The city of Los Angeles officially has second NFL team. An NFL franchise will move to Los Angeles for the second straight year with the San Diego Chargers joining the Los Angeles Rams. Los Angeles Lakers head coach Luke Walton, who is native of San Diego where he was born and raised isn’t all that happy about his favorite NFL team making the move.
After shootaround on Thursday ahead of the matchup with the San Antonio Spurs, Walton was asked about how he felt about his NFL team now moving to Los Angeles and whether he’d be buying season tickets, via Tania Ganguli of the L.A. Times:
“No, no,” he said quickly. “I’m a little heartbroken over it right now. I’m not ready to deal with the reality that they’re leaving San Diego.”
Walton isn’t alone in his disappointment concerning the Chargers relocation to Los Angeles. Many fans of the franchise that played 56 years in the city of San Diego are outraged by the move made by owner Dean Spanos.
Although Spanos has claimed to do everything within his power to keep the team in San Diego, the move seemed inevitable in the same way the Oakland Raiders will likely be moving to Las Vegas in the near future. There simply wasn’t enough support in San Diego to get a new stadium built for the team, and a poorly maintained Qualcomm Stadium was no longer suitable for an NFL team long-term.
The Chargers will have their work cut out for them as they try to build a fan base in Los Angeles which is mostly made up of Rams and Raiders die hards. As they await the completion of Stan Kroenke’s new stadium in Inglewood, the Chargers will be playing at the StubHub Center in Carson, home of the Los Angeles Galaxy, for the next two seasons.