San Diego Shocker: Chargers Plan to Bolt

Sources say team is moving to Los Angeles after 56 years
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 12, 2017 2:49 AM CST
Chargers 'Leaving San Diego'
San Diego Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers walks onto the field in front of ight end Antonio Gates in Qualcomm Stadium before an NFL football game against the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday, Jan. 1, 2017.   (AP Photo/Alex Gallardo)

A shocker for San Diego fans: The Chargers are planning to move to Los Angeles, saying farewell to San Diego after 56 years in the city, sources tell ESPN. Insiders say the team has scheduled a Thursday morning staff meeting in which the move will be announced. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has been told about the team's plan to move for the 2017 season, sources say, though chairman Dean Spanos has yet to send a formal relocation letter to the league or tell authorities in LA and San Diego about the move. Last year, the Rams received approval to move from St. Louis to LA, making them the city's first NFL team in more than 20 years. The Chargers' option to join them is days away from expiry.

The Chargers, who spent their first year as a team in LA before moving to San Diego in 1961, are expected to share a stadium being built for the Rams in Inglewood. In San Diego, where the team had long sought a replacement for the aging Qualcomm Stadium, there was disbelief and anger, with a police car posted in front of team headquarters after somebody egged the building. "I am a lifelong Chargers fan," Richard Wade, managing editor of the Bolts from the Blue website, tells the San Diego Union-Tribune. "And as such, I find it incredibly appropriate as well as exceptionally painful that they got my hopes up one last time before dashing them as time was expiring." In November, the city's voters rejected a proposal to raise taxes for a $1.8 billion stadium and convention center project. (More San Diego Chargers stories.)

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