Bonsignore tweets: Chargers may rebrand if they move to LA

PA Ram wrote:

Let’s see:

The Los Angeles Stars?

The Los Angeles Freeways?

The Los Angeles Quakes?

The Los Angeles Smogs?

This kinda sucks. I think it was terrible that the Oilers erased their history by rebranding. As a fan–I hate it. I think it sucks if the Chargers do it was well. It essentially becomes an expansion team. I know we’ve all heard the rumors before when the Rams were moving about them becoming the Stallions or some such thing. No. That’s just wrong.

Move the team. Keep the brand.

Rebranding screws over all the loyal fans in San Diego who might remain fans plus the nomads across the country who didn’t care where they played anyway. It also cuts the historical ties to all time great players like Dan Fouts and Lance Alworth.

Terrible short-sighted move.

InvaderRam wrote:

as a fan i would have been very confused if the rams had rebranded. i don’t think it’s a good idea. it’s not even like they’re moving to another region. there are a lot of chargers fans in the southern california region. i wonder if this will turn people off. does the younger fan base care or do they gravitate to the new team they can call their own?

From Spanos’ standpoint, he’s coming into a city that already has an established team with deep historical ties to the region with a stadium that surpasses any venue on the planet. And he won’t be getting his own super stadium – he’ll have to lease office and athletic space from the established team and use his rival’s stadium. Like the Jets using the Giant’s stadium. It’s not an optimal situation for Spanos. He may feel he needs to do something that will quickly establish a competitive fanbase.

If they rebrand, they make themselves an LA team, not an existing team that just happened to relocate to LA.

Of course, it hasn’t been established that they will rebrand. It’s just a consideration at this point.

sanbagger wrote:

nittany ram wrote:

sanbagger wrote:

I’m not so sure I would have remained a fan if the Rams rebranded when they left Cali all those years a go…and I don’t have any ties to Cali.

I can tell you I would definitely NOT remain a fan if the Rams rebranded. I probably would not remain a fan if they kept the name but got rid of the horns.

See what I mean? Why would they want to alienate these fans? I could understand a little more if it was, say a cross country move and those fans wouldn’t be spending much at the games…but this move isn’t very far and the die-hards will still make the trip IMO.

Yeah, it seems short-sighted to me. Spanos must see a lot of untapped potential among the Angelinos. In other words he must think there are a bunch of LA football fans who have no real rooting interest in the Rams or Chargers right now, and he wants to capture them. He’s probably right about that but I still think it’s a mistake to screw over existing fans for fans you don’t even have yet. He could also build up/promote the existing brand to capture those fans.