It's official! San Diego Chargers announce move to Los Angeles

SAN DIEGO, Calif. (FOX 11 / AP) - The San Diego Chargers are moving to Los Angeles, where they will join the recently relocated Rams in giving the nation's second-largest media market two NFL teams for the first time in decades.

Team chairman Dean Spanos made the announcement Thursday in a letter posted on the Chargers' Twitter account.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reported the team held a staff meeting at 8 a.m. Thursday.

Spanos cited the Chargers' long history in San Diego. "But today, we turn the page and begin an exciting new era as the Los Angeles Chargers," Spanos said in the letter.

The Chargers' decision to move comes less than three months after San Diego voters resoundingly rejected a team-sponsored measure asking for $1.15 billion in increased hotel occupancy taxes to help fund a $1.8 billion downtown stadium and convention center.

They're leaving behind a loyal fan base that cheered for Dan Fouts, Charlie Joiner and Kellen Winslow during the Air Coryell years in the 1970s and early 1980s, and for Junior Seau, Stan Humphries and Natrone Means on the Chargers' only Super Bowl team in 1994.

San Diego could become a tenant in the stadium being built in Inglewood for the Rams if the Chargers exercise that option.

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