The San Diego Chargers are likely playing one of their final home games in California’s southernmost city. The expectation here is that the Chargers will announce their intention to move to Los Angeles at some point within the next month.
With just two home games remaining in San Diego, fans of the franchise are seemingly getting their final opportunities to watch the Chargers as they currently exist play in the city they have called home since 1961.
Unfortunately, as we’ve seen throughout the past several years, fans of opposing teams continue to make their impact known at Qualcomm Stadium.
That’s not expected to be any different for Sunday’s game against the division-rival Oakland Raiders.
Internally #Chargers fear it’ll be more than 50% #Raiders fans today at a home game. They actually pumped in crowd noise at practice. Crazy.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 18, 2016
It’s a sad realization to come to. And it really can’t make the Chargers’ players themselves feel good for the lack of support they are seeing during the twilight of their existence in San Diego.
Sure Raiders fans have historically traveled well. They are right up there with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys as the best-traveling fan base in the NFL. That’s not the point here.
Also not the point. San Diego, much like Arizona, has a transient population. This has led to home games for both the Chargers and Cardinals seeing a ton of fans from visiting teams.
Unfortunately, the overall look of this isn’t good. It just lends credence to the idea that the Chargers don’t have a huge following in San Diego, which will make it easier for the team to justify a move to Los Angeles here in the not-so-distant future.
As it relates to the game, Philip Rivers and Co. will do everything possible to help avoid a Raiders playoff-clinching scenario. It’ll just have to be done in front of a stadium that’s likely going to see Raiders fans outnumber Chargers fans.