'Los Angeles Chargers' Could Be Playing In Coliseum In 2012
We were the first in L.A. to echo reports that the San Diego Chargers might be coming to the City of Angels
NFL Welcome, all.
Now the Los Angeles Times T.J. Simers does the math and argues that not only are the NFL's Chargers likely to to come to town, but they could do so by 2012 and play in the old L.A. Coliseum until Anschutz Entertainment Group's proposed downtown stadium is ready for kickoff.
In order to keep the team, San Diego would need to firm up language for a local ballot measure authorizing a new, taxpayer-funded stadium by next year, and Simers writes that this is unlikely.
(As you well know, L.A., for the most part, isn't in favor of using the public dime to finance a billionaires' game either, but AEG honcho Tim Leiweke has vowed -- right here to the Weekly -- that not once cent of your tax money would go toward his $1 billion stadium next to LA Live and Staples Center).
Moreover, Simers argues San Diego has always been an awkward NFL town:
San Diego has never really embraced the Spanos family, more affectionately known in this space as the Spanos Goofs. The Chargers have failed to sell out home games, leading to local TV blackouts, and management more often than not comes across as a dictatorship exhibiting poor judgment than as a community asset.
Simers note that the Chargers could return to where they began, as the Los Angeles Chargers at the Coliseum -- in the year 1960.
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