The LA Chargers New Logo
Well shit. The Chargers actually moved to LA. That came out of nowhere on Wednesday night. And it sucks.
I guess I never thought it would actually happen. The Rams? I thought the Rams would happen. I can even see the Raiders moving easily happening. But I really thought the Chargers would stay in SD after last year put the move on hold. It’s just so easy to forget how much owners like money.
This is the strangest team move I’ve ever been witness to. It feels like the only person happy about it is Dean Spanos himself. When other teams have moved, the recipient city is normally excited about it. Baltimore was happy to get the Browns. Indy was happy to get the Colts. Usually moves are full of heartbreak but the new city is at least happy. LA doesn’t seem to want the Chargers. LA got a team. It’s a bad team, but it got a team. A team it knew. A team it had history with. A team the people were happy to get. They don’t want the Chargers. They have no meaningful history with the Chargers. The Chargers are already second fiddle. They are going to play ball in a small soccer stadium then be the weirdo cheap roommate to the Rams. They moved, purely for money. It’s incredibly depressing. The team gave up the city that wanted them but couldn’t really afford them to move to a city that doesn’t want them to be second fiddle, and the owner doesn’t care because the net worth will likely go up a little.
The best article I’ve found about all this, and possibly the most depressing, is this article on Fox Sports (I highly recommend the read), which basically goes into what the Chargers really moved for and why the fans who cry out and go to games honestly don’t matter much anymore.Even though nobody in LA really wanted the Chargers, they will still likely go up in value, which gives Spanos what he wants. I’ve read a few stories (mostly unsubstantiated) that might indicate the other owners didn’t even want this to happen and were trying to convince Spanos to stay put. When the other owners, who would benefit from an increased team value for the Chargers thanks to revenue sharing, are trying to keep that from happening, I think it’s a damning sign on Spanos.
The best thing to come out of it so far is the logo mess. The morning after the news was swiftly announced, sending fans into a state of shock, they immediately release a new logo for the changed brand, and they got promptly torn to shreds by the internet. I haven’t seen this many slam dunks (By official sports accounts too!) on a team in my time on the web, ever. There are minor league baseball teams dunking on the Chargers for this. The mocking is relentless. They are taking the piss out of every part. The fact that it looks like the Dodgers logo, the 90’s EXTREME sorta font, the little lightning bolt. Honestly, I don’t hate the logo taken on it’s own merits. It’s bland and not particularly inspired, but I think most of the hate is coming from a place of “Fuck the Chargers” and less “This logo sucks”. Also, to those folks who want to shit on the designer, don’t. As any designer in history will tell you, it’s the client who usually doesn’t know what they want and demand you make changes from actual good ideas. I highly doubt the designer of this logo was passionate about this one. He probably went through a whole slew of ideas and Spanos/Whoever forced this one into existence. I bet they knew full well they were ripping off the Dodgers logo. In fact, I bet that was part of the point, and I would place a lot of money that some executive said “Los Angeles Brand Synergy”.
Soon after the backlash hit the logo tweet was deleted (still used for the avatar) and some official spokesman claimed “This isn’t the new logo, just something for marketing purposes” which REEKS of “Oh shit we messed up backpedal everyone kill the designer nobody will know we worked on this for a year”. So the Chargers changed the logo. How? They changed the colors to powder blue and yellow, because that’s what people were mocking. Dear god this franchise is a mess, I can’t stop laughing.
San Diegoans, you deserved better.
Here were my logo mocks, by the way
In the space of three days, the Chargers have:
Moved to a city that didn’t want them, and a city that
Downsized their maximum possible attendance by over 40,000(Maybe they’ll actually sell out now!)
Moved to a city where they’re going to be the 5th biggest team, at best
Moved to a city that their quarterback and team leader said before the move that he would consider retirement if they moved to
Changed their logo three times and counting
Fired their defensive coordinator, without telling him, so he found out by watching TV news
This is just the train that keeps on wrecking.
And it’s still not as bad as the Rams
Makes me feel better about my team that brought in a new defensive coordinator who then failed to convince the two position coaches they really needed to come with him.
Ringless in LA?
You should totally do an “all 32 team logos if they were relocating to LA” thing.
When the Oilers/Titans moved to Tennessee, I remember them having to play their first season in Memphis’ Liberty Bowl because Nashville didn’t have a football venue at the time that could suit the NFL even temporarily. Was Vanderbilt Stadium in 1997 really that much more unsuitable of an NFL venue than the soccer stadium where the Chargers will play for the next two seasons?
i’m sure it’ll be, like, logistically suitable. the problem for the Chargers is that nobody in LA actually wants them here or cares about them, so the Chargers will be jacking up the price on tickets that only opposing teams’ fans are going to want. the Chargers are basically going to be playing sixteen road games.
