People just don’t seem to care about the LA Chargers.
The Chargers have moved from San Diego to LA in 2017 and until the new LA stadium is completed, the team is taking temporary residence at StubHub Center in Carson. StubHub Center is a 27,000 seat stadium built more for soccer than American football.
Given it’s not a 60,000 seat football stadium, you would think there would be 27,000 Chargers fans in the city but whether it’s the location, the cost, the mediocrity or a combination, you’re more likely to see fans of the other team showing up to games. Just like Chiefs fans showing up in droves in Week 1. If not for away fans taking in the game, the Galaxy might outdraw the Chargers.
And if you think this is just an attendance problem, you would be mistaken. Pro Football Talk reports that viewership have been drastically down over the years. This past Sunday, the Chiefs-Chargers game (5.5) had a lower rating than the Cowboys-Panthers game (7.6) shown at the same time in LA.
In San Diego, where fans don’t have a team anymore, ratings for Chargers games have taken the kind of dive that would make for a great roller coaster ride. PFT said that in 2010, ratings in San Diego for the Chargers sat at an average of 31.6. In 2016, their final season in San Diego, ratings dropped but held strong at 24.4 considering local fans knew they would be losing their team. Now that they’re in LA, ratings have gone down to 14.2 in 2017 and 11.7 in Week 1, retaining just below half the audience compared to two years ago.
It’s almost like the Chargers shouldn’t have left San Diego but it’s a little too late for that. Now that they’re in LA, the Chargers enter a struggle to remain relevant in a city that not only has the Rams but has USC football as well as the Lakers and Dodgers that LA residents seem to care more about. This isn’t a good situation for the Chargers.
