The Los Angeles Chargers unveiled their latest, not-so-greatest logo on the video screen during a game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers, and the Staples Center crowd welcomed it with lusty boos.
Jeff Cumberland, the Chargers’ tight end, fared no better when he was shown.
Welcome to L.A.!
Dean Spanos, the team’s chief executive officer and president, was there to hear it in person, along with his wife and two sons. He announced last week that the team was moving after 56 seasons in San Diego, making him the most hated man among football fans since Art Modell. They’ll be playing for the next two seasons in the 30,000-seat StubHub Center in Carson, Calif.
“It really is great to be here,” Spanos told Fox Sports Prime Ticket. “Everybody’s been so nice in welcoming me, my family, the Chargers. We’re really looking forward to this season.”
Spanos may feel warmly welcomed, but the team’s efforts at establishing an identity have been rocky. Their first logo, which the team says was for marketing purposes only, was ridiculed.
By Friday, the team had added its traditional powder blue, which many longtime Chargers fans considered a salt-meet-open-wound situation.
Bill Plaschke, the Los Angeles Times columnist, sent a clear message to the Chargers last week: “We. Don’t. Want. You.”
“(T)he Chargers aren’t even the second team in town behind the Rams. The Chargers aren’t even the third team of interest here behind the Rams and Raiders. The Chargers might not even be in the top-five favorite NFL teams in Los Angeles,” Plaschke wrote.
Even the Raiders are more popular, he writes. So, what’s a team to do?
“Well, win,” Doc Rivers, the coach of the Clippers, said. “I don’t think there’s a (No.) 1 or 2 team yet. I think that the first team that wins will be the first team that wins, if you know what I mean. That would be my only advice. It’s good to have them here.”