The San Diego Chargers announced yesterday that they will be playing in San Diego next season. Owner Dean Spanos reiterated the team’s desire to stay in San Diego and said he and his family are meeting with city leaders in an attempt to solve the stadium issue with the city. The NFL has pledged $100 million dollars toward a stadium project in San Diego. That along with the Chargers using some of their relocation fee and the tax payers stepping up might be enough to keep the Bolts in town.
The Raiders on the other hand are in limbo. There have been no talks in Oakland regarding a new stadium. The lack of interest to build a new stadium has prompted owner Mark Davis to explore other options including San Antonio, Los Angeles and most recently, Las Vegas. The league wants the Raiders to stay in Oakland and is willing to give them $100 million as well but it doesn’t appear that the city is willing to build them a new stadium. There’s a good chance the Raiders play in Oakland this season and move back to Los Angeles in 2017.
The NFL is too blame for some of these stadium issues. The league is a monster and smaller markets like San Diego and Oakland can’t afford a team. They can’t build new stadiums, the cities just don’t have the money. The fans in each respective city want the teams to stay but the product is not good so it’s hard to justify shelling out millions of dollars to keep teams that don’t win or bring in enough money.
That being said, I still think the NFL needs to find a way to keep the Chargers in San Diego and the Raiders in Oakland. It’s what’s best for the league in terms of stability. The owners got what they wanted with Los Angeles. The Rams are back and the owners will make more money. They don’t need another team there. One is enough. As far as San Antonio and Las Vegas, the league doesn’t see either city as viable. Both are small markets and the NFL wants to stay away from small markets.
It’ll be interesting to see how things play out. Either way you look at it, the situation in San Diego and Oakland needs to be resolved by the end of this year. The cities, teams and the league need to figure it out. Staying put would be best for all parties involved. Relocation is never the answer. I’m just saying.