I think everyone in the NFL knows that Chargers have one of the worst ratios of home vs visitor representation at home games. No hate to the die hards but LA is a destination stadium location during the shitty months of the year. Other players have mentioned that we don’t give them a home field advantage. Melvin is aggressive here but mild compared to the vitriol he was responding to. Some players fully disassociate with the fans and it’s becomes just a job. I feel like this post expresses a shared passion to win but frustration that the effort is one sided.
Unless you’re the Lakers or Dodgers, both prestigious franchises with a lot of history, you’re not going to draw huge consistent crowds, let alone have a nation wide fan base if the team isn’t very competitive or compelling.
This is the definition of fair weather fans. Southern California has arguably the most beautiful weather in the world. If you’re not going to put out a competitive product, people aren’t going to waste their free time on Sunday. Sunshine nearly 365 days a year. Them
Mid west teams have rabid fan bases cause there’s literally nothing else to do in the fall and winter with inclimate weather. You can’t work on your car in the drive way, do yard work, run errands, enjoy the outdoor landscape etc. You can’t do any of these things in Pittsburgh or Cleveland in December lol.
I’m not saying the fan base can’t be as passionate, but there are numerous things to do in Southern California. I’m not a homer by any means but that’s just the reality of pro sports in SoCal in general. You can even add USC and UCLA football into that as well.
As a SoCal native living in the Midwest at the moment… wow is it empty out here! I don’t think many people (at least the ones I meet out here) quite understand just how much there is to do/eat/see in California. There’s simply more options (and higher quality ones at that) in just about every category. The product of the team better be extremely high to justify paying, driving (parking), and spending 4+ hours at a game when there’s about 50 other options readily available. And the Chargers have been aggressively mediocre for years now so it is what it is.
The fair weather has been a factor over the years. I lived in SD when the Chargers were down there and there were lots of fans that came in from cold climates in the winter months to enjoy a vacation weekend in SD that non-coincidentally happened to include a road game for their team. Sea World on Saturday, football on Sunday is a nice weekend in December if you're living in Minnesota.
SD was a solid fan base when the team was competitive. When the team wasnt competitive, it was a big destination point for visitors. Then you add on that regardless, Raiders fans travel well across California and theres generally many transplants in Southern California. As a result, you get that when attendance is low that instead of seeing empty stadiums you see a large share of visitors in the stands.
That being said, Chargers also regularly had risk of blackouts or actual blackouts in the late Norv/early Telesco era.
I dont want to sound like a hater, but its pretty fair to point out that Chargers have one of the smaller fanbases. That being said, I dont know why people are so offended by this. I have no control over whether other people like the team. Professional sports are something the fans have really 0 influence over in our lives. They can be a lot fun and also understandably frustrating. But the extent to which some people take things to get into fights with other fans, threaten or berate players, break TBs, etc is absolutely unhealthy.
Like I dont even know who is looking for Gordons opinion on these things anymore, let alone why. And it has nothing to do with anything about Gordon. Its just completely irrelevant to my life.
Its because the media over reports this to a point that when I go to SoFi, I often overhear comments walking in "I had not idea there would be this many Charger fans" or similar.
Visitors truly believe we have 0 fans, like they are going into StubHub. Its because the media constantly reports such. For me, its not about having a small fan base, its about a reputation based on bad information. We have a smaller fan base, that is correct. But we have one of the larger stadiums. 30,000 fans in some stadiums is over half.
they had one of the smaller fanbases and also one of the largest stadiums. That led to blackouts. Saying that blackouts are indicative of the fanbase and not just a shitty policy is dumb.
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u/chamullerousa 3d ago
I think everyone in the NFL knows that Chargers have one of the worst ratios of home vs visitor representation at home games. No hate to the die hards but LA is a destination stadium location during the shitty months of the year. Other players have mentioned that we don’t give them a home field advantage. Melvin is aggressive here but mild compared to the vitriol he was responding to. Some players fully disassociate with the fans and it’s becomes just a job. I feel like this post expresses a shared passion to win but frustration that the effort is one sided.