Chargers will remain in San Diego at least through 2015
The San Diego Chargers will stay put. For another season, at least.
The franchise could have opted out of its lease at Qualcomm Stadium but has decided to extend the agreement at least through the 2015 NFL season, with the hope of getting a long-term agreement on a new, publicly funded stadium.
“On February 1st of every year since 2007, the Chargers have been eligible to terminate the team’s lease for Qualcomm Stadium,” said Mark Fabiani, the Chargers’ special counsel to team president Dean Spanos, in a prepared statement. “And each year since 2007, the Chargers have announced that the team will not exercise the termination clause and instead continue to work toward a permanent stadium solution in San Diego.
“Today, the Chargers are making the same announcement that the team has made each year since 2007: The team will not be exercising the lease termination clause and will keep working to find a publicly acceptable way to build a Super-Bowl quality stadium in San Diego. Calendar year 2015 will constitute the team’s fourteenth year of work on a San Diego stadium solution.”
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Fabiani has been the Chargers’ point man on the club’s stadium concerns.
The club had been in the Super Bowl mix, hosting the big game four times between 1988 and 2003. But Qualcomm has become outdated and has fallen to substandard quality compared to more modern structures and would not be considered for the game without major improvements. More likely is the building of a new stadium, but that requires taxpayer assistance, which has been a roadblock to this point.
The Chargers are one of a handful of NFL teams, along with the Oakland Raiders and St. Louis Rams, who are using the spectre of a franchise landing in Los Angeles as leverage to land new stadiums in their respective cities. But short of landing a deal for a new building, any of those clubs — all of which have ties to L.A. — could opt to move.
There is a three-month window, between February 1 and May 1, during which the Chargers can opt out of their lease with the city of San Diego. Leaving would require the Chargers to pay the city $17.6 million next year.
For now, though, the Chargers are staying.
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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm
