NFL wants Chargers in SD.

I don’t think Spanos had much choice. Or felt he didn’t, anyway. Things were unfolding for him in a Worst Case Scenario type of way. For 21 years, the Chargers were the only team in Southern California. And it was going to be bad for him if the Rams moved back. And it would be bad for him if the Raiders moved back. And it would be really, really bad for him if the Rams AND Raiders moved back with a new stadium. Especially if he doesn’t get a new stadium of his own.

And that’s the scenario that he was looking at. Not one, but TWO teams with popular support in Southern California moving into a brand spanking new, world-beater stadium while he is stuck in his pen in SD.

With nothing doing in San Diego, he really had no choice but to move if for no other reason than to keep the Raiders out of LA. And that was still an option. I mean…the Las Vegas deal has been sitting there in its current form for several months. The Raiders were clearly waiting for Spanos’ decision on his option which expired this month. It can be no coincidence that the Raiders filed to move to Las Vegas a few days after the Chargers announced their move. As good of a deal as Las Vegas is – and it’s a pretty damn good deal – Los Angeles still would have been better for the Raiders.

Now the NFL, the Rams, and the Chargers are all in a tough spot. Everybody would prefer the Chargers to be in San Diego, but there’s no way to go back there without some kind of concession from San Diego. And that isn’t coming any time soon.

The only way out of this, as far as I can see, is that in a couple of years – when the Las Vegas Raiders are too far down the pipeline to turn back, the Chargers turn tail and return to San Diego after a season or two of “misspent youth” in Los Angeles, prior to occupying the new stadium. If they sell PSLs for the Chargers, though, I don’t know how they get out of that. Simply refunding the money won’t be sufficient. There will be lawsuits (unless the PSL contract contains language for reneging on the deal.