Legendary Chargers Quarterback Says Team's Temporary Home Is Embarrassing

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Legendary Chargers quarterback Dan Fouts who led the team in San Diego during the Air Coryell years says it's embarrassing that they have to play at the Stub Hub Center.

"It is embarrassing, I think, for both the Chargers and the National Football League, to be playing in a 27,000-seat stadium," Fouts, said Monday in an interview with KNX 1070 News Radio. "In fact, the Chargers' first game ever, when they beat the New York Titans in a preseason game, in the Coliseum, it drew 27,000."

Only 21,054 showed up for the first game back in Los Angeles after 57 years against Seattle and 21,197 against New Orleans. In their final season in Qualcomm Stadium, the Chargers averaged just over 57,000.

The team will play in the Sub Hub Center, home of MLS' Los Angeles Galaxy, until the new stadium in Inglewood, to be shared with the Rams, is ready in 2020.

Fouts, who quarterbacked the team from 1973-1987, now works for an analyst for CBS during the regular season has been broadcasting the team's preseason games.

He says Dean Spanos and the city of San Diego are both to blame after negotiations for more than a decade over a new stadium fell flat.

"Both the city and the ownership are to blame for where the Chargers are right now," he said. "They couldn't get together on a deal for a new stadium for over 15 years, so both sides have to share in the responsibility."