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Top Comments: Reaction to online Chargers stories

Note: This new column features lightly edited comments from our online news and opinion articles at sandiegouniontribune.com. To become a member of this online conversation, visit any article and click on the comments button.

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Regarding “Chargers announce move to Los Angeles” (Jan. 12):

Wish it didn’t happen, and I think it’s a sad day for San Diego sports fans, but honestly, I’ve been so disconnected from this team for two years now (which I guess was the Spanos plan all along … only reason I can think of for the way he has treated the loyal fans).

Thankfully, I never got the lightning bolt tattoo I threatened about years ago. I just hope that Ron Fowler can realize that the city’s fan base is ready for a winner and can make San Diego a baseball town instead of the football town it was.

Christopher Nadolski

Joined April 21, 2016

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Maybe the Chargers would have stayed if the Republicans in control would have put aside their revulsion of taxes and considered the economic benefit that an NFL team brings to a city.

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Hotels, restaurants, and the tourism industry are the real losers as well as the sales tax revenue that will be lost.

Frank Rizzo

Joined Jan. 12, 2016

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Where’s all those people who said the Chargers couldn’t afford to move to Los Angeles?

Ben Adams

Joined April 16, 2016

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Regarding “Chargers moving to L.A.? Time for San Diego to move on, too.” (Jan. 12):

This is a shame for San Diego and its Chargers’ fans. No love lost for the billionaire Spanos family, pleading poverty in order to get a new stadium built.

Hope it works out for the Chargers up in Carson. Some of us will be long-distance supporters.

Gregory Penkunas

Joined June 10, 2016

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Thank you to the mayor for not blinking. We have bigger problems in San Diego than funding a new stadium.

Adam McLane

Joined April 21, 2016

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Regarding “Dean Spanos could have been hero, now San Diego’s villain” (Jan. 12):

In yesteryears, San Diego was a sleepy Navy town. Then the Chargers rolled like thunder down the coast from L.A. Suddenly the city of San Diego began to show up on the map.

It would be cynical to say that the city will again fade into the background, but with all the buildup it can never be the same again — now it is just a big, overcrowded place. In some ways, the Chargers became the symbolic bastion against total assimilation by L.A., demarcating San Diego from the megalopolis to its north.

It gave us a distinct identity and a rallying point for civic pride. Someday, perhaps Camp Pendleton will close down, and the whole thing can just fill in. The saddest part of today may be the reality that San Diego just took one giant leap backward. We are rapidly becoming another suburb of L.A.

San Diegans, do not reward Spanos and this traitorous act by supporting his rebranded, lackluster product. And Los Angelenos, do not embrace this two-faced gold-digger who has come to you for all the wrong reasons. Some people just need to crash hard in order to learn. His lesson is our collective loss.

Steve Miller

Joined April 27, 2016

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Spanos did not have the personality (or brains or talent) to win the public relations battle in San Diego. Yes, he may be wealthier due to the move, but he will be far less relevant. San Diego will be fine.

Bradley Pursel

Joined June 12, 2016

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Regarding “Memories of Chargers not enough” (Jan. 12):

This is one of Nick Canepa’s better-written columns, IMO, although I disagree with him as to the importance for San Diego of retaining the Chargers.

However, I will not press the latter part here, as the really serious fans commenting here need a place to commune and grieve together. Your pain seems genuine.

David Cohen

Joined April 16, 2016

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“I never will blame the team for taking off.” Well, since I doubt they were going broke, I will go ahead and blame them. Spanos = worst thing that ever happened to Chargers.

New Los Angeles team name ideas: Tinseltown Traitors? Anaheim Afterthoughts?

Richard Lance

Joined April 16, 2016

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Regarding “Chargers again show NFL not about fan loyalty” (Jan. 12):

And it will be a bad business move too. No one in Los Angeles wants the Chargers. Most NFL football fans in Los Angeles are Raiders fans, which is why the other owners didn’t want the Raiders there. They knew that the Raiders would outdraw the Rams and the Chargers.

A.J. Williams-Adderley

Joined Jan. 12, 2016

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Regarding “Faulconer says Chargers will regret leaving San Diego” (Jan. 12):

I wouldn’t be too concerned. The NFL has struggled in Los Angeles and the NFL is concerned that it is beginning to get negative feedback from the fans. San Diego will get another team of it wants one.

Tom McCoy

Joined Jan. 12, 2106

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