Being a football fan I can't quite get my head around the franchise system in the NFL that allows a team to move 120 miles north to another city. That's the reality facing fans of the San Diego Chargers as their team heads to Los Angeles.
As of next season The Chargers will return to Los Angeles where they began life as a football team. In truth though the team only spent one year in LA before moving to San Diego where they've played for the last 56 years.
Owner Dean Spanos confirmed this morning that the franchise would be relocating north in a letter to fans earlier today:
And the club didn't take long to change their Twitter account name and profile picture with a quick change of logo for the Chargers too:
The mayor of LA was clearly excited by the news saying, "The Chargers will make our NFL tradition even richer, and give sports fans everywhere one more reason to be in Los Angeles. I congratulate Dean Spanos and the entire Chargers organization, and look forward to the extraordinary contributions they will make to our entire region."
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After 20 years without an NFL franchise in California's largest city there are suddenly two sides. Last year the St Louis Rams also returned to 'LA LA Land' with Stan Kroenke taking them back to the city they played in from 1946-1994.
The two teams are due to share a stadium in Inglewood but the construction will not finish until 2019. However the Chargers will move in 2017 and make the Stub Hub Centre their home before the new place is built.
The Chargers become the eighth major professional sports team in the city with Los Angeles FC set to join the MLS in 2019 to make it nine!
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