The Chargers’ land deal in Santa Ana dissolved early this year, as the team plays another season in San Diego. ( / Michael Gehlken)

What could’ve been the site this Saturday to the Los Angeles Chargers’ first training-camp practice since 1960 is instead a fenced-off dirt lot littered with stones and star-spangled cans of empty America. Not one grass blade protrudes acres of dry, rugged terrain. The only sign of life, beer cans aside, are track marks construction vehicles left however long ago.

This graveyard is San Diego’s alternate reality.

It is what could have been, what still might be.


Chargers coach Mike McCoy is not in the business of coulds or mights. Players will report Friday to the fourth training camp in his tenure. While there is no sense ignoring the backdrop to the 2016 season — an unbuilt stadium and possible franchise relocation cast a shadow over it all — his primary focus remains where he is paid for it to be.

Football.

And that area excites him.

× Acee-Gehlken: Ready to Report


The Chargers announced in January, shortly before committing to San Diego for another season rather than immediately following the Rams to Los Angeles, they acquired land in Santa Ana for the development of a temporary team facility. Quietly, that deal fell through soon thereafter, sources said this week. Mark Fabiani, Chargers special council, confirmed the franchise has severed ties to the site.

As the 2016 football season develops, the Santa Ana land won’t.

“When we decided in late January to give it another shot here in San Diego, we ended our plans for that training site,” Fabiani said. “We’ve really focused on this ballot measure. … We haven’t focused on the other part of that equation.”

For now, and for the 56th straight year, San Diego is home.


The team’s Murphy Canyon facility again will host its training camp, the first practice of which comes Saturday at 9:30 a.m. That familiar location, Chargers Park, hosted workouts in the spring.

What occurred then fuels hope for what’s to come.

1 / 8 Francisco Perez (left) and Al Meyer paint a bolt at center field. (Eduardo Contreras) 2 / 8 Francisco Perez (middle), Armando Garcia (right) and Al Meyer (left) paint a bolt at center field. (Eduardo Contreras) 3 / 8 Francisco Perez (right), Armando Garcia (middle) and Al Meyer (left) paint a bolt at center field. (Eduardo Contreras) 4 / 8 Francisco Perez (right) and Armando Garcia (left) paint a bolt at center. (Eduardo Contreras) 5 / 8 Zach Smith (left) and Brendan Cleary put “dummies” onto sleds. (Eduardo Contreras) 6 / 8 Zach Smith, Chris Smith, and Brendan Cleary sort through sled pads. (Eduardo Contreras) 7 / 8 Grounds keepers Francisco Perez (left) and Armando Garcia (right) align hash marks during their painting of the field. (Eduardo Contreras) 8 / 8 Grounds keeper Al Meyers prepares to move a 5 man offensive sled. (Eduardo Contreras)

By all accounts, a passerby without knowledge of the Chargers’ 2015 season couldn’t guess this team finished 4-12 last year based on how it looked in the spring. Yes, optimism during the offseason is as rampant and infectious as Olympic water. But that alone does not dismiss the notion out of hand.


McCoy saw a fast start.

He saw key players who were injured or ineffective last year come back healthy and sharper. Wide receiver Keenan Allen was back in every way from a Week 8 kidney laceration that ended his season. Cornerback Brandon Flowers rededicated himself, seeming to rewind his body. Others like Pro Bowl cornerback Jason Verrett continued their natural development in the league, as many players who were thrust into heavier action than expected in 2015 seemed better for the experience.

When a team signs a savvy cornerback like Casey Hayward or a speedy wide receiver like Travis Benjamin, it knows it’s adding two veterans entering their prime from an age standpoint; both are in their second contracts. More significant was how a few older free agents acclimated.

The offensive and defensive lines needed revamping. McCoy saw center Matt Slauson, 30, and nose tackle Brandon Mebane, 31, embrace being the new nucleus to those respective groups. However cheeky it sounds, the leadership added was palpable, exactly what each unit needed.


The same goes for safety Dwight Lowery, 30.

“I love the way guys worked this offseason,” said McCoy, who cited the team’s strength and conditioning staff as helping set the tone. “Not to take anything from how the (players) worked the three years before, but this was our best offseason as an entire unit. It was different this year. … Those three guys are old school the way they come to work every day, and you love it.”

The next month will help determine how it all comes together.

The Chargers, like the offseason before, identified the running game as a needed area of improvement. Their goal went unmet in 2015, the team rushing average hopping from just 3.4 to 3.5 yards per carry. This year looks different with the offensive line and tight end coaches all new to the staff. So is the coordinator, Ken Whisenhunt, after a two-year departure.


Can they help oversee a leap?

Chargers Training Camp Preview

A meeting of the minds was held after those hirings. McCoy opened the floor. He wanted everyone to voice opinions based on their backgrounds, the O-line coaches having spent recent years in Minnesota and New England. Spring strides will carry more weight when the pads come on, but players on both sides of the ball said that the line’s double teams haven’t looked so crisp in some time.

For McCoy, there are more controllable questions at Chargers Park than how long he and his team inhabit it.

Chargers Chairman of the Board Dean Spanos is expected to address players at a team meeting Friday as he does at the start of each camp. A stadium update is anticipated — shoving the issue aside is not feasible — but this training camp internally won’t be about that.


It’ll be about carrying over the spring.

It’ll be about the team doing its part.

It’ll be about returning to the postseason after one berth the past six years.

“As coaches and players, we have jobs to do,” McCoy said. “We’re here to win football games. Everything else will take care of itself. We’re not naïve. We all understand the situation. We understand what’s out there. But we’ve got to win. That helps the (stadium) campaign. That’s the best thing that we can do.”


Empty dirt lots aren’t their concern.

The field is.