EL SEGUNDO, CA – If anyone has doubts about the future of the Chargers in Los Angeles, owner Dean Spanos hopes to answer them on a festive Wednesday to create a new team headquarters.
The chargers have already begun work on the 14-acre site, which is scheduled for completion in July 2024.
“It’s been five years since we made it. We finally have our home for the future. This is our home now,” Spanos said.
The Chargers left San Diego for Los Angeles in 2017. They played at Carson Football Club for three seasons before becoming co-tenants with the Rams at SoFi Stadium in 2020.
While searching for a site for a permanent facility, the Chargers have had temporary headquarters in Costa Mesa — in Orange County — since 2017.
Most of the locations that shippers considered for their new home were in Los Angeles County.
The headquarters will be less than 3 miles from Los Angeles International Airport and 7 miles from SoFi Stadium. Sonnenblick-Eichner of Beverly Hills announced in March that it had arranged $276 million to build and permanently finance the facility.
The complex was designed by Gensler Sports and includes three full-size pitches, along with the main building which houses team meeting rooms, training space, a rooftop hospitality club and an esports games studio. It will also host a Chargers training camp.
quarterback Justin Herbertwho had an NFL-caliber facility at the University of Oregon, said the headquarters could help attract free agents and retain existing players.
“You have to be up there with the best of the best,” he said. “The Spanos family has invested a lot, and it’s up to us as players to go out and deliver.”
The NBA’s Lakers and NHL’s Kings also have their own training facilities in El Segundo. The ceremony was attended by Lakers owner Jenny Boss and King’s President Luc Ropital.
While Rams owner Stan Crone spent billions building the lavish SoFi stadium and surrounding campus, coaches and players still spend weekdays working from makeshift trailers at the team-built Spartan training complex on the California Lutheran University campus in Thousand Oaks afterward. Her return from St. Louis in 2016.
But the Rams finally could be on the move in a few seasons: Earlier this month, a Los Angeles city council member confirmed that Kronk had bought the Woodland Hills Promenade for $150 million. The team is expected to build a training complex on the site, although it has not announced any plans or even confirmed Kroenke’s purchase of the property.
Spanos tried to downplay the fact that his team had made headway at a new facility before defending the Super Bowl champions.
“Listen, we have to do what we have to do, just like they do. It’s not a race for us for the first or second time. I don’t look at it that way,” he said.