In their Los Angeles venture, did Chargers owner Dean Spanos and his NFL enablers bite off more than they could chew, moving a football team to a dense sports market where it wasn't wanted?
It's a popular narrative in San Diego, and one that gained more support Thursday with fresh financial details reported by ESPN's Seth Wickersham and Don Van Natta Jr., whose lengthy story on the uneasy Chargers-Rams marriage is a colorful read.
For instance, the Chargers have sold "a weak 25,000 seasons tickets to date" toward the 2020 season and the 70,000-seat Inglewood Stadium that's to open next summer. Related, Spanos and COO Jeanne Bonk decided last year to slash prices on 26,000 upper-deck tickets and seat licenses by as much as 15 times less than what the Rams were charging for the same seats.
Wickersham and Van Natta report Chargers revenues in 2018 were 30th in the 32-team NFL, one spot below their final year in San Diego, and now stand 31st. In addition, the $2.3 million the Chargers spent on Facebook ads marketing their goofy "Fight For L.A.!" slogan didn't move the needle. Heading of the "Fight for LA.!" project was Dean's son, USC-educated A.G. Spanos, head of business operations.
With a price tag NFL officials say could reach $6 billion, the Kroenke Dome project in Inglewood, not an easy place to reach, is touted as a pleasure dome that will win over skeptical Angelenos.
But the inescapable conclusion is that the Chargers' short-term cash flow, soon to be crimped further by annual financed payments of some $65 million on the relocation fee _ money which, in a delicious bit of irony, could go to St. Louis litigants fighting Stan Kroenke's relocation of the Rams _ reflects huge underachievement in the country's second-largest market.
To which many San Diegans are saying, well, Dean, Roger and Jerry ... what'd you expect?
