The San Diego Chargers plan to file for relocation to Los Angeles when the application window is opened in January, according to Eric D. Williams of ESPN.
"At this point, yes there's no sign that the other team or teams are not going to file," said Chargers Stadium point person Mark Fabiani, via The Mighty 1090 AM radio show. "Everyone assumes all three teams will file, and in that case we can't afford to lose our market in Los Angeles and Orange County. As your know, 25 percent of our season-ticket business comes from those markets. So we have to be able to protect those markets. That's why as a last resort we went out and created the certain option we now have in Los Angeles. And if everything is moving ahead, we're not going to be standing on the sidelines and watching everything go by. We've got to stay in the game to protect the future of the franchise."
San Diego still has a chance to keep the Chargers, but the people of San Diego will have to take it upon themselves to get a new stadium built through a public initiative.
"I think going forward if there's a solution here in San Diego, it's going to have to come from the citizens' initiative process. It's pretty clear at this point the city's leadership doesn't really listen to anything the Chargers have to say," said Fabiani.
Earlier this month, Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney stated that he expects the San Diego Chargers, Oakland Raiders and the St. Louis Rams all to apply for relocation in January.
The Chargers and Raiders proposed in February to build a $1.7 billion NFL stadium in Carson, Calif., according to Williams. Los Angeles has not had a team since both the Rams and Raiders left in 1995.
It looks like the chance of the Chargers staying put in San Diego is a long shot, and the organization and team owner Alex Spanos will look to convince other owners to let the Chargers move to Los Angeles.
