The San Diego Chargers are looking to move to a market where they have no discernible fan base. When the franchise moved training camp to Carson in 2003, The Los Angeles Times counted 24 people who showed up to watch the first day of practice. (The crowd was closer to 75 for the afternoon session.) The team wound up returning to San Diego after two summers.
"Are we in L.A.?" joked Drew Brees, then the Chargers' starting quarterback, after the first workout in Carson. "We're just kind of right outside L.A. or a little close to Orange County, right?"
Considering the strained-to-the-breaking-point relations between the Chargers and San Diego now, it's hard to believe the current fans will be making the long slog up the 5/405 to watch games on fall Sundays. Proponents of the Carson stadium point to proximity of Orange County and the sheer number of football fans in the region.
No matter how you slice it — Raiders and Chargers, or Rams and Chargers — the Chargers will always be regarded as the other team in L.A., unless they can build a fan base from scratch the way the Clippers or Arizona Cardinals have, which can take decades. Both the Rams and Raiders have robust followings here.