The “Fight For L.A.” is fairly lopsided at this point, leaving plenty of people wondering how long to let it go on.
According to Seth Wickersham of ESPN.com, the depth of the team’s struggles has been a topic among owners at this week’s league meeting, though not yet an official item of business on the league’s agenda.
The Chargers are playing in the 30,000-seat StubHub Center at the moment, which cuts into their ticket revenue. But it’s their viability as a tenant at the under-construction Inglewood stadium that’s the bigger concern.
Sources told Wickersham the Chargers plan to revise their revenue goals from $400 million to $150 million, a reflection of the difficulty of selling PSLs for two teams to a market that did without football for two decades.
Naturally, commissioner Roger Goodell had nothing but praise for the Inglewood project, because that’s what he does.
“Lots of football, lots of building still to do,” Goodell said. “And frankly, we were out of the market for a long time, and we have to earn our way back with our fans. We have to build that relationship back with our fans and make sure that we do it right. Both teams are committed to that. It will be something that we have to work at over a period of time. They both have very exciting young teams, and I think that will be helpful also. But I think all of those things will come together over the next two years. That’s the work that needs to be done.”
The Chargers aren’t that bad at football, so that’s not an excuse, even if they’re not as good at it as the Rams right now. It raises a valid question of whether they should have ever left San Diego, and whether they could end up there again some day — or become the team the league uses to leverage new buildings out of other markets.