As a former resident of San Diego, I can say that every actionable plan submitted by the City as well as outside investors was rejected by Dean Spanos. He continued to offer up a bunch of bogus proposals that were DOA even at first glance, all the while negotiating with Kronke in secret. His premature move to Carson was the result of his bad faith about to be exposed. His move was akin to the Browns move to Baltimore. Spanos also had an offer from Eli Broad who has 600 acres just east of LA. Broad wasn't even asking for a percentage of ownership and would have footed the construction himself. All he asked for was a reasonable percentage of the revenue as a development partner. Again Spanos refused.
The Spanos family lives off the NFL income. Not just the immediate family but the extended family as well. Aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces and the like all are employed by the team. Nepotism is the order of the day with that franchise. IMO the only way a move to LA puts money in the Spanos family's pocket is via an increase in the franchise value. It's obvious they aren't going to draw much of a fan base when they can't even sell out to their own fans the tiny stadium they play in.
So how does an increase in the value help the Spanos family? The only way is to sell the franchise. That IMO has been their plan the entire time. I expect the Spanos family to sell the franchise within 5 years of moving into Inglewood, probably less. Their small draw won't cover the lease payments they will have with Kroenke. They will soon be bankrupt. But it plays into why they want to keep team costs to a minimum. Why do you think they hired the cheapest HC they could find? They could have had Arians who wanted the job, but he would have been far more expensive. They canceled Arian's interview at the last minute. Every million tied up in player contracts is one less million for themselves. Everything the Spanos family has done in the last 10 years points to them wanting to bump the value of the franchise up to eventually sell.
Mark Davis knew this and it's why he never took the joint Carson stadium seriously. Oh BTW Las Vegas offered the same deal they gave Davis to Dean Spanos first and he rejected it offhand. So to say there were no actionable alternatives for the Chargers isn't accurate because there were many.
Also, there was an investor group willing to buy the franchise (to overpay for it) or to partner with the Spanos family for a minority interest all to keep it in San Diego. Of course, it was rejected by Dean Spanos. Even though Dean was publicly stating he was going to sell a 35% interest in the team. So when the investor group called his bluff he suddenly changed his mind. The NFL knows this it was all laid out for them. But this is an old rich white boy's club so they did nothing. Why do you think they are so coy about the potential move to have a minority buy into this boys club? You think they would be celebrating it but they aren't are they?
The best thing that could happen to the Chargers would be to have new ownership.
