This is disappointing for New Orleans Saints fans in California who were hoping to catch sight of their team at this week’s joint practices with the Los Angeles Chargers: the Chargers are only allowing their own season ticket holders to attend practice sessions with the Saints on Thursday and Friday.
Last time the black and gold were in town, Saints fans took over the Chargers’ Hoag Performance Center, and obviously that’s not something the Bolts would like to see repeat. Attendance has been a major problem for the Chargers since team owner Dean Spanos burnt his bridge with San Diego, which had been home to the team since 1961 — fracturing generations of ties to the community and leaving the Chargers with little support in Los Angeles.
Under Spanos’s leadership the team struggled to pack out the 27,000-seat Dignity Health Sports Park soccer arena before moving into SoFi Stadium as renters of the Los Angeles Rams, where their home crowd has often been overwhelmed by droves of visiting fans supporting the road team.
The Chargers lost their first home game at SoFi Stadium to the visiting Dallas Cowboys in 2021; afterwards, Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy agreed that “It felt a lot of ways like a home game, definitely a home game.”
Odds are good that some enterprising Saints fans will find a way to get into these practice sessions and cheer on their team, and maybe get some autographs after the final whistle. Odds are better that many more of them will be packing the stands at SoFi Stadium when the Saints kick off on Sunday at 6 p.m. CT. The matchup will be nationally broadcast on NFL Network.
