LAC owner Alex Spanos has passed away

[DigInBoys]

6 minutes ago, The LBC said:

@DigInBoys  Yep.  Ultimately, the rest of the owners aren't going to sacrifice having 2 teams in the LA market for pretty much anything - and I think that may include Dean Spanos, "loyal soldier" that he may have been to this point.

I had a couple site entries published a little over a year ago that delved into the blueprint to how the Chargers could have succeeded but didn't for one specific reason: Ego/hubris.  Dean would have stood a better chance going tet-a-tet in the market against the Raiders (and I think he and his people knew it too, which was why that Carson stadium plan and partnership with Davis was so favorable to him).  Mark Davis is as clueless as Dean is in marketing to and attracting the Beverly Hills/Malibu/Palisades crowd so that would have been a level playing field.  The Chargers had a modest following in Orange County that could have been built upon and still left a slew of corporate partnerships (trust me, neither the Angels or the Ducks are hurting in this department - Tesla is headquartered in Orange County for crying out loud).  The Rams, however, were the team that had a darn near stranglehold on the Orange County and Southern LA market in the 80's and 90's though, when they were here, because the players themselves lived in Orange County and were extraordinarily active in the communities (before the league was really pushing players to do so for PR purposes).

If/when push comes to shove, my feeling is that if they're worried they're not making as much money as they should from the LA market, the other owners will find something to give them leverage on the Spanii to force them out - or leverage a sale to an owner of their preference.  Maybe it's Steve Ballmer, maybe it's someone else or a consortium (the league doesn't tend to be fond of these though).  The earliest I could see it happening is about 4 years or so out of the Olympics being in LA because said new owner might stand a fair chance at parlaying some of the Olympic/Coliseum refurbishment along with their own money into a stadium of their own (maybe a renovated Coliseum, maybe somewhere else and they try to persuade - ironically enough - the LA Galaxy into leaving StubHub Center and following them to new digs.

Dean may have been a loyal soldier, but push comes to shove, he's disposable because he simply isn't wealthy or influential enough to matter.

 I thought Tesla was headquartered in Palo Alto? You mean Fisker?

Chargers will be fine, for all of the aformentioned reasons above.

I think one of the biggest problems for them building fans outside of San Diego has always been is the perception that their brand is boring/lame.

That will change once they keep pushing that "new" horse logo, and switch to the powder blues full-time once the new stadium opens.

[Dr LBC]

11 minutes ago, DigInBoys said:

 I thought Tesla was headquartered in Palo Alto? You mean Fisker?

Chargers will be fine, for all of the aformentioned reasons above.

I think one of the biggest problems for them building fans outside of San Diego has always been is the perception that their brand is boring/lame.

That will change once they keep pushing that "new" horse logo, and switch to the powder blues full-time once the new stadium opens.

The other thing the NFL always holds in its back pocket (and is probably saved for if/when they decide to usher in a new owner) is a Ravens/Titans style rebrand ("expansion").  You can pop new (not completely different but different enough and presented in a different fashion) colors onto a team and rebrand them the Spartans or something similar and it will draw (particularly if they can build around and feature a local talent that's actually good and news-worthy).

The biggest problem the Chargers have had, like I said, centers on ego of ownership.  They're small fish in a big ocean as far as actual wealth among sports ownership families are concerned (their wealth is, at this point, more tied up in the value of the club than anything else).  They don't really know how to market themselves well or how to pull off a grassroots campaign in a new community, but you wouldn't know it from talking to them (they think they're amazing at it and that they're doing a bang-up job).  It's kind of funny that they view money as the solution to everything, but comparatively to other owners, they're pretty short on the measuring stick when it comes to wealth.

[DigInBoys]

22 minutes ago, The LBC said:

The other thing the NFL always holds in its back pocket (and is probably saved for if/when they decide to usher in a new owner) is a Ravens/Titans style rebrand ("expansion").  You can pop new (not completely different but different enough and presented in a different fashion) colors onto a team and rebrand them the Spartans or something similar and it will draw (particularly if they can build around and feature a local talent that's actually good and news-worthy).

The biggest problem the Chargers have had, like I said, centers on ego of ownership.  They're small fish in a big ocean as far as actual wealth among sports ownership families are concerned (their wealth is, at this point, more tied up in the value of the club than anything else).  They don't really know how to market themselves well or how to pull off a grassroots campaign in a new community, but you wouldn't know it from talking to them (they think they're amazing at it and that they're doing a bang-up job).  It's kind of funny that they view money as the solution to everything, but comparatively to other owners, they're pretty short on the measuring stick when it comes to wealth.

The wealth thing doesn't matter in a market like LA. NFL teams print money from the TV contracts alone. 

In small markets with decades old stadiums it's an issue but not in a market of 20 million people with a practically free brand new stadium coming in a business where the tv contracts alone guarantee profitability. 

Look at the Lakers, same situation where it's a family-owned business and they don't have outcome outside of it but the franchise prints money and has always spent lavishly.

[Dr LBC]

5 hours ago, DigInBoys said:

The wealth thing doesn't matter in a market like LA. NFL teams print money from the TV contracts alone. 

In small markets with decades old stadiums it's an issue but not in a market of 20 million people with a practically free brand new stadium coming in a business where the tv contracts alone guarantee profitability. 

Look at the Lakers, same situation where it's a family-owned business and they don't have outcome outside of it but the franchise prints money and has always spent lavishly.

The wealth thing is an issue when the Spanii aren't liquid enough to be able to comfortably float the relocation fee without feeling the need to recoup is as quickly as possible via ticket sales - and as such didn't do what would have been the savvy strategy of delaying how soon ticket resellers could get their hands on (season) tickets.  Ticket resellers don't discriminate between home team fan or away team fan, they just want to recoup as much of their money as possible (or really be able to sell at as much of a mark-up as possible).

The wealth thing wouldn't be an issue if they were already established in the market, but comparing their lack of liquidity to the Busses lack of liquidity/wealth is apples to oranges.  There's a pretty long history of the Spanos clan being penny cheap and pound/dollar poor as a result.

[DigInBoys]

57 minutes ago, The LBC said:

The wealth thing is an issue when the Spanii aren't liquid enough to be able to comfortably float the relocation fee without feeling the need to recoup is as quickly as possible via ticket sales - and as such didn't do what would have been the savvy strategy of delaying how soon ticket resellers could get their hands on (season) tickets.  Ticket resellers don't discriminate between home team fan or away team fan, they just want to recoup as much of their money as possible (or really be able to sell at as much of a mark-up as possible).

The wealth thing wouldn't be an issue if they were already established in the market, but comparing their lack of liquidity to the Busses lack of liquidity/wealth is apples to oranges.  There's a pretty long history of the Spanos clan being penny cheap and pound/dollar poor as a result.

I believe season tickets for stubhub have been consistently sold out. It's just a placeholder while they establish themselves, I don't think they are overly concerned with building a rabid home presence there.. The relocation fee is being allowed to be paid over something like 10 years. They released Inglewood ticket prices today, they are competitive: