Dean Spanos wants to keep the Chargers in San Diego. He raised his family here. He would be unhappy in Los Angeles as a tenant to Stan Kroenke.
If you believe all this (and I do), there’s only one conclusion possible.
The Chargers are playing a massive game of chicken with San Diego and the NFL.
For more than a year, the Chargers have made it explicitly and painfully clear that, if needed, they’re ready to pack the moving trucks and head to Los Angeles.
Chargers fans don’t want to see them go. Most San Diego politicians don’t want to see them go. Even powerful factions inside the NFL, including Commissioner Roger Goodell, don’t want to see them go.
Fans have made their pleas. Politicians have put together a last-ditch regional financing framework for a stadium. And there are whispers coming from the NFL about possibly coming up with a plan to help make it happen.
The Chargers, though, are playing it cool. They don’t want to be the first player to blink.
Bleacher Report’s Jason Cole spelled it out on Twitter:
Source: #Chargers have NOT asked #NFL for an extension on their deadline for LA decision & have NOT asked NFL for more $ for an SD stadium
— Jason Cole (@JasonColeBR) January 5, 2017
The game of chicken is on. Here’s how I see it:
Dean Spanos doesn’t want be the NFL owner who goes around the room with hat in hand, asking powerful men (and a couple of women), to help him build a stadium. He wants the NFL to ask him to stay in San Diego for the good of the league, chipping in some extra money in the process – possibly the extra $100 million owners promised for a stadium solution in Oakland. That’s extra money the Raiders won’t be getting if they’re approved to move to Las Vegas.
It doesn’t take long to see how this game can backfire, though. If some powerful owners decide San Diego isn’t work the extra time or money, they can make Spanos put his cards on the table…and the Chargers could be forced to take the Kroenke option in Inglewood.
And once again, CHARGERS WATCH continues.
