Sporting Life
The Los Angeles Chargers in the NFL
The Los Angeles Chargers in the NFL

Los Angeles Chargers: NFL and team owner dismiss talk of Chargers moving to London

By Paul Higham
NFL
Thu November 07, 2019 · 5y ago

Los Angeles Chargers owner Dean Spanos has emphatically denied reports that his team is eyeing up a move to London, with the NFL releasing a statement to dismiss claims that talks are already underway.

The 13th year of NFL regular season games being played in London has just been completed with Tottenham's new stadium introduced as a host venue.

The fact that the new stadium was specifically built for NFL has only intensified the rumblings that a team could be based in the UK on a full-time basis sooner rather than later.

The Jacksonville Jaguars are often cited as the prospective London team due to their arrangement of playing a game in the UK every year, but more recently talk has also included other teams with limited fanbases in the USA.

The Chargers are a prime example after they moved from San Diego to Los Angeles and are due to share a new stadium with the LA Rams once that is complete.

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A recent report from The Athletic claimed that both the team and the N|FL would be open to them moving to London, a claim that has been most emphatically denied by Chargers owner Spanos.

"It's total f****** bull****, OK? We're not going to London. We're not going anywhere," said Spanos.

"We're playing in Los Angeles. This is our home. This is where I'm planning to be for a long f****** time. Period."

The NFL also released a statement playing down the reports of the Chargers being lined up for a move.

"There is no substance whatsoever to this report," said he NFL statement.

"No consideration has been given to the Chargers playing anywhere other than Los Angeles at the new stadium in Hollywood Park next season and beyond.

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"There have been no discussions of any kind between the NFL and the Chargers regarding moving to London. Both our office and the Chargers are entirely focused on the success of the team in Los Angeles."

Even in San Diego, the Chargers struggled to attract a huge and consistent fan base, and after their move to LA they have struggled even to fill their 27,000 temporary home, with away fans regularly picking up the spare tickets.

Quite how they'll fill the $4.5 billion, 70,240-capacity SoFi Stadum in Inglewood, California at the start of next season is anyone's guess.

Filling that venue with two teams is a worry for the NFL, with the much more established Rams ore popular and the Los Angeles market being notoriously crammed with sports and entertainment offerings.

A London team is still routinely mentioned by high-ranking NFL officials as a matter of "if not when" it happens, but the logistics, and what team would be asked to move remain a highly contentious issue.

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