For The Chargers…What Tomorrow Brings, No One Knows

This past game was my final Chargers game for the season and as I wrote last year, there is a tremendous amount of uncertainty surround this franchise.  Will it be the San Diego Chargers or the Los Angeles “Re-branded Team”.  A rumor was spread on social media during the middle of the Raiders game that Dean Spanos has planned to re-brand the team for the eventual and inevitable move to Los Angeles.  That made quite a stir for Charger fans in the ether of the internet, but you wouldn’t have noticed it at Qualcomm stadium since it was essentially a Raiders home game and hardly a Charger fan was to be seen.

But to the point, there is a lot of uncertainty when it comes to the future of this franchise.  There is no stadium deal in the works and the last, best chance at a new deal, a ballot initiative, was voted down in the November election.  Relocating to Los Angeles is still on the table, but if you read the reports on the internet, sharing a brand spanking new stadium with Stan Kroenke’s Rams is a less than ideal situation for Spanos, something that he would only consider as a final option when all the other San Diego alternatives have been exhausted.  And now, that seems like the only possibility left for the Chargers.

For what do they get if they move the team to Los Angeles?  They will undoubtedly double or triple the book value of the franchise the moment they change the address on their stationary, but they will also have to build their fan base from the bottom up as the second class tenant in a city that now belongs to the Rams.  The core of it’s current fan base, San Diegans, will not support this team.  They will not buy season tickets.  They will not buy merchandise.  They will not travel north to see a game.  So the worse case scenario for Dean Spanos is to move to Los Angeles and start over in a city rife with teams competing for the sports and entertainment dollar.  And this city doesn’t support losing franchises, not with so many other teams to choose from.

So as the season winds down, so does the doomsday clock.  What would you do, if you were the owner of the Chargers?  Me?  I would exercise the Los Angeles option, but choose to play the next two or three seasons in San Diego until Kroenke’s stadium is built.  Yeah, it’s not ideal, but it gives Spanos a few more years to try to work something out here and if nothing comes to fruition, then I would make the move up north.  I mean the Chargers should be in San Diego.  It’s what the owner wants.  It’s what the NFL wants…so they say.  And it’s what Charger fans want.

But in the end, this has to be a business decision…and the NFL is all about big business.

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Speaking of the game…the 10-2 Raiders were in town to play the Chargers in a game that had a lot of significance in determining the outcome of the AFC West.  There was a lot at stake for the Raiders and their fan base turned out in droves to support their team.  The Chargers radio announcers estimated that the crowd was 80% Raiders fans and that might not be too much of an exaggeration.  It was a sea of black clad fans cheering for the visiting team.

You would have expected the Raiders, whom some consider to be the second best team in the AFC, to come in and plunder the hapless Chargers, but that didn’t happen.  In fact, it was a tightly contested game with the Chargers essentially leading or tying the Raiders well into the fourth quarter when the Raiders scored two field goals to win the game.

Final Score: Oakland Raiders – 19, San Diego Chargers – 16

A most competitive and entertaining game and well worth the price of admission.  And another thing well worth the price of admission…the hottest dance team in the NFL, your San Diego Charger Girls.

Got to love the Charger Girls wearing their blue velvet Christmas uniforms…there’s nothing better than that to kick off the holiday season!  Oh, and you know what my favorite stocking stuffer is?  The Charger Girls!!!  Okay, enough of the bad puns.

Let’s begin our final game day report with the Captains: Marissa, Bridget, Teran and Delani.

Our final Charger Girl of the Day for 2016 is a third year veteran from the cheerleading hotbed of Yorba Linda, CA…introducing Bridget!

Okay, let’s begin our regular coverage of the 2016 Charger Girls in order of years of service, as indicated on the Chargers website.

6 years – Tawnie

5 years – Kayla Nicole

4 years – Karissa, Marissa, Shelbi, and Tina

3 years – Angelica, CGOTD Bridget, Delani, Devin, and Whitney

2 years – Denise, Rebecca, Teran, and Tyler

1 year – Anna, Blake, Courtney, Elaine, Emily, Glory, Kayla Ann, Lauryn, Madison (not pictured), Melissa, Rose, Shelby and Sydni.

And here are a few group shots from one of their quarter break routines.

Well, who knows what tomorrow brings?  I don’t know.  But I think the Charger Girls will go on.  Whether it is here in San Diego or up in Los Angeles, I think they will exist in some form or another.  I talked to several current Charger Girls in the Bud Light Power Party who said if the team does relocate north, they will try out again.  Many of them live in Orange County, CA and that’s about half way between Los Angeles and San Diego…and a lot closer to the teams reported HQ in Costa Mesa, if they move.

For me, I hope the team and the Charger Girls stay in San Diego.  The Chargers belong there.

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For more cheerleader articles, please visit my personal blog: thehottestdanceteam.wordpress.com.