Dean Spanos and the Chargers lost out on his plan to build a stadium in Carson, California as Jerry Jones helped facilitate a more ambitious project in Inglewood led by Stan Kroenke and the Rams.
After losing to Kroenke, Spanos blew $15 million on a long-shot ballot initiative for a new stadium in San Diego, which destroy any remaining goodwill with the fanbase.
Many owners believed the NFL's $550 million relocation fee Spanos would need to move to Los Angeles would have been better invested as part of a new stadium in San Diego.
"It wasn't rational," a high-level league source said of the Chargers' decision.
Spanos, however, had grown frustrated by his attempts to build a new stadium in San Diego. Spanos saw the move to Los Angeles as Kroenke's tenant as "a favorable, low-risk deal," according to one of his confidants.