Chargers Chair Dean Spanos was "desperately trying to find a way to keep his team in San Diego before finally, abruptly deciding he could not," according to the SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE's Kevin Acee, who wrote under the header, "Chargers' Curious, Shocking End." Acee in the story examined the Chargers' final days in San Diego, "pieced together from accounts by sources" in San Diego, L.A., N.Y. and "places in between." Spanos' "quick denouement of the Chargers' 56 years in San Diego blindsided" Chargers Special Adviser Fred Maas. Maas: "As of Tuesday [Jan. 10], I was hopeful we could consummate a deal to keep the team here and was making plans and provision to do just that. But at the end of the day, these were high-stakes games with a lot of risk." Meanwhile, two sources who had spoken with NFL officials said that the league "maintained it could have gotten a deal done to help the Chargers remain in San Diego if given a few more days." Acee wrote the relocation is "an idea few people in the NFL think is a good one and that some fear could be a disaster for a proud family that could ultimately be undone by the inapt pride of its substitute patriarch." Spanos by relocating the team "did something many who know him felt was highly uncharacteristic." But how he arrived at the decision was "entirely within his disposition" in that he was "fed up, and he walked away." There was a "late push by the Chargers to cobble together more money to finance a smaller stadium" in San Diego "built without public funds." A source said that the money "would have come from 'a variety of sources.'" The team had "begun exploration on cost and was investigating whether the NFL would even allow a scaled-down stadium." Multiple sources said that the Chargers as of Jan. 10 were "waiting to hear back from the NFL regarding additional funding." When the owners on the stadium and finance committees "did not address the Chargers’ situation at their Jan. 11 meeting" in N.Y., Spanos "concluded he was being strung along and was no longer willing to wait on help that he feared would never come" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 1/21).
OWNERS ANGERED: In San Diego, Mark Zeigler wrote NFL owners "won't discourage" the Spanoses if they were to express a desire to sell the Chargers. It is becoming "increasingly clear that the NFL has grown weary of Spanos and his logo changes." He "impulsively" exercised his option to move the team to L.A. "against what appears to be the league's wishes." He also did so "without waiting it out for a new stadium in San Diego, without consulting the major players, without the Don’s blessing." He has "become a pariah" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 1/22). ESPN.com's Adam Schefter reported the decision to move the team "angered NFL executives and owners." A source said the league has been "besides itself." One source said, "There are a ton of owners very upset that (the Chargers) moved." The source added that the NFL "wants the Chargers to move back, though nobody believes that possibility is realistic" (ESPN.com, 1/20).
COMPANY LINE: Chargers President of Football Operations John Spanos said, "We’re full steam ahead for this next opportunity, and we’re excited about it. And I think we have a great chance to win up here." He added, "L.A. is a great market. It’s powerful, unique and it’s not easy. There’s a lot of competition and we knew that. So we’re really going to have to work hard and ingratiate ourselves into the community. This franchise has a really rich tradition of being involved in the community and doing a lot of good work in the community. That’s one aspect of how we get embedded in the community. And then I think obviously our performance on the field is going to play a big role" (ESPN.com, 1/20). But in San Diego, Nick Canepa wrote the Chargers "botched this opening to the point that they now are Hollywood slapstick legends" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 1/22).
