NFL: Unlikely league returns to San Diego if Chargers leave
The NFL said that if the San Diego Chargers relocate that there is very little chance the league would return to the city with a franchise.
The Chargers have been trying to get a stadium built in the city, but an advisory group moved back its timetable for announcing its financing plan for a $1.7 billion stadium for the Chargers and Oakland Raiders in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson.
San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer said the city is considering a downtown site for the new stadium, but that the city will also focus on the site where Qualcomm Stadium currently stands.
The Chargers have played at Qualcomm Stadium since 1967.
“I think San Diego is a great city, ... [but] it's a low-probability bet for any market to attract a team when expansion isn't on the table," Eric Grubman, the NFL's executive vice president, said to the San Diego Union-Tribune. "If you have a team, you should do everything to keep it because the backfill is a low probability. San Diego-specific, is it a low probability if there are already two teams nearby?”
Grubman said that the chances of the NFL returning to Los Angeles after a more than two-decade absence is "above 50 percent."
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The St. Louis Rams have also been identified as a candidate for Los Angeles relocation. Rams owner Stan Kroenke is part of a development group planning to build an 80,000-seat stadium in Inglewood, about 10 miles from downtown Los Angeles.
Those plans also include a 6,000-seat performance venue as well as retail, office, hotel and residential space next to the Hollywood Park site.
- Scooby Axson
