Chargers tu camp into a Fan Fest

COSTA MESA >> Yes, folks, there was a time when an NFL training camp was not a spectator sport or a marketing opportunity.

What would Vince Lombardi or George Allen think? They’d probably consider today’s open-to-the-public practices akin to a three-ring circus and wonder how anyone got anything done.

For the new team in town, though, training camp is the First Impression. And the Chargers, following the example of the Rams, have extended themselves this preseason on the grounds of the Jack Hammett Sports Complex, located next to Costa Mesa High School.

Their 13 training camp practices on the site, the last of which will be Tuesday, feature food trucks, a merchandise tent, water stations, a fan service desk, interactive test-your-skills exhibits and a large centerpiece with the lightning bolt and the team’s ubiquitous “Fight for L.A.” slogan.

Plus bleachers that seat 3,000 fans.

The place was full opening day, July 31, which also happened to be the only weekend day that the Chargers had a practice scheduled in Costa Mesa. Their other weekend availability was the joint practice with the Rams Aug. 5 at StubHub Center, which was limited to season ticket holders and wait list members.

For most practices at Jack Hammett, Chargers spokesman Josh Rupprecht said, attendance has been around 2,000 a day. Last Thursday, when the New Orleans Saints joined the Chargers for the first of two joint practices, there were around 3,000 on the premises.

Of course, there is this rationalization: If you come to a practice, where admission is free, the starters actually get a decent amount of reps. If you attend Sunday night’s preseason exhibition against the Saints at StubHub, paying regular season prices, you may see the regulars play a quarter if you’re lucky.

Those who remember the open practices at the club’s previous headquarters in San Diego may be nodding knowingly, though. See? They’re trying harder in Los Angeles than they ever did here.

Which is true in a number of different areas. The Chargers did take their San Diego clientele for granted for a good long time, and they did little to ingratiate themselves with that community even while seeking a new stadium that was never going to happen.

But in faiess, they couldn’t do many fan-friendly things with their training camp because they didn’t have adequate space.

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The Chargers Park property, where the club trained, was 14 acres but that included buildings and players/staff parking lots. There was no room for any sort of fan fest area, the bleachers for public practices seated only a few hundred, and fans were forced to park along Murphy Canyon Rd.

Mark Tamar, hired by the Chargers this off-season as their vice-president of fan experience, said he had similar issues at his previous stop, with the Seattle Seahawks. There, fans had to park at a satellite lot and were bused into the team complex. Again, capacity was limited.

Here, as the guy in charge of both the training camp experience and in setting up entertainment and fan engagement activities at StubHub Center on game days, he has had a blank canvas. In the case of training camp, it’s a 14 1/2-acre property that encompasses essentially six full fields. The Chargers are using two fields for practice, and the rest of the property is open for business.

“It’s a huge open space, and it allowed us a really nice footprint to develop activity zones that are wide open,” Tamar said. “We have a mini-combine. We have a quarterback challenge. We have a lot of activities that you can’t do in a smaller area, so we’re actually very lucky to get this size of a space. ...

“What’s the best way to fill this space so our fans really have a great time? I think we’ve accomplished that. We’ve had great numbers here every day. You can feel the energy, and the players have said it too.”

The practices themselves may be free, but parking is $10 and it isn’t on-site. There are spaces across the street at Orange Coast College, and the overflow is directed to the Orange County Fairgrounds further down Fairview Road.

It’s difficult to tell how many, if any, of those who show up are new fans. The suspicion from fan reaction at a recent practice is that many if not most are pre-existing Chargers fans. If the club is truly going to “fight for L.A.” the already converted alone won’t be enough.

(Of course, since that was one of the joint practices with the Saints, there were lots of New Orleans fans on hand. Charger veterans should be used to that concept, too.)

The fan presence doesn’t seem to be a distraction to players’ preparation, although position coaches probably have to watch themselves when they’re tempted to let it rip after a player makes a mistake.

“It brings some energy to practice,” Coach Anthony Lynn said. “And these fans are awesome.”

It definitely beats the alteative. Philip Rivers recalled his rookie year in 2004, when the Chargers trained on the practice fields at what is now StubHub but was then called Home Depot Center.

“We were coming off a bad season, and we were (based) in San Diego but we were in Carson, and I was only there for one day of camp” because of a holdout, Rivers told reporters at the start of this camp. “Literally there were about 12 people there. I’m serious.

“So I wasn’t sure (about the reception this time). But there’s a lot of excitement.”

There is one other quirk. Since there are no locker rooms on site, players dress across the street at OCC and take shuttle buses to the field. Thus, the Chargers set up a “high five zone,” for fans to gather along the fence and greet the players as they come off the buses.

That’s tuing a negative into a positive. The Chargers will probably have to do a lot of that while searching for their L.A. audience.

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