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When we first heard the Rams were moving to LA, there was a debate on here on whether or not LA would support the team. One poster was pretty adamant that they would, and posted the numbers for the first preseason game. Some of us were skeptical, given the city's lack of support the last time the Rams were in town. Here is an article about their attendance. I tried to clean it up, but I would suggest clicking on the link because there are a ton of pics and tweets. By: Ryan Phillips | December 11, 2016 6:41 pm ET Los Angeles Rams Already Can't Fill Their Stadium The Rams moved from St. Louis this offseason because of the opportunities afforded them by the enormous market in Los Angeles. The thinking was that even with a mediocre to bad team, the desire for the NFL in La-La-Land was such that fans would flock to see the product in person. Many warned that attracting the attentions of the notoriously fickle Los Angeles fans wouldn’t be easy. It appears those warnings had merit. On Sunday, the Rams faced the Atlanta Falcons at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and, based on the game’s attendance, the honeymoon is already over for the NFL in Hollywood. Either that or a lot of Rams fans came dressed as empty seats. The NFL hasn’t been in Los Angeles in 20 years and it took just five regular season home games for the town’s citizens to fall out of love with the Rams. Even on a Sunday in December when the temperature was 63 degrees at kickoff, the team couldn’t fill its stadium. Plenty will argue that the Rams going 4-8 is why fans have stopped showing up, but any city can fill a stadium when its team is winning games. We were sold on the idea that people in LA were so desperate for the NFL that they would fill the stadium every week regardless of how the team was playing. Anyone even loosely familiar with Los Angeles sports fans knew that was complete bunk. There is only one team LA fans will show up for regardless of record: the Los Angeles Lakers. Other than that, you have to win to get butts to the seats and even then it might not be smooth sailing. And here’s the thing, people in Los Angeles actually wanted the Rams back. A team like the San Diego Chargers may be moving to LA and literally no one in the city wants them there. How are they going to draw anyone if they’re even mediocre? The NFL moving one team to LA might eventually prove itself to be a solid decision. But for that to happen the Rams are going to have to start contending as early as next season. Moving a second team to the city would be an absolute disaster for that franchise. How people within the NFL can’t see that is beyond me. http://thebiglead.com/2016/12/11/los-angeles-rams-already-cant-fill-their-stadium/
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I was okay with LA having 1 team. However, them having 2 is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of.
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I was okay with LA having 1 team. However, them having 2 is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. Same thing IMO. That city barely deserves one team
"First down inside the 10. A score here will put us in the Super Bowl. Jeudy is far to the left as Njoku settles into the slot. Tillman is flanked out wide to the right. Judkins and Ford are split in the backfield as Flacco takes the snap ... Here we go."
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I was okay with LA having 1 team. However, them having 2 is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. Same thing IMO. That city barely deserves one team I'm okay with 1 because of the market revenue potentially being good for the league as a whole. However, it should have been the Raiders. LA is a Raiders city.
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It's not like the majority of L.A. and surrounding area folks were pining away for the return of the Rams, at least not enough of those who would spend money on attendance, merchandise, etc.
Once the novelty and shiny veneer gave way to the ugly truth of a struggling team (and Goff wasn't immediately the savior), the result was typical.
Very different place, very different fan out there (imo).
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Yeah, it is pretty telling when your attendance sucks during your very first season back in the city.
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I feel bad for St. Louis cause their fans were loyal as hell.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
- Theodore Roosevelt
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~ Legend
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Attendance doesn't matter. Teams no longer make their money that way. Especially with blackout rules getting axed.
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We know how the money thang works, CHS.
However, attendance does matter. Concessions, parking, boost to local economy, etc.
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~ Legend
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Then let them get their own stadium before we start dropping the ax.
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They play at the Collesium... I don't think any team could sell out week to week there.
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They play at the Collesium... I don't think any team could sell out week to week there. Nope. Not only is it a dump, it is a dump with 93,067 seats in a bad part of town. Also, insane parking prices don't help in a place where people only drive their own cars to places. http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-ln-rams-parking-20160918-snap-story.html
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Yeah, there's a couple factors going on here, as other have mentioned:
1) LA is a Raiders town. It'll be interesting to see the dynamic when the Raiders move to Las Vegas and are only 4 hours away from LA. I wonder which team will do the best fan-wise, as I can see lots of people from LA just driving over to support the Raiders. Unlike most teams that move, they seemed to have kept a lot of their original fans.
2) The Rams suck right now. LA is as fair-weather as it gets. If they can get to be around a .500 team, the fans will start coming in.
3) They don't have a new stadium for another few years. The Coliseum is a dump. Ironically enough, second only to maybe the Chargers' and Raiders' old stadiums. Once the new place gets built, the attendance may improve.
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I don't think it will improve. LA has a history of not supporting pro football.
They love their Dodgers. The Lakers are a hot ticket due to the being seen thing.
The biggest reasons are that they love their college teams. They have USC and UCLA right there. Two major programs and USC is downright beloved.
I don't think LA will ever be a good pro football town.
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They play at the Collesium... I don't think any team could sell out week to week there. Did you bother to click on the link and look at the pictures of how many people were there? We get bigger crowds in Ohio for high school games. LOL
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They play at the Collesium... I don't think any team could sell out week to week there. Did you bother to click on the link and look at the pictures of how many people were there? We get bigger crowds in Ohio for high school games. LOL To be fair, that's 1 minute into the first quarter. Half the fans could still be trapped on the 405 for all we know.  But to be honest, it's a crappy team at the end of a crappy year ... even Cleveland fans can relate to that: 
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What a crazy franchise You do realize before the Browns, Cleveland’s NFL team was The Cleveland Rams (who won the 1945 NFL Championship and who the owner Dan Reeves promptly moved to LA the next year.) Cleveland Rams Hall of Fame quarterback Bob Waterfield.  So Cleveland went without an NFL team from 1946-1949 (sound familiar? Exactly 50 years later.)   I suspect there’s motivations beyond our knowledge (or belief).
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I found it odd that somebody would write an article like that and not give any actual attendance figures.. so I looked it up.
According to pro-football-reference.com, the Rams were second only to the Cowboys in home attendance. Now I don't know if that's paid or if that's butts in seats, I don't know... but the Cowboys averaged about 92,500 per game and the Rams averaged 83,200 per game...
yebat' Putin
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I found it odd that somebody would write an article like that and not give any actual attendance figures.. so I looked it up.
According to pro-football-reference.com, the Rams were second only to the Cowboys in home attendance. Now I don't know if that's paid or if that's butts in seats, I don't know... but the Cowboys averaged about 92,500 per game and the Rams averaged 83,200 per game...
This year? I wasn't aware of that.
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pro-football-reference If you click on where it says "HOME" it will resort by that column.
yebat' Putin
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I found it odd that somebody would write an article like that and not give any actual attendance figures.. so I looked it up.
According to pro-football-reference.com, the Rams were second only to the Cowboys in home attendance. Now I don't know if that's paid or if that's butts in seats, I don't know... but the Cowboys averaged about 92,500 per game and the Rams averaged 83,200 per game...
Which is all that really matters. Money in the pocket is more important than butts in seats.
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That is only true if you are ONLY looking at things from an NFL ownership perspective.
Look, I see the Cali guys on big on this thread and making excuses, but I will stand by what I said..............LA fans are about the Dodgers first. The Lakers always draw well because of the "status" thang. USC and even UCLA are more interesting to LA fans than pro football. Always was that way. Still that way.
But, keep trying to deceive the other posters and pretend LA is a great NFL town.
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That is only true if you are ONLY looking at things from an NFL ownership perspective.
Look, I see the Cali guys on big on this thread and making excuses, but I will stand by what I said..............LA fans are about the Dodgers first. The Lakers always draw well because of the "status" thang. USC and even UCLA are more interesting to LA fans than pro football. Always was that way. Still that way.
But, keep trying to deceive the other posters and pretend LA is a great NFL town. You definitely know the city where I have lived my entire life better than me.
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Cf, you would know better than me, but isn't LA more of a Raiders city?
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Cf, you would know better than me, but isn't LA more of a Raiders city? Definitely. I know of people who travel to Oakland for every home game. But there are still a ton of Rams fans as well. The problem is that many of them are in Orange County and that is not a fun drive to make (especially when the stadium is horrible, in a bad part of town, and park is hundreds of dollars [in some cases]). I don't know of anyone who thinks the Chargers moving here is a good idea.
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No cfrs, I am not claiming that I do.
However, are you going to deny that USC and UCLA are more interesting to LA residents than the Rams are?
Are you going to deny that the Dodgers are more important to LA residents than the Rams?
Are you going to deny that the Lakers are more important to LA residents than the Rams?
I lived there for a couple of years. Not saying that I have a better understanding of the city than you, but I am not ignorant regarding the topic.
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USC football, the Dodgers, and Lakers definitely yes. No one really cares about UCLA football.
But that does not eliminate the Rams as a viable option.
The greater Los Angeles area has a population of 18 million people. The Rams have a great chance of having support once their stadium is built.
For now it is hard to get people out to the games when the team and stadium are crappy, hard to get to, and/or expensive.
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I know you love your city/area, but man, it's not a great NFL city. Never has been.
I think you made a point in the Charger thread about there being so many other things to do. The same is true of LA, perhaps even more so. LA is not Green Bay. It is not Cleveland. It is not Buffalo. It is not Indianapolis. There is a [censored]-load to do there and unless the Rams win big, they aren't going to much of an "event."
Come on, man. You know this.
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I know you love your city/area, but man, it's not a great NFL city. Never has been. Tell this to the Raider fans who packed the Coliseum. Los Angeles has passionate fans for every sport. If the product is crap, they will not show up (just look at the last of McCourt