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Chargers Moving To L.A. Could Have Lasting Effect On Other Teams' Leverage For Stadiums

NFL owners "shouldn’t have been too surprised" that Chargers Chair Dean Spanos moved his team to L.A., but there likely are a "faction of owners and executives ... upset with Spanos," according to Ben Volin of the BOSTON GLOBE. By moving to L.A., he "ruined the league’s leverage for getting stadiums or upgrades in other NFL cities." There are not "many other potential cities for NFL teams to use as a threat of relocation to get public dollars for stadiums" (BOSTON GLOBE, 1/29). Meanwhile, Chargers RB Melvin Gordon said he did not feel like the team is "going to lose everyone in San Diego" as fans. He said, "I really don't think of it like that. I just think of it as we're on a break -- like a relationship. You know? But she'll be back and we will be back. We will be back together." He added, "You feel for them, but it's out of our control. As players, we can't do anything about it" (ESPN.com, 1/27). In San Diego, David Garrick wrote under the header, "How The Stadium Effort Unraveled Over 15 Years." San Diego County Supervisor Ron Roberts said, "It's easy to look back at what happened and think what could we have done differently. There's a whole lot of things that happened, and I think that makes it more disappointing" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 1/29).

COVERAGE AUDIBLE: In San Diego, Kevin Acee wrote the Union-Tribune "won't be devoting the voluminous resources to the Chargers" that it has in years past. Union-Tribune Sports Editor Jay Posner said, "We are not going to stop covering the Chargers. I think that would be foolish. I don't think all our readers are going to stop being interested in the Chargers -- even if it's from a hoping-for-the-worst standpoint." Posner: "They are still the closest team to us in the country's biggest sport and they have a 56 year-history that not everyone is going to forget. I certainly get some people don't want to read another word about them, but my experience tells us that some do. If I'm wrong, we’ll make changes." He added, "We need to find the sweet spot in terms of how much interest there is" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 1/29).

HERE TO CONSOLE YOU: Padres Exec Chair Ron Fowler said his team would have rather seen the Chargers stay in San Diego "because we think it’s better" for the city. Fowler said in response to the Chargers leaving, the Padres are "going to do exactly what we’ve done, which is to go aggressively after the sports entertainment dollar." He said, "We would’ve done it with the Chargers here and we’re going to do it now." Padres co-Owner Peter Seidler: "I’ve looked at this, and I think it’s impossible to analyze. There’ve been cities with two or three professional sports teams, and one left and the other two teams have been better or worse. I think even when they perform better, in some cases they’ve done worse, and my view of that is because there’s been a little bit of a sports doom that’s kind of hovered over a particular city with a team leaving" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 1/29). ESPN.com's James Walker noted the Padres are "encouraging fans to retire their Chargers gear for good." The team is "offering a $25 credit in the Padres team store in exchange for one item of Chargers apparel in good condition through May 4." (ESPN.com, 1/27).

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