https://www.theringer.com/nfl/2017/10/4/16423520/los-angeles-chargers-owners-post-fan-experiment "If a franchise proves profitable without having a sizable fan base, it’d represent a way for owners to cash in without dealing with the endearingly human problems that fans frequently cause." Interesting article that posits that the Chargers can still be successful even without a significant fan base of which to speak. Since the NFL makes its money on TV and ticket licenses and luxury boxes from high rollers, the team can be profitable without its own significant fan base. I mean, the other teams need somebody to play and put on TV. Spanos probably doesn't care that what color jersey the ticket buyer wears, as long as the money is green. Not sure that I think it will work, but Spanos and the NFL appear hellbent on finding out if it will.
A lot of those are Canadians......Despite that awful overpriced Skydome experiment, the Bills are the best supported team in Toronto.
It's what happened with the Marlins a bit back. Huizenga (I think...spelling off I'm sure) made a tidy profit and barely invested in the team for a couple of years, or got many fans.
Not MLS related... but count me as a person that things the Bills would be better off with a move to Toronto!
Funny, because you can count me as a person that thinks Beckham would be better off placing an MLS franchise in Buffalo.
????? It means more money for the Gals, so it had an impact on the financial pecking order within the league. Further, the PR of the Gals ha I gotta more LA supporters than an NFL team is interesting.
Maybe the Chargers should see what rent would be at LAFC's smaller place. 22,000 sounds possible for them eight times a year. Probably.
Because it’s one of the biggest signs of weakness in the 600 lb gorilla called the NFL. And weaknesses from the top dog league in the US are advantageous to MLS and all the lesser leagues. That this weakness is being laid bare in an MLS stadium is just irony.
The Chargers will be fine. It may take new ownership first, but the ship will get turned around. Probably. The league overall is struggling with some things and handling them badly. If that continues, the sport could decline like boxing did.
I don't know if they'll ever be fine in Los Angeles. I just don't know what they'd have to do to get fans here... at this point the rams are in the "should be ok in the long term" situation while the chargers are in the "why the hell are you here" situation.
Bleacher Report has a cartoon series called Gridiron Heights that pokes fun at things that happen in the NFL every week. After the Chargers played the Eagles Phillip Rivers hires PI Jay Cutler to find the Los Angles football fans. You get a look at the field and the end zone says LA Galaxy but there's a line through Galaxy and Chargers is crudely written in spray paint about it.
========== NFL has a different problem. You are building a 1 billion dollar stadium, the league image is such that both teams need to sell out every seat every game in a very large stadium. MLS is different as we have 2 stadiums of reasonable size 27 & 20 AND 2 soccer teams in a city will generally start to create a rivalry over time. Fans will travel to each others stadium, as well as fans from out of the area. When I see the Charges almost being outdrawn by fans of the visiting team, that's an LA thing, it happens with our other sports teams at times because so maybe people are from somewhere else living now in So Cal. Separate question. Does anyone know how NFL fans travel? We make big efforts to point out the great distance our soccer fans travel in the US. Example. I went to MNUFC last home game of the year and there were approx 300 Sporting KC fans that had come up. I thought that was impressive. Or is the NFL so established, that it simply has fans for every team in all cities?
People move. Therefore, fans may not be traveling so much as relocating. We are RSL fans even though it's been a decade since we lived there and had season tickets. We now live in Maryland. We travel to Columbus, DC and Philly when RSL comes because they are reasonable weekend trips for us with other things to do.