Joe Ellis feels sadness about Chargers’ departure from San Diego, a ‘special place’ to Broncos
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. —Every year when the Broncos returned to San Diego, the franchise could relive some of its fondest memories.
It wasn’t just about some of the big wins the club had against the Chargers at their half-century-old stadium in Mission Valley, but also a day that remains perhaps the greatest in club history: Jan. 25, 1998, when the Broncos finally broke through for their first Super Bowl win after four losses over the previous 20 years.
Qualcomm Stadium was also the place where Pat Bowlen became the fastest NFL owner to the 300-win mark, with a 28-20 win at San Diego on Nov. 10, 2013 pushing him to that cherished milestone.
Whether it was named San Diego Stadium, Jack Murphy Stadium or after a cellular-phone company, it was a venue where the Broncos won 24 games over the years — more than in any stadium that was not their home.
And now it’s a place to where the Broncos won’t return after the Chargers announced their intention to relocate to Los Angeles, acting on the option given to them by league owners last year.
“Ever since the Broncos have been in existence, we’ve gone there, so it does have kind of a special place in our heart and we’re going to miss it,” President/CEO Joe Ellis said Thursday. “And it’s not great when teams relocate, but unfortunately, it’s come to this.”
But Ellis, the Broncos’ representative at owners meetings and a member of the league’s stadium committee, felt that Chargers owner Dean Spanos had no choice after a series of dead ends in their efforts to find a solution to replace their aging stadium.
“Dean had to make a decision that was in the best interest of his franchise,” Ellis said. “It’s kind of a sad day when these things happen — especially to a community like that which gave such great support to its team.”
The NFL’s departure from a city that hosted three Super Bowls and 56 seasons of Chargers football following the then-AFL club’s relocation from Los Angeles for the 1961 season left Ellis with a sense of melancholy.
“That’s probably a good way of putting it,” he said. “I think the Spanos family has done everything they possibly could to get a stadium built there and work with the community. It just didn’t work out.”
The Chargers announced their intention to play the next two seasons at the StubHub Center in Carson, Calif., which will seat 30,000 for their games. Currently the home of the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer and the annual NFLPA Collegiate Bowl all-star game, it would be the NFL’s smallest stadium by a margin of 26,063 seats.
Ellis said the stadium committee hasn’t discussed the Chargers’ intent to play in a stadium that would be the NFL’s smallest in generations.