By David Oates
Nearly two years ago, I penned a piece on why San Diego’s brand is not reliant upon the San Diego Chargers. While it’s painful for many to think of America’s Finest City without it’s long-standing NFL team, I firmly believe we’re better for it.
For starters, the Bolts weren’t exactly a successful franchise in many respects. The team is a perennial loser only getting into playoffs once in the last seven years.
It’s ownership group also created great misery over the past 15 years by bullying the local government and holding fans hostage unless their corporate welfare demands were met. The bad blood spilled over on the national scene for years and stifled San Diego’s brand.
Thankfully, our long regional nightmare is over.
We can now move forward to highlight all the great attributes for which our city should be known far more. Those brand attributes include our enviable weather, beaches and world-class zoo, a resurgent San Diego State University football program, the widely popular Farmers Insurance Open, professional hockey’s successful return, a myriad of art programs and much, much more.
What’s more, we as a city can transform the Qualcomm Stadium site into a true revenue generator with multiple purposes and without draining the taxpayer dollars to the benefit of a few. There have already been discussions along these lines, and I’m very excited to see what’s next.
So while I empathize with Chargers fans for their loss and pain at how they were disrespected by the team’s owners, I would submit that in the long run, this is one of the best things that could happen to America’s Finest City.
David Oates is president of Stalwart Communications and a 20-year marketing and public relations veteran whose clients include agency, corporate and government organizations.