Los Angeles Chargers

Chargers' terrible timing led to Los Angeles stadium exploration

Published Jun. 29, 2015 9:02 a.m. ET

foxsports

The Chargers have tried to land a new San Diego-area home nine times before.

Each time, they've come up short. History isn't on their side now that Los Angeles relocation is in play.

The team isn't totally at fault, however. A national recession and a city-wide pension crisis put several earlier plans on hold, according to U-T San Diego. And San Diego has had seven different mayors since 2003, all with their own agenda and plans for how to handle the local NFL team.

“When you dig a little deeper, you see there’s a lot of reasons why things didn’t work out the last 12 years,” Tony Manolatos, spokesman for Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s stadium task force, told U-T San Diego. “No one was out to get the Chargers and it’s not impossible to build a stadium in San Diego. The Chargers were victims of bad timing.”

That fact will do little to assuage the fears of regional fans. Plus, their team just walked away from the negotiating table during a recent round of meetings.

Manolatos called the latest proposal a fool-proof plan. It’s up to the Chargers if they want a 10th proposal to fall by the wayside.

“I don’t have a time machine — all I can do is work with what’s in front of me now and that has to be good enough for them,” city councilman Scott Sherman said. “For the first time there’s a plan on the table with viable financing attached to it, but they won’t come back and talk to us.”

(h/t U-T San Diego)