In the early days of MLS, some teams opted to play in NFL stadiums while they secured their own soccer-specific venues. Today, in an ironic twist, an NFL team announces they’ll be playing in an MLS stadium while their new home is being built.
The National Football League officially announced the relocation of the San Diego Chargers to Los Angeles on Thursday morning, and while the Chargers will keep their moniker, with a widely panned new logo, they’ll need a temporary home while their shared stadium with the Los Angeles Rams is being built. Shortly after the relocation announcement, the Chargers announced that the LA Galaxy’s StubHub Center would serve as their home venue for the 2017 and 2018 NFL seasons.
“We are excited to welcome the Chargers to StubHub Center,” said AEG President and CEO Dan Beckerman. “This is a world-class facility that will give fans and our community a unique and intimate experience during NFL games.
“We’ve had a longstanding friendship with the Chargers and the Spanos family and I would like to commend the Chargers on this bold and innovative decision to move to StubHub Center. It is truly a testament to how strongly the Chargers feel about the fan experience and their willingness to create something special for people in Southern California.”
The soccer-specific stadium is tiny compared to most NFL stadiums, holding only 27,000 at maximum capacity, coming in at less than half the capacity of the next-smallest stadium, the Oakland Coliseum at 56,000. While the Chargers will surely be displeased with the 2017-18 digs, the Galaxy and Major League Soccer have even more of a right to gripe. In addition to possible field damage during the course of an NFL match, the NFL’s Sunday-focused schedule could pose issues for the league’s attempt to get the Galaxy on their national Sunday broadcasts. With the MLS schedule set to release Thursday as well, it’ll be interesting to see whether the league potentially planned for this situation.
The Chargers move after 56 years in the San Diego area has been met with significant backlash from local fans and has been heavily-criticized league-wide. The new shared home with the Rams, Los Angeles Stadium and Entertainment District at Hollywood Park, is expected to complete construction in August 2019.
Garber wants to be the NFL. This is the closest he’ll come to it.
to be fair…he did spend 16 years with the NFL. ended as SVP of essentially their international arm…including the awful NFL Europe League.
Installation of field turf will be the next announcement.
i’m sure the money was enticing. and their might be some petty joy from letting the NFL team be the second tenant (cabrito yes lol). but it’s a bad move. the nfl guys will tear up the pitch, as mentioned, above. what are they going to do? roll out fresh sod after every home chargers game???
pretty crazy…and to think everyone laughed in January 2016 and December 2015 when this was originally reported.
Fall 2017 is going to be interesting in Los Angeles…
I’m sure they are already looking at expanding the seating capacity. That grass hill could hold quite a few more people. If the Gals want to keep up with Seattle and TFC, they’ll need expanded capacity anyways.
No way the Chargers would pay for an expansion for a stay of only 2 years. Did I mention that their owner is a penny pinching idiot?
Galaxy should insist on leaving soccer lines on the field for Charger games.
Oh…… LA……. FC.
Safe to say not many will be making the trek from San Diego. Not many LA based Charger fans. Excepting the opposition bringing in fans- filling 27,000 may be optimistic for those coming to see the Bolts.
Bad news? This is great news. I can’t wait to see chargers vs raiders here. Woohoo!
I don’t like the fact that the are moving an iconic San Diego team that has been there for 56 years to LA where fans don’t show up. USC outdrew the NFL when they were there last.
I consider myself an avid football fan: Unfortunately, San Diego hasn’t been iconic for about 40 years, if that is even considered a time they were. Don’t get me wrong. I love their jerseys, and from a historical perspective, I appreciate what the Air Coryell-era did for football, but the San Diego residents I’ve met in my lifetime couldn’t care less about the team.
That city is too beautiful, too much to do outside and there’s too many military transplants to have any deep connection with the team. Perhaps that’s why they’re moving in the end. Not a fan of the move to LA, but I certainly don’t blame the team from a stadium structure viewpoint or attendance (without looking, always looked less than sold out for decades).
Old School. You should not reach conclusions about something you don’t know. The fan base is there, but the ownership has been awful and greedy. The citizens of San Diego are tired of paying hundreds of millions to billionaire owners for subsidizing new stadiums so they can profit even more than before. They Chargers don’t lose money and probably haven’t in the last 50 years. They have gotten the City to fund two expansions of the stadium, got the City to pay a seat guarantee fee and bled the City out of a lot of money. They wanted a new stadium so they could make more money through luxury boxes and seat licenses. Like most professional sports, this is all about billionaire greed and subsidizing the super rich by the ordinary citizens and those ordinary citizens got tired of doing that. It didn’t help that management has been totally inept, firing the last good coach and hiring a lot of bad ones since. Likewise they have made some bad choices for GM and the Chargers are almost always the last team to sign their first round draft choice because they don’t want to pay them the going rate. A top sports writer in LA has already declared that they don’t want the Chargers.
Gary,
Yea, I’m speaking as a non-San Diego resident. I wouldn’t know much other than the anecdotes I provided. I’m curious, though: “the last good coach” you’re referring to – is that Marty Schottenheimer? I ask, because he was the coach of my hometown team for over a decade growing up and one of my favorites.
Appreciate the response aside from the: “A top sports writer in LA has already declared that they don’t want the Chargers.” No one cares what those pompous idiots think and even less people support the idea of LA having two teams, let alone one after their previous failures. He should appreciate the additional work coming to his horrible sports town.
I guess I just don’t understand why they need to play at the Stub Hub and not in Pasadena. I get why they won’t play at the Coliseum because it is too hard to share with the Rams and USC but why not the Rose Bowl were the only tenant is UCLA. Or am I missing something.
Maybe because Dean Spanos, the Chargers owner, is a penny pinching idiot. He probably expects the Chargers won’t draw well, especially since they have a lousy team right now, with no coach, and he is looking for cheaper rent.
The Rosebowl announced sometime last year I think they would not accept NFL and were fine hosting UCLA and concerts. The Coliseum rejected them as well. StubHub was probably their 3rd choice.
Pasadena does not want the NFL. It has come up numerous times and is always shot down quickly.
So much for SSS. This is bad news.