I’M STILL DREAMING OF A SAN DIEGO CHARGERS SUPER BOWL
In February 2010, the New Orleans Saints, at the time one of the least successful franchises in the NFL, rewarded their long-suffering fan base with a Super Bowl win that once seemed impossible. Four years later, the Seattle Seahawks did the same.
Those wins happened before Jan. 11, 2017, the day the San Diego Chargers announced they were moving to Los Angeles. Up until that point, San Diego fans could ask when our turn at a Super Bowl would come.
Of course, Chargers owner Dean Spanos changed all that. But the trend of longsuffering and passionate fan bases finally getting their Super Bowl wins didn’t stop. In February 2018, the Philadelphia Eagles captured their first Super Bowl, and two years later, the Kansas City Chiefs ended a half-century of heartbreak and rewarded the Arrowhead Stadium fanatics with a long-awaited Super Bowl, leaving San Diego fans to wonder what might have been.
Some of us are still holding out hope. Los Angeles now has two NFL teams again after losing the Rams and Raiders in 1995. Houston got the Texans in 2002 after losing the Oilers in 1997. Baltimore got the Ravens in 1996 after losing the Colts in 1984.
I know the arguments of why it can’t or won’t happen, so I’ll go ahead and counter them.
The narratives that San Diego voters would never approve a new stadium and that the NFL would never come back are ones I especially don’t buy. Spanos got 43 percent of voters to say they would help fund a new football stadium in 2016 doing everything wrong. That campaign was like if the Padres had tried to win voter support for building Petco Park after the team’s 1993 fire sale and the 1994 Major League Baseball players’ strike rather than after 1998, when the team went to the World Series.
But San Diego has other issues, some people say. Of course it does. There will never not be competing priorities. But that goes for other places that get big projects done to draw teams and events to the region. If we were to refuse to consider a big project like this to bring a football team here until there were “no other issues,” we would be punting the idea down the road for forever.
It would be a huge boon for the community to have an NFL team again. Look at the packed bars and Downtown streets during the Padres’ playoff run (and KPBS’ article talking about the additional revenue businesses were getting from it). That’s every week during the season when you have an NFL team because a shorter regular season heightens the importance of each game. And then there are the other events it can bring in. Even Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara — without a roof — has hosted a Super Bowl and a college football playoff national championship, and will surely host more big events in the future. Look at the events that have and will come to Las Vegas that would likely never have come without the Raiders playing in Allegiant Stadium.
Our county supervisors could make this happen if they mean what they’ve said. Supervisor Jim Desmond stood up for businesses that he believed were forced to unfairly close because of California’s COVID-19 guidelines. If he really stood up for the financial health of businesses, wouldn’t he see the benefit from an NFL stadium being near them? Supervisor Nathan Fletcher said on record that “football was everything” growing up in Arkansas.
And while some people say NFL stadiums’ economic benefits are exaggerated or don’t exist at all, just look at what sports do for people. They unite us.
If you didn’t notice that during the Padres’ playoff run this past fall, you just weren’t paying attention. In a world that’s become so divisive and full of hate, we need all the opportunities we can get to try and come together.
Politicians may think it’ll help them politically to “stand up to billionaires and say no,” but is that really the case? Remember when the Seattle SuperSonics left Seattle in 2008? Then-Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, considered a primary villain of the tragic fall of SuperSonics, failed to make the runoff election when he was seeking a third term the following year. His numbers in polling were historically low for an incumbent Seattle mayor. Many cited the Sonics departure as a key reason.
Sure, the NFL isn’t saying “We are expanding!” right now, and nobody is actively looking to relocate. But if San Diego waits until one of those things happen, we will make it harder on ourselves. We need to take action now. It worked for Las Vegas with the NHL in getting the Vegas Golden Knights.
It’s time to be proactive. Not reactive.
Sure, the NFL isn’t saying ‘We are expanding!’ right now, and nobody is actively looking to relocate. But if San Diego waits until one of those things happen, we will make it harder on ourselves. We need to take action now.