A lawsuit filed in San Diego Superior Court Monday night alleges that the NFL and Chargers officials violated the league’s relocation policies when team owners approved the San Diego Chargers’ relocation. I say to the angels.
the national soccer league, its 32 teams and the city of san diego are all named defendants in the lawsuit filed by former san diego city attorney michael aguirre and former deputy city attorney san diego maria severson on behalf of san diego resident and restaurant owner ruth henricks.
The lawsuit claims that even with the city spending millions in taxpayer dollars during the team’s stay in San Diego, and despite numerous efforts by city leaders to keep the team in San Diego, the owner of The Chargers, Dean Spanos, had “decided to move the team to Los Angeles” in 2006.
“Plaintiff suspected the alleged injury was caused by misconduct when he discovered in December 2021 that Chargers owner Dean Spanos admitted that he had already made the decision in 2006 to move the Chargers franchise to Los Angeles, but hid that decision. the complaint says. He added: “Plaintiff discovered these facts when he read a December 10, 2021 Union-Tribune article written by sports columnist Bryce Miller.”
The complaint cites a quote from former NFL official Jim Steeg, who told the San Diego Union-Tribune last month that Spanos had already planned the relocation, “it just took him 10 years to do it.”
spanos told Chargers fans in a 1997 public statement that the team would remain in San Diego unless the franchise suffered “severe financial difficulties,” however, according to the lawsuit, Spanos “broke his word” two decades later and announced los angeles move even though the chargers were worth over a billion dollars as of 2017.
on january 1st on january 12, 2017, the shippers tweeted a letter from dean spanos, announcing the decision to move to los angeles from san diego.
The lawsuit further alleges that despite “a substantial expenditure of public funds” related to the establishment of a new san diego stadium or the improvement of the existing stadium, “there were no good faith negotiations on the part of the shippers or the nfl” and “the team did not meet with the community or the city in a meaningful way.”
on November 1 24, 2021, the st. louis regional convention and sports complex authority, city of st. louis and st. louis county agreed to a $790 million settlement with the nfl, as a result of a lawsuit filed over the relocation of the rams to los angeles, alleging violations of the league’s relocation policy, similarly filed by aguirre and severson.
aguirre and severson made a request to the mayor of san diego, todd gloria, the jan. 14, 2022, asking whether or not the city planned to file a lawsuit, as did the city of st. louis, to recoup taxpayer losses from relocating shippers.
Their request asked that the mayor and the city respond to them before January 1. 21, but the city refused to respond to their letter, leading to legal action by henricks, aguirre and severson in an attempt to recover alleged taxpayer losses.
City officials, however, appeared to welcome the lawsuit, acknowledging that “suing the National Soccer League is an expensive and uphill battle,” Gloria and city attorney Mara Elliott wrote. , in a joint statement sent to NBC 7 San Diego.
“as Mr. Aguirre himself has stated in interviews, and his lawsuit on behalf of the taxpayers is in its earliest stage, given that the city’s taxpayers would be the recipients of the damages and restitution that the court may award If litigation prevails, we wish Mr. Aguirre success in this effort,” his statement added.
The first hearing in this case is scheduled for 9:15 a.m. m. on July 1, 2022 in San Diego Superior Court.
You can see a copy of the complaint filed here: