Chargers Not Terminating Lease, Indication There Won’t Be An L.A. Team In 2015

The San Diego Chargers announced Tuesday night that they will not terminate their lease with Qualcomm Stadium and will instead work to find a permanent solution that will keep them in San Diego long-term.

Here’s the statement from the Chargers special counsel Mark Fabiani:

On February 1st of every year since 2007, the Chargers have been eligible to terminate the team’s lease for Qualcomm Stadium. And each year since 2007, the Chargers have announced that the team will not exercise the termination clause and instead continue to work toward a permanent stadium solution in San Diego.

Today, the Chargers are making the same announcement that the team has made each year since 2007: The team will not be exercising the lease termination clause and will keep working to find a publicly acceptable way to build a Super-Bowl quality stadium in San Diego. Calendar year 2015 will constitute the team’s fourteenth year of work on a San Diego stadium solution.

Jason Cole mentions that this is the best indication yet that there will not be a team playing in Los Angeles for the 2015 season.

• Cole adds that if an NFL team were prepared to move to L.A., it’s doubtful that the Chargers would make this announcement so soon.

After all, the Chargers have the most to lose from a team relocating to Los Angeles.

St. Louis Rams and Oakland Raiders are also on year-to-year stadium leases, but are reportedly the two favorites to relocate to Los Angeles in the coming years.

All three of these franchises have the ability to leave at the end of each year’s lease, so a long-term stadium agreement is essential to staying in their current cities.

We’ll have more regarding teams relocating to Los Angeles as the news is available.

The Chargers have been going year-to-year with the city of San Diego for the last 14 years, but it appears as though owner Dean Spanos is doing what he can to stay put if the city is willing to help them build a new stadium.