The Chargers' Cosy Crib

Ever since the move of the Chargers to Los Angeles was confirmed, there has been a lot of buzz around their new digs. And with reason. The franchise has chosen to -at least temporarily- welcome their fans in Stubhub Center, in Carson, California. A choice which has drawn the ridicule, but also interest of many a pundit.

That’s Stubhub is a soccer stadium, home of the LA Galaxy, of David Beckham fame. And although the sport is still growing, it’s stadiums are considerably smaller. The venue has been called ‘tiny’, ‘altogether too small to host professional football games’, and ‘a unique fan experience’.

But exactly how small is it? And compared to what?

Well, in its soccer configuration, the stadium seats 27,000 fans. For Charger games, it will seat 30,000. That actually sounds respectable. Now let’s put that number into perspective:

The three biggest stadiums in the US are all College stadiums:

1. Michigan Stadium 107,601 – Michigan Wolverines*
2. Beaver Stadium 106,572 – Penn State Nittany Lions
3. Ohio Stadium 104,994 – Ohio State Buckeyes

*I particularly like the 1 in that 107,601 of the Michigan Wolverines. You can’t help but wonder where he has to sit.

In fact, the first NFL stadium doesn’t appear until number 10, and that’s only thanks to that other Los Angeles team: The Rams can host 93,607 in their classic venue.

Including them, the rest of the notable NFL stadiums list reads as follows:

10. LA Coliseum, 93,607 – LA Rams
11. AT&T Stadium 90,000 – Dallas Cowboys
12. Lambeau Field 81,435 – Green Bay
13. Mercedes-Benz Superdome 76,468 – Saints
14. FirstEnergy Stadium 73,200 – Browns
15. University of Phoenix Stadium 63,400 – Cardinals
16. Soldier Field 61,500 – Bears

I included the Browns in this list, because of the contrast with their college-level counterpart, the Ohio State Buckeyes. The pro team in this state has a stadium that’s 30% smaller than the college team. Understandable, given the history of the NFL, but still very weird for oversea fans.

The smallest pro-team stadium belongs to the Chicago Bear: Soldier Field houses 61,500 fans, making it the 69th largest stadium in the country.

In other words, Soldier Field + Stubhub Center = LA Coliseum. Or Jerryworld, or close to it.

But second (or third) placed pro-stadium Lambeau Field + Stubhub Center still wouldn’t add up to the biggest stadium in the US.

Stubhub Center is only half as big as the current smallest NFL stadium, and one third the size of the biggest. Coincidentally, that biggest one is home to the other team vying for the heart of the Angelenos.

Now, let’s take those numbers, and add some more context to them. Maybe some international context. I’m from Belgium. It’s not a big country. In fact, with our population of 10 million, it probably is the Stubhub Center of Europe.

But for a while we were #1 on the FIFA World Rankings, and we do have a pretty long history of soccer.

So let’s compare the tiny, quant experiment of a stadium that is Stubhub Center to our stadiums.

1. Koning Boudewijn Stadium 50,093 – National team
2. Jan Breydel Stadium 29,062 – Club Bruges
3. Stade Maurice Dufrasne 28,272 – Standard Liège
4. Luminus Arena 23,718 – Racing Genk
5. Constant Vanden Stock Stadium 21,500 – RSCA Anderlecht
6. Freethiel Stadium 8,190 – SK Beveren

The biggest stadium in Belgium, is Koning Boudewijn Stadium. Home to 50,000 fans of the national team and just about every big sporting event in the country. But not to a pro soccer team.

The biggest stadium for a pro team, would be Jan Breydel Stadium, at -you guessed it- 29k fans. Smaller than Stubhub Center.

And by now you’ve surely spotted the smallest pro-team stadium in Belgium, Freethiel Stadium. And no, it’s no typo. There’s room for 8,190 faithfuls.

So even the biggest stadium in our country, is smaller than the current smallest NFL stadium in the US (Bears). Not only that, but if you would take every fan from the top 4 of our biggest pro-team stadiums and fly them to Michigan, not only would they all fit in the stands, they would finally get to see what real football looks like.

Yes, Stubhub is very small. But there always is smaller!

Looking at the list of stadiums, it’s also very apparent that most of the newer stadiums tend to end up in the lower half of the list of pro stadiums. It seems the number of seats isn’t the prime focus anymore.

And another aside that popped out at me: The Rams really got shafted with the LA Coliseum. Granted, it’s one of the coolest venues when the sun is setting late in the summer. But filling up that stadium will be a hell of a lot tougher than filling up Stubhub.

E: Sorted out some layout issues. I'll never get the hang of Markdown.
This is also here with some pictures to better illustrate. If that's alright?