So now Dean Spanos says he’s closer to moving the Chargers to Los Angeles than staying in San Diego.

Here’s a one-finger, two-letter suggestion: Go.

Move. Do it. Dare you.

It’s all so predictable, the threats, the bullying, the crying wolf. We heard them at this time last year, as NFL owner meetings and ballot deadlines were approaching. We heard it earlier this month from national media, unidentified team “sources” whispering that the Chargers have never been closer to exercising their Jan. 15 option to join the Rams and Kroenke-world in L.A. Now Spanos lets it slip Sunday that “I’m waiting for the city of San Diego,” that if it somehow doesn’t act now, if it doesn’t cook up a plan that bleeds taxpayers of hundreds of millions of dollars for a new stadium so he can charge higher ticket prices and get even richer, if it doesn’t accede to his demands, he’s moving.


Scout’s honor. This time he means it.

So call his bluff. See if he’s really holding that pair of aces.

See if he’s really going to be the second team in a metropolis that hasn’t embraced the first. See if he’s really going to play for a few seasons in a 25,000-seat stadium and sacrifice all that ticket revenue. See if he’s really going to rent in someone else’s palace. See if he’s really going to cultivate a whole new fan base and sign new corporate sponsors and build a new training facility. See if one of the cheapest owners in the NFL is really going to pay the $550 million relocation fee? See if he’s really going to a place where he’ll have the third most popular NFL team (behind the Rams and Raiders) while competing for market share with two NBA, two Major League Baseball and two NHL franchises along with two major colleges.

Really?


Go. Move. Do it. Dare you.

The NFL, like an offensive line, operates through coercion and force. It moves boulders with leverage, by jamming in a crow bar and flexing the muscle of the hallowed shield. Build us a stadium, or else … we’re moving to L.A. How many teams, for how many years, in how many cities have dangled that threat? How many have succumbed? How many have mortgaged their financial wellbeing to arbitrarily enrich a billionaire?

Maybe just once, someone, somewhere, will push back. Why can’t a city have leverage, too? Why can’t a mayor grow a backbone? Why can’t a community make ultimatums?

Call Deano’s bluff. Tell him the people have spoken, or 57 percent of them have at least. Tell him a stadium full of 75 percent fans from the visiting team has spoken. Tell him the market has spoken, that you’re not sure there’s a robust enough corporate culture to support all the luxury suites that ring modern NFL stadiums. Tell him this is a 30-year investment for a city operating in the red and you’re uncertain whether the NFL will hold the same allure in 2047 given falling TV ratings and rising incidence of CTE.


Tell him you won’t be held hostage by threats from a mouthpiece who was the mastermind of Lance Armstrong’s doping fraud.

Tell him you’re closer to wishing him well and maybe his best move is to move.

And see what happens.

If he leaves, he was probably leaving anyway. Good luck, good riddance. If he doesn’t, he crawls back to the negotiating table with a more realistic, more humble approach.


Or how about this: Tell Spanos you’re considering a new city-generated referendum. The city will agree to donate $350 million of tax money to a new stadium for an NFL team with one proviso: That it’s not owned by the Spanos family. That might get 66.7 percent. What might that do to the value of his franchise if indeed he has nowhere to go and he’s forced to sell?

Or this: You’re willing to give him $350 million for a new stadium if he gives you a cut of revenues. That’s only fair, right? If a company wants to build a new headquarters, it pays for the construction itself; solicits a loan which it repays later; or takes on an investment partner to bankroll the project. You just don’t hand over $350 million so the value of someone else’s company soars.

That’s leverage. That’s what gets people on equal footing at the negotiating table. That’s how compromises are chiseled.

It isn’t clear where Spanos will go. What is clear is that he’ll go wherever he gets the best deal, wherever he can make the biggest profit. He already tried L.A. last year. Didn’t work, so he tried to bamboozle voters in San Diego with a lopsided initiative that he got on the ballot by paying professional petition-mongers a reported $12 per signature, quadruple the going rate. This isn’t about loyalty to a city or fan base or lightning bolt. This is loyalty to money. This isn’t sports, this is business.


The best response to a bully is by bullying him back. By not cowering in a corner. By growing a backbone. By cowboying up, San Diego.

Spanos insists over and over and over that he wouldn’t discuss relocation publicly until after the regular-season finale, then blurts out with three games to go that he’s closer to L.A. as silver and black fans filled Qualcomm Stadium.

Go for it. Move. Do it.

Dare you.


Chargers × On Now Video: AFC wild-card round affirms Chargers* underachieved On Now Chargers' TV ratings in San Diego decline in 2017 On Now 'Inexcusable' loss by Chargers, now 3-6, at Jacksonville On Now Philip Rivers on relocation w/ Raiders, Chargers & seeing former DC John Pagano On Now Chargers sign kicker Nick Novak; cut Koo On Now Philip Rivers on the Chargers offense & former teammate Darren Sproles On Now Eagles fans take over StubHub vs. Chargers On Now Philip Rivers' new ride allows him to stay home 0:35 On Now Video: Reports: Chargers LB Perryman out 4-6 weeks On Now Video: Hardwick Trump-ets hidden SD faithful of Team Spanos 0:42

mark.zeigler@sduniontribune.com; Twitter: @sdutzeigler