As if being the team that the Cleveland Browns broke a 17 game losing skid (dating back to last season) against wasn’t bad enough, the San Diego Chargers are now set to move away from the city they’ve called home since 1961.
Per ESPN, the San Diego Chargers will be announcing as early as Thursday that they’ll be packing up and moving to Los Angeles, where they played their inaugural season in 1960 before moving to San Diego the next year.
A stunner: Chargers plan to announce as early as Thursday they are moving to LA, ending 55-year stint with SD, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 12, 2017
Chargers set to announce they now are moving to Los Angeles, league sources tell ESPN…. https://t.co/eugPYGUBEd
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 12, 2017
The Chargers have also notified NFL commissioner Roger Goodell of their intentions.
As of Wednesday night, the Chargers will become the second professional football team in a year to move to Los Angeles and giving the city two pro teams after having previously gone two decades with none.
The Chargers finished this past season with an average of 57,024 fans per game, good for NFL worst, but the main reasoning behind the impending move isn’t attendance, but rather the stadium they struggled to fill. Qualcomm Stadium has been the home of the Chargers since 1967, and has been declining ever since.
This past election season, San Diego voters rejected a proposal to increase hotel tax to free up public funding for a new stadium.
