Now I'm not one to gossip, but... I have suspicion to believe that the Los Angeles Chargers are set to relocate...again…
In 2017, the Chargers made the big move to Los Angeles from San Diego as part of a joint relocation agreement with the now Los Angeles Rams (formerly St. Louis Rams) to share the state of the art SoFi Stadium. SoFi Stadium is still being built, so the Los Angeles Chargers have been playing their home games at the Stub Hub Center, which is the home stadium of the Major League Soccer franchise the LA Galaxy.
There in starts the problem that the Chargers are currently facing. They play in a Major League Soccer stadium and struggle to sell it out. No disrespect to Major League Soccer, but as an NFL Team, it is pitiful they can’t sell out a damn soccer stadium. Former Charger, now Broncos Running back, Melvin Gordon had choice words when asked about the Chargers fan base and support during an interview with Marcus Cromartie…“Bro, we didn’t have fans anyway. I’ll be honest, we didn’t have any Charger fans at the game. Much loyalty and love, but we didn’t have many, so I’m not missing anything."
Oofta. That’s a lot to take in. I did some research on just how dismal Chargers games must be and found the Chargers were dead last in attendance this past season. They also have been dead last in average attendance since 2017. As the 32nd team in attendance in 2020, they averaged 31,750 people, while the 31st team in the NFL (Cincinnati Bengals) averaged 47,179 people. That’s an astonishing 15,429 less people. Even before they moved to LA, their attendance in San Diego wasn’t great. Yikes. Let’s also not forget that the Chargers play in the second most populated city in America (Los Angeles). Double yikes. Even at this year's virtual draft, Chargers fans were few and far between as they had trouble filling the TV monitors displayed behind Roger Godell as he announced this year's LA Chargers draft selections. Triple yikes. To make matters worse the Chargers still have yet to move into SoFi Stadium, a 70,240 seat stadium that as of right now wouldn’t even be half full for a Chargers game. Quadruple yikes.
It was also just announced that this year’s HBO “Hard Knocks” season will feature both the LA Chargers and the LA Rams. Their reasoning is because they are both LA teams, when personally I see the reasoning behind this move is because even the NFL knows that no one will watch a Chargers exclusive season. Their own fans didn’t even watch them draft their franchise QB, what makes you think they’ll watch a TV series chronicling how dismal they are as a franchise? At least the Rams draw money and fans and will get viewership. Quadriple yikes.
Rumor time… a couple days ago I came across a picture of an LA Chargers airplane in a.... ST. LOUIS AIRPORT! Let’s go!
I think this would be a very smart move on the Chargers part to get out of the west coast that obviously doesn’t support the team. I think the best destination to go from LA would be St. Louis, a city that had their team ripped right out from under them. It might actually be the second best decision the Chargers franchise would ever make (the best being the drafting of Justin Herbert).
One thing the XFL showed the football world is that St. Louis is a football town. The XFL showed that St. Louis wants professional football back in their city. St. Louis showed the football world that they weren’t going to make the same mistake they did with the Rams and take having a pro team for granted because those St. Louis Battlehawks games were always packed and had a terrific following and fan base. The city of St. Louis would no doubt do the same thing, if not go to the next level of support, for an NFL resurgence in their city.
With a brand new franchise QB taken 6th overall in this year’s NFL Draft in Justin Herbert, the Chargers need to figure something out. They need to figure out not just how to get asses in seats, but they need to figure out how to get Charger’s fans' asses into seats. Personally, the only way I think they could do that is making the move to St. Louis and packing the Edward Jones Dome to the roof. Not to mention the St. Louis Chargers sounds really good.
Again, these are just rumors and speculation, but I want the St. Louis Chargers to happen… for Justin Herbert’s sake.
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