Our 2013 NFL Tech Series provides a quick hit of tech insight on all 32 NFL teams up until kickoff of Week 1 of the regular season. Each feature includes the latest tech advances implemented by the organization in the effort to advance the team’s success… in a wide variety of venues. Stadium experience, fan engagement, mobile technologies, player performance and health, statistical data gathering and analysis… any and all aspects of the organization’s procedures in the effort to find success in the NFL is on the table. We’re uncovering those efforts, investigating those innovations and pondering the benefit they might provide, for the team, players and fans alike… today and looking forward.
Today’s focus is on the San Diego Chargers, a team in serious limbo right now with an outdated stadium and little hope for the possibility of a new one in the current situation.
As the saying goes, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
This maxim has applied to the San Diego Chargers for many years. The team is located in arguably one of the greatest cities in America, a modern day utopia devoid of freezing cold or unbearably hot temperatures, suffered by so much of the rest of America. So inevitably, something has to give.
And that something is Qualcomm Stadium, which was built in 1967 and which hasn’t seen an update since 1997, a full 16 years ago. The sub-par facility situated in a very affluent community, has put a serious damper on the franchise that was once the home of one of the greatest running backs of all-time, LaDainian Tomlinson.
San Diego is not unique. Professional sports in California, generally, bring with them additional headaches for owners that many franchises around the country never have to deal with. The San Francisco Giants completely financed their own stadium, unheard of in this day and age, with publically financed stadiums and city politicians that line up to give teams whatever they need to build new fancy facilities.
The San Francisco 49ers tried to secure a new stadium since 1997 and are finally moving into their new facility in 2014. Both the Oakland Raiders and Athletics desperately want to stay in the Bay Area, but have had no luck identifying a location or any reasonable path towards funding for a new stadium.
And so the San Diego Chargers are likely going to be playing at Qualcomm for as long as they have San Diego in their name. The city has no interest in public funding for a new stadium and while there were brief rumblings about moving to Los Angeles, it seems that the NFL isn’t as very highly motivated to bring professional football to the second largest city in the United States.
According to Arash Markazi’s 2011 column:
The last time Qualcomm Stadium got anything close to a face-lift was in 1997, when a $78 million expansion brought the total seating capacity to 71,500 and the total number of suites to 113, along with four club-level lounges. The upgrades helped San Diego get the Super Bowl in 2003, but before the game, when then-NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue looked at the stadium, which had just been refurbished five years earlier, he was far from impressed.
“I’m surprised that we are here this week,” Tagliabue said before the Super Bowl. “If it weren’t for [Chargers owner] Alex [Spanos] impressing upon the committee and upon the membership the importance of coming back here from his perspective, I don’t think that San Diego would have been on the top of the list of most owners who were considering Super Bowl sites. So I don’t think the outlook is promising. … I think it’s unlikely that there’s going to be a Super Bowl in the immediate future in San Diego.”
And that was from 2011. In short it is just not looking good right now for the Chargers future in San Diego.
Despite all the challenges, the Chargers are trying to move forward technologically in ways that don’t involve their outdated stadium.
The team is making their ticket operations high-tech this season as they have launched the ““Virtual Venue” – an online ticket platform that allows the user to see views from various seats inside the stadium.”
“We’re probably leading the pack when it comes to technology,” said Director of Ticket Sales Todd Poulsen.
The site enables fans to choose their seats according to their own personalized preferences, not limited to the “best available” auto-function found on many ticket websites. It provides fans with a 360-degree, 3D view of the seats and enables potential buyers to see the sight lines before they purchase their tickets.
“What’s a great seat to one person is not to another,” Poulsen said. The platform also allows users to see what Charger players see with a 3D view from the field into the stands.
Overall, it has been a challenge for the Chargers as they try to move forward in their antiquated stadium in a city that fervently will not provide tax dollars for a new stadium. In the new-age NFL with new stadiums sprouting up yearly supporting the latest technological bells and whistles, it is imperative that the Chargers improve their current facilities and amenities at Qualcomm. The team needs to take a long, hard look at San Diego in order to determine if it is the location with the best fit for the team to compete at the highest level.
Taylor Bloom contributed to this report.