They will start caring if they start winning
in other words they’ll never start caring.
Especially is Marmalard (who is basically the best part of this team and carries it through most games) retires or runs off to another team…
The problem with Vanderbilt Stadium was that due to how it was paid for etc, they could not legally serve alcohol. At all. Blue laws in the south. They also could not have any sponsor signage that involved alcohol, and I think there were even rules about the type of TV broadcasts from there not having alcohol commercials.
It is strange, but it’s also Tennessee.
I’m curious how you’re gonna Trump up this chargers logo Dave.
Also, what was wrong with the old logo? What a terrible idea to change it.
REBRANDING! It raises more money!… Maybe. (well at least it does for all those marketing and logo design guys you hired…)
My favorite part about this is Spanos acting like all the angry San Diego fans are hurting is feelings. He probably doesn’t care
Remember when Dave did a comic on shipping?
The Chargers are offically the result of a 3-way between the Tampa Bay Lightning, LA Dodgers, and the UCLA Bruins.
BruLightDodge = la chargers
And now the Raiders are off to Vegas. Sucks because the Raiders were finally becoming good, but at least Davis made a genuine effort to make it happen in Oakland. O.Co needed to be replaced, and while a lot of owners could finance their own stadium like Kroenke did, Davis would have to basically liquidate every single non-Raiders asset he owns to do it, and even that would only pay for about half of a decent stadium. Asking the taxpayers to pay for it isn’t fair though, especially in a city like Oakland that’s finally turning the corner and doesn’t need another financial burden slowing it down. Just a sad situation all-around.
But what will happen to paper Pepsi cups and chewed-up gum that kept the concrete from breaking and feces from leaking on to the field?
WON’T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE PEPSI CUPS ANDAND GUM!
2017… Bills to Toronto
2018… Raiders to Vegas
2019… Cardinals to San Diego
2020… Browns to Phoenix
2021… Bucs to Cleveland as the 3rd generation Browns
2022… Seahawks to Oklahoma City, just because
in 2018 the Jacksonville Jaguars move here and get very excited about their new waterfront property in Riverside to become the Los Angeles Jaguars of Riverside, before someone tells them that there isn’t really a river in Riverside, or anything else.
in 2019 the Chicago Bears move here and get very excited about their waterfront property in Lake Elsinore and become the Los Angeles Bears of Lake Elsinore, and they win a subsequent Twitter war with the Jags when it is discovered that Lake Elsinore actually has a lake.
in 2020, the San Francisco 49ers move to, well, Oakland, but they call themselves the Los Angeles 49ers of San Francisco By Way of Oakland.
in 2021, by league decree, the rest of the AFC South is moved to Riverside with the Jaguars. they have to fight over a stadium. it gets bad. the Texans wind up in, like, Chino or whatever and become the Los Angeles Texans of Chino. it’s not all bad news for the Texans though because there is a nearby state prison from which they can draw a steady supply of failed quarterbacks.
in 2022 the New York Jets try to make a splash by moving to Anaheim, but they lose a Twitter fight with the Ducks and end up as the Los Angeles Jets of The Inexplicably Shitty Part of Anaheim That Is Like Two Miles From Disneyland but If You Park Your Car Here You Will Come Back to Find It On Cinderblocks. they continue to be the Jets so no one really notices honestly.
by 2030, the shitty half of the NFL plays its games entirely in the greater Los Angeles area. the Los Angeles Dolphins of the Salton Sea are very upset that nobody, y’know, told them about the Salton Sea before they moved there. the Los Angeles Cardinals of Corona Del Mar wonder why they spent all that time playing in a fucking desert. the Los Angeles Bills of Buena Park find themselves consistently outdrawn by the crumbling corpse of Knott’s Berry Farm.
the Cleveland Browns attempt to move to LA in 2026, but one year as the Los Angeles Browns of Culver City is enough to send them back to Cleveland.
After the 16th team is relocated to Los Angeles, the NFL realigns the league and places all 16 teams in the Los Angeles Football Conference. The LA teams get so used to playing local games that they become lazy and do not want to travel to play road games anymore, so in 2044 they start petitioning the league to move the other remaining 16 teams to LA. This is done in 2047, and the Los Angeles Jaguars defeat the Los Angeles Lions to win the first ever “Los Angeles Bowl of Los Angeles and Other Surrounding Southern California Areas” (formerly the Super Bowl).
in 2051, Kevin Manziel, quarterback of the Los Angeles Broncos of Gardena, proudly hoists the Lombardi Trophy and says “this is for you, people who live north of Artesia Blvd and south of Rosecrans in between Crenshaw Blvd and Vermont! this is for you!” and many feels are felt
this is all stupendous. thank you
If every team was in LA, think of how much money owners could save on air travel! It’s a new day in the NFL with the LA-clown-car business model.
Fuck Dean Spanos