Los Angeles Chargers

San Diego Mayor: 'The Chargers made the wrong choice.'

Published Jan. 12, 2017 7:51 p.m. ET

Trevor Arroyo

SAN DIEGO -- At a City Hall press conference late Thursday morning, San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer spoke on the Chargers' announcement that they are leaving San Diego for Los Angeles.

"I am confident in at least two things," said the mayor during his speech. "We're going to be fine. And the Chargers made the wrong decision."

The mayor spoke a lot on how the team did not want to work with the city on finding a stadium solution and that although this is extremely frustrating, the city will be okay.

"Dean Spanos made a bad decision and he will regret it," said Fauconer of the Chargers owner. "San Diego didn't lose the Chargers, the Chargers just lost San Diego. They're losing our strong market place. They're losing our quality of life. Probably most importantly, they're losing out on 56 years of dedication, of loyalty, of family."

Though the announcement to leave for Los Angeles wasn't necessarily a surprise, many Chargers fans were left in disbelief when what seemed like a long, terrible dream finally became a reality. A city with only two major league professional sports teams is now left with just one in the San Diego Padres.

Faulconer expressed his thoughts on Spanos' attempts to find a stadium agreement in San Diego, saying the Chargers were "ultimately never willing to work with us as a team so we could achieve shared success."

"It's been a long road for our city the last several years," Faulconer said. "But through these trials San Diego has shown its decency. Its sense of community. Its sense of loyalty. We should be proud of that. We hold our heads up high."

Faulconer then went on to say that although the Chargers are now a Los Angeles team, the memories the franchise has made up to this point are San Diego's.

"I ask San Diego not to let the actions of the team's ownership ruin the well-earned legacy of the San Diego Chargers," the mayor said. "Philip Rivers, Eric Weddle, Ladainian Tomlinson, Junior Seau, Dan Fouts. These greats are San Diego Chargers. And the memories they made are San Diego's. Nothing can change that."

"The Spanos family may own the Chargers franchise," Faulconer continued. "But our community, the San Diego community, is and always will be the rightful owner of the Chargers' legacy."

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