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When the Chargers relocated to Los Angeles in 2017, Dean Spanos made a calculated decision: don’t rebrand. Instead, he believed the Chargers could become a truly regional franchise — maintaining ties to their San Diego fanbase while cultivating a new market in LA.
It didn’t work.
The fly-by-night move, the “Fight for LA” campaign, and the dismissal of loyal San Diego season ticket holders left fans feeling blindsided and betrayed. For years, the Bolts did little to bridge the emotional gap. But in 2024, a subtle shift began — and in 2025, intentional reconciliation efforts have been made.
It started with Jim Harbaugh, a San Diego Chargers quarterback-turned-legendary head coach, stepping in as the team’s new leader. His presence alone reconnected the franchise to its roots. But Spanos and the Chargers didn’t stop there. They expanded training camp activities into San Diego County, a move that was warmly received in 2024 — and deeply embraced this summer.
Then came Denzel Perryman. The hard-hitting linebacker returned to the team in what felt like a symbolic gesture after the Chargers let go of their last ties to San Diego – Keenan Allen and Joey Bosa. Denzel, beloved by fans on both ends of I-5, brought back that familiar fire and leadership — and was vocal about how much the San Diego connection meant to him:
Next, the Chargers tapped into their iconic past with two retro uniform drops that immediately stole the spotlight. The social media rollout was electric, fusing nostalgia with new-school energy:
Carrying on what may be a new tradition, Harbaugh brought training camp to San Diego aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln — holding a walkthrough with the Navy at Naval Air Station North Island. It was part outreach, part tribute, with some unforgettable clips:
And then came the Philip Rivers moment.
After years of waiting, Rivers finally signed a one-day contract to retire as a Charger. In true storybook fashion, four of his old linemen surprised him at the event — including Kris Dielman, who made a statement of his own in a San Diego Padres ballcap.
Just weeks later, the Chargers were front and center again — this time in Canton, celebrating Antonio Gates’ Hall of Fame induction. In his speech, Gates gave an emotional nod to Rivers and paid tribute to the city that first embraced him:
“To the City of San Diego, you embraced me. You supported me. San Diego was where I first became a Charger, where I first became a tight end, and where I first became a father.”
And there’s one more chapter still waiting to be written.
Keenan Allen visited the team facility on August 1st. While no contract has been announced, fans are speculating that the timing of his visit was strategic — potentially waiting until after Gates’ enshrinement to make any formal announcement.
If Keenan returns, the 2025 offseason will go from sentimental to seismic.
San Diego will never again be the Charger-centric city it once was. But for the first time since the breakup, it feels like the team is genuinely trying to make amends. If Dean Spanos continues this thoughtful trajectory — perhaps with a preseason game in San Diego, or more community outreach — he may finally deliver on the original vision of a team that belongs to Southern California.
Nice article.
I have long thought that when the NFL inevitably moves to 18 games, the way to do it would be to have each team play 8 home games, 8 away games, 1 international game, and 1 neutral site game each season.
I doubt the owners would be willing to sacrifice the revenue that an annual neutral site game might sacrifice. But the idea would be to play in places where fans who normally cannot attend get a chance to see a game, like St. Louis, San Antonio, Portland, Salt Lake City, Honolulu, etc. plus college football crazy locations with big stadiums (imagine the Chargers playing in the Michigan big house). In this scenario, San Diego would make sense as a neutral site for the Chargers. Maybe every 2-4 years.
If not, I like the idea of a preseason game there. But, even for preseason, I suspect the owners would not want to give up the revenue from a SoFi preseason game.
Love this idea.
For the Chargers, it would be great if they could figure out how to play their international game in Mexico (and maybe Tijuana?).
Great article Kyle. I appreciate the thoughtful, nostalgic perspective that, honestly, I thought about a bit, but was never able to articulate.
This does, however, remind me of how fucked up the who move was. Bad decisions, followed by bad execution. It was a cluster. I am curious how close the Spanos were to selling when the COVID year coinciding with the start of the transfer payments & the lack of local market support came to a head in 2020/21. That seemed to be a low-water point.
I wrote several in-depth analysis of the costs/benefits of the move for BTFB. I think that it’s pretty clear that if the Spanos family would have taken the Qualcomm site, developed it into a big, mixed use, condo/apartment/retail/entertainment complex, they would be FAR better off today. Instead, Dean stormed off to LA to be the 16th most popular sports team in that market.
What’s worse is that, as you pointed out, he flipped the bird to loyal SD fans on his way out of the door. I grew up in Carlsbad, graduated from SDSU, but have not lived in San Diego since 1993. Despite that, I was so pissed that I really tried hard to NOT follow the Chargers.
I appreciate what the team is doing now. Not sure who is behind the move, but the outreach is great. I said at the time, if my dad owned the Chargers, I would be advocating for promoting season tickets in SD. Combine it with a Hornblower cruise up to LA on gameday (how fun would that be?). Maybe have a “Charger” season ticket car on CalTrain running up to the coast to the stadium? Lots of shit they can and should do.
Anyway, I know you’ve been swamped. If it makes you feel better, we took a 4 week vacation to Japan & came back to a 6′ fountain of water shooting up behind a toilet in our 2nd floor bathroom. Our house now is full of construction stuff & we’ve been in a hotel for 2 weeks (actually, I talked the insurance into renting us a house on the beach in Hilton Head, so we were there (and I was playing golf) last week). Hope you and your family are great. Say hey to Dave.
I think that it’s pretty clear that if the Spanos family would have taken the Qualcomm site, developed it into a big, mixed use, condo/apartment/retail/entertainment complex, they would be FAR better off today.
I agree with this. I wrote about this a couple times as well, and my recollection is that the estimated franchise value for the Chargers increased after the LA move, but at a rate below the league average. Being a tenant is an issue there. Meanwhile, the Raiders value increased much more because of their choice to move to Vegas and not be a tenant to another owner. It is meaningful contrast.
That said, estimating the value of a NFL franchise is difficult. There are only 32, so even though fundamentals might be better for the Raiders, the Chargers would still sell for a huge premium if the Spanos family wanted out.
What’s worse is that, as you pointed out, he flipped the bird to loyal SD fans on his way out of the door.
Yes, he did. He went scorched earth, in a manner that never made any logical sense. He was a like a child throwing a tantrum that he wasn’t getting his way. I lived in San Diego 2014-2018, so I was there for the entire saga. It was very frustrating as a fan, and I can see why so many fans bailed on the team as a result.
I believe the Raiders are #2 in the league in revenue $729M, behind only the Cowboys $1,149M. The Chargers made $564M.
On top of revenue and team valuation, the ability to develop the surrounding area adds a ton of value to the developer (outside of the team valuation). Dean got into a pissing match, and was too bull-headed to back down and take the clearly better deal in San Diego. Now the family trust owns the Chargers vs. owning a huge commercial/residential complex. Just a silly, immature, short-sited decision.
Dean is a tenant. He could’ve been a respected businessman in the San Diego community.
He backed Rick Perry’s presidential campaign ferchristsakes! Not exactly astute.
The San Diego folks I know will take a shitload of convincing to ever back anything the Spanii are involved with, fair or not. Fans are emotional and Dean shit on them.
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