This is a great time of year to be thankful for what we have, where we have been, and what the future holds. Although the Chargers have lost their way a bit in recent years, the month of December still holds such incredible promise! This advent calendar is an attempt to hearken back to these days of December joy. Each day will bring a new advent from the Bolts’ history that makes it wonderful to be a Chargers fan.

Dec. 11: A New Football Palace

The Chargers certainly ruffled some feathers when they decided to “ditch the Q” and head up north for greener pastures that aren’t yet built. While they currently reside in StubHub Center, all of the team’s moves have been made with an eye on the NFL’s gem-to-be: Los Angeles Stadium at Hollywood Park (Inglewood Stadium is the typical short-form).

What could lure a team to an uncertain field?

Possibilities (and not having to build a stadium themselves). The Chargers, while tenants in the stadium being designed around and directly for the Rams, believe that there are incredible upsides to playing in a stadium that looks to put JerryWorld to shame.

NBC Los Angeles

The project will include the stadium of up to 100,240 seats (including standing room-only seats) and a performance entertainment venue of up to 6,000 seats. All the while re-configuring the previously approved Hollywood Park plan for up to 900,000 square feet of retail, 800,000 square feet of office space, 2,500 new residential and condo units, a 300-room luxury hotel, and 25 acres of public parks, playgrounds, open space, a lake and pedestrian, bicycle, and mass-transit access for future services. It’s almost as if a stadium is the second or third bullet on the list!

Michael Marchesano, vice president of field operations for the stadium, recently met with Mike Waldner of The Daily Breeze:

As of Sept. 18, the day of the tour, Marchesano said the project was about 52 percent completed, reeling off facts such as structural steel is at 95 percent, the pre-cast is at 52 percent and a compression ring, “it allows us to pin that entire roof system together,” was 50 percent.

Woh-oh, they’re half way there!

According to ABC, there are about 3,000 people working on the stadium daily. That’s an incredible amount of manpower, and that’s exactly what it will take to have the stadium finished for the 2020 season.

The 2023 Super Bowl is scheduled to arrive at the stadium (as will the college football championship game), and the Olympics not far after that in 2028. When that date arrives, it will be more than the Rams or the Chargers’ pride on the line, this stadium complex will represent the United States as a whole!

NBC LA

More bells and whistles are rumored each coming week regarding the facility, and it is clear that the project is still very much a moving and evolving thing. One thing is for certain: when fans finally arrive at Hollywood Park, they will experience a stadium the likes of which the world has never seen.

-Jason “I still prefer the Murph” Michaels