As NFL owners prepare to meet in Chicago to discuss the inevitable return of pro football to Los Angeles (sorry, L.A. Kiss, but you’ve had two years to prove that you’re playing pro football -- and you’re not), it’s looking less and less likely that pro football will stay in San Diego.
Via Kevin Acee of U-T San Diego, local politicians have “all but abandoned” hope of working out a deal with the Chargers in 2015.
And so the Chargers will continue to pursue options in Los Angeles, with San Diego becoming the Plan B.
But if two teams are going to move to L.A., it’s hard to imagine the Chargers not being one of them. And if the Chargers aren’t going to move to L.A., it’s hard to imagine the Chargers tolerating the Raiders and Rams moving right down the road, 20 years after both franchises left the region.
Still, without significant taxpayer money, it will be difficult if not impossible to pay for two different stadiums for two different teams in Southern California. So it will be two teams in L.A. (more likely) or two in San Diego (highly unlikely).
That’s the simplest way to look at this. A new stadium won’t be built in L.A. unless two teams play there, and cramming three teams into a region that has had only one for two decades will be a tough sell -- especially with no blackout rule to cajole fans to buy tickets.
