The 2003 NFL season has been unpredictable in that no one thought both of the teams who played in last year’s Super Bowl would miss the playoffs and that the Bengals and Ravens would be playing for first place in week 14.
However, everyone should have known before the season started that the Chargers would be the league’s worst team. There was a slight hope with the additions of David Boston and the maturing Drew Brees, but the optimism quickly faded after Boston was suspended for a game and the team lost its first five games.
The Chargers are currently 2-10, and just when you thought they would sit in last place for the rest of eternity, the Chargers are about to make a move up the I-5.
The team may have just made its best move off the field in a city where there isn’t even a football team. The Chargers filed a lawsuit against the City of San Diego on Nov. 25 in Los Angeles Superior Court asking a judge to decide whether the team has met the complicated financial formula that would allow them to renegotiate their lease at Qualcomm Stadium. This would permit the Chargers to either pursue a proposed new stadium in San Diego (unlikely) or leave town, perhaps for Los Angeles (likely).
The trigger clause can only be activated if the Chargers’ salaries and benefits surpass its salary cap, which team officials say has happened.
An angered San Diego mayor Dick Murphy called the team’s move a “”sneak,”” and said he thinks that the Chargers will be no threat, just as they are to the rest of the NFL.
“”If the Chargers want to fight, I’m willing to give them one,”” Murphy said. “”If they perform as well in the court room as they do on the field, I would say we’ll kill them.””
The Chargers couldn’t be as bad in court as they are in a football game, but the decision is up to the judge.
If the judge decides that the team has triggered a clause that allows them to renegotiate a lease at Qualcomm Stadium, the Chargers will most likely ask for a new stadium. The Q is boring, and it can’t compare with most other NFL stadiums. But convincing the City of San Diego to build the Chargers a new stadium would be like convincing people that the team will be a playoff contender next year. The city is just finishing a new stadium for the Padres, and the chances of the Chargers getting a brand new stadium are (if I may borrow one out of the late Chic Hearn’s book) slim to none.
So after being turned down by San Diego, the Chargers will then take offers from other cities. There has been speculation that the team has wanted to move up the coast to Los Angeles for two years, and it will probably happen if the judge allows it to.
“”Let’s be clear about what the Chargers want ‹ to move to Los Angeles and make more money,”” San Diego City Attorney Casey Gwinn said. “”Don’t insult the intelligence of the fans and the taxpayers by telling us you want to stay, and then sue the taxpayers for the right to leave.””
Gwinn is right, and by filing a lawsuit in Los Angeles, the Chargers have burned all bridges with fans and city officials. But pleasing San Diego to attract more fans or get a new stadium doesn’t matter anymore; now the team has to start winning over people in it’s eventual hometown, Los Angeles.
