los Angeles Chargers were considering moving to London, a report that was vehemently shot down by owner Dean Spanos, via the LA Times. While the London crowd would certainly treat the Chargers better than the Los Angeles “crowd”, it doesn’t mean they should move there.

The Chargers never have much of a home-field advantage. The team had a good fanbase in San Diego and the move to Los Angeles absolutely crippled the team’s home support. It was a move that was met with overwhelming negativity, not just in San Diego, but by football fans across the country.

Yes, technically Los Angeles was the Chargers’ original home when they started as an original AFL franchise in 1960. However, they lasted one year there. From 1961-2017 they called San Diego home, and that’s what everyone got used to. It’s to the point that saying “Los Angeles Chargers” out loud rolls off the tongue and hits the ear wrong.

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TV analysts and commentators constantly slip up and say “San Diego” when talking about them,  and it’s even becoming a running gag that each announcer gets one “San Diego slip up” per game.

There was no need for Los Angeles to have two teams, despite the market size, especially if they were going to stick one (the Los Angeles Rams) in the massive Los Angeles Coliseum and the other in a significantly smaller soccer stadium in the Dignity Health Sports Park in nearby Carson, CA.

It’s not like the other city with two franchises in New York that has rabid fanbases — LA is a transplant city whose inhabitants are drawn more to the Rams (who were there from 1946-94 before moving to St. Louis and back to LA in 2016) and leftover Oakland Raiders (and future Las Vegas) fans who were there from 1982-94.

Due to the stadium difference, the Chargers still absolutely got the short end of the stick. This has caused the Chargers to seemingly play every matchup as an away game, the disowned football child of LA.

Not only that, Dignity Health Sports Park’s capacity is only 27,000. The NFL minimum since 1971 is 50,000 fan capacity. Granted the minimum gets waived when stadiums are temporary, but for reference, the Los Angeles Coliseum that hosts the Rams holds 78,500, which is fifth-most in the NFL.

Now, perhaps when the splendiferous SoFi Stadium opens next season that’ll host both the Rams and Chargers, that will help with the home-field advantage problem. It’s also just as likely, if not more so, that the billion-dollar stadium will just serve as an even bigger tourist attraction for opposing fans to come to see, and by proxy, take over when the bolts are playing.

Conversely, fans across the pond are infected with football fever and the new great American past-time is growing in popularity every year with every game that is played there. Some have joked that the English fans have adopted the Jacksonville Jaguars as “their team”, due to always playing a game there. But surely they would do the same with the Chargers, since they would be thrilled to even have a team to call their own.

It’s even better that it would be a team that’s as talented and well-coached as the Chargers thanks to Anthony Lynn, who really doesn’t get the credit he deserves for doing what he is with the franchise’s shortcomings.

Obviously, there would be a plethora of logistical problems with the move. For starters, the NFL would no longer be the “National” Football League, but technically the “International” Football League, and it’s hard to imagine everyone adopting the new “IFL”.

Then, of course, there’s the obvious problem with travel, which would give the Chargers and even bigger disadvantage they’re already at due to constant cross-continental travel and jet lag. Good luck getting free agents to move to London.

Realistically, the only time an NFL team will move to London will most likely be in franchise mode in Madden. If the Chargers move anywhere, it should just be back to San Diego. The NFL (not IFL) needs to step in and pitch in to help with stadium upgrades in the name of fan happiness and, in all honesty, competitiveness, because this constant away game feel is getting ridiculous.

Wishful thinking? Absolutely. However if a conversation is started regarding the Chargers moving, it has to start and end, for that matter, with San Diego. Otherwise, we’re all just going to have to suck it up and bolt up.