Over their first two preseason games at StubHub Center the Chargers have only played to 78% capacity, which would normally be pretty good for exhibition games.
But this is not a normal situation.
Look at it this way: 78% of a stadium that holds, say, 70,000 fans means 54,600 people are in attendance. That is almost exactly twice the capacity of the 27,000-seat soccer stadium in Carson the Bolts are calling home for three years.
If 62,888 people can trek to the Los Angeles Coliseum to see a really bad Rams team then you’d have to figure, in an area with more than 18 million people like Los Angeles, it would be possible to find 27,000 people who would want to see an NFL game with a really bad Chargers team, even if it is just the preseason. But instead they are staying away from the Chargers in droves.
And what’s kind of sad is the guys in the incredibly cramped Chargers locker room at StubHub Center are not really surprised about it.
“I wasn’t expecting a sellout or anything like that,” said Chargers Head Coach Anthony Lynn, “but I think they were loud and when you give them something to cheer for they cheer.”
The fans that are there to actually root for the “home” team (and it is probably a little more than 50% of the actual rumps in the seats) haven’t had much to cheer for. The Chargers offense has not scored a touchdown since the very first drive of the preseason (the only one Philip Rivers has been on the field for) and not mustered a single point in six consecutive quarters.
So aside from small bursts of excitement like Dexter McCoil’s 99-yard pick-6 the “crowd” in Carson has acted more like it’s at the symphony than a football game.
“I think it’ll pick up during the regular season,” said running back Melvin Gordon. “Everyone knows preseason is not as many fans come. The starters aren’t playing that long. But I’m expecting the regular season to be crazy.”
The $136 average ticket price, which is 5th-highest in the NFL, is a big reason the preseason games at StubHub have not sold out and the Chargers say all the regular season seats have been sold so perhaps Gordon is right.
Of course, how many of those seats will be filled with Bolts fans is a whole different conversation.
