Chargers: FIRE Dean Spanos!
by Scott Koenig
San Diego City and County have offered the NFL a MASSIVE subsidy: a total of $350 million towards a new Chargers stadium, with an expedited environmental review, pending a public vote. The NFL brazenly dismissed the offer as insufficient. We’re told they want at least $400 million, a waived environmental review, and NO public vote. The NFL calls this “certainty.” I call it “extortion.”
By way of comparison, Gillette Stadium — home of the 2015 Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots — cost $325 million to build in 2002. Century Link Field — home of the 2014 Super Bowl Champion Seattle Seahawks — cost $360 million the same year. But newer stadiums have come in at over $1 billion, and the NFL does not want to go back to 2002 prices. The latest design proposal for a San Diego stadium would likely come in at $1.1 billion, if it ever gets built.
Even so, it’s not even within the realm of possibility that San Diego officials will meet the NFL’s outrageous demands for more money, no environmental review, and no vote, by the arbitrary deadline of December 30. The earliest a public vote on any stadium funding proposal could be held would be during the June 7 California primary. Besides, Dean Spanos, the owner of the Chargers, walked away from the bargaining table back in June, and has declared his intention to file for relocation to Los Angeles after the end of this miserable season.
This year, Spanos has remained mostly quiet, while unleashing his attack dog — Mark Fabiani — to insult and demean the City and people of San Diego at every opportunity. Fabiani seems to take particular delight in this dark task, and has succeeded in alienating the fan base and broader community against the ownership. If it comes down to a public vote on stadium funding, Spanos will need to fire Fabiani and launch a massive public relations campaign to undo the damage that he has done on behalf of the Chargers over the past year.
On the field, the Chargers have won only three of thirteen games so far, and have a realistic shot at only one more win in the remaining three weeks. Assuming they finish the season at 4-12, this would be their worst record since the dismal days of Ryan Leaf. They have been devastated by multiple injuries, poor coaching, too many turnovers, and plain bad luck. Still, Qualcomm Stadium remains full on game days, though most of the spectators are wearing the colors of the visiting teams.
As a result of this dismal performance, many fans and analysts have called for firing head coach Mike McCoy. General Manager Tom Telesco was granted a contract extension before the season started, but the Chargers mysteriously decided to keep this a secret until it came out recently, and have offered no explanation.
But, I say that all of the Chargers problem this year can be traced back to one source: Dean Spanos. That’s why I’m calling for him to be FIRED.
Sadly, the owner of an NFL team is the one person in the organization who really can’t be let go for poor performance. Which is a shame, because Spanos so richly deserves to be booted. He is, after all, responsible for all of this poor decision making.
I know that Spanos has no intention of selling the Chargers, and he seems determined to claim the Los Angeles market before the Stan Kroenke Rams beat him to it. In the end, it will be up to the 32 NFL owners to decide who gets to move, and who has to stay in their current city. I won’t bore you with details, but it doesn’t look good for San Diego.
Speaking of which, until recently, the team was known as “The San Diego Chargers.” During the last offseason, however, the city name was scrubbed from much of the official website, though a few artifacts of this notional municipal affiliation still remain.
Sadly, I’ve grown very attached to this team, over the years. I grew up in San Diego, and was an avid fan of my local gridiron heroes. Dan Fouts was an indomitable leader, who would often rally his scrappy team to amazing come-from-behind victories. I’ll never forget watching the “Epic in Miami,” a 1982 playoff game that featured multiple lead changes, epic passing plays, improbable blocked kicks, and a heart-stopping overtime victory over the Dolphins. The performance of tight end Kellen Winslow in that game — including a touchdown catch and one of the blocked kicks, ultimately earned him a spot in the NFL Hall of Fame. Winslow was so exhausted at the end, his teammates had to carry him off the field. Some called it the greatest NFL game ever played.
And yes, I even stayed tuned when they were terrible. When they went 1-15 back in 2000, I was in attendance at several of the games, including their only win, versus division rival Kansas City.
I really believed that the Chargers represented my hometown of San Diego, and by extension, me. I swelled with pride at every victory, and was humbled by every defeat. But there was always next year.
Until now. The game isn’t over yet, and I know that some of my friends (Scott Kaplan and Jeff Powers, I’m looking at you) will fight until the end. But, it doesn’t look like this time there will be a “next year.” Dean Spanos appears determined to move the team to Los Angeles. He might even change their name and re-brand them with new colors. In any event, they won’t be “my team” anymore.
Then again, they never were “my team,” were they? And, they never were the “San Diego Chargers.” It was all a big lie. If we’ve learned anything this year, it’s that the team doesn’t belong to the city, or the fans. It belongs to Dean Spanos. Maybe they should change their name to the “Dean Spanos Chargers.”
I’m just a fan, but I’d be happy to fire Dean Spanos, if I could. I really want him to leave. He can go to Los Angeles — or to Hell — for all I care. I just ask that he leave the Chargers in San Diego, where they have belonged for the past 55 years.
(Yeah, I know. It’s a business. If they leave, I’ll get over it, eventually. But, I won’t be watching any more of their games.)
Scott Koenig is a longtime San Diego resident and Chargers fan.
Photo by Deejay (Flickr) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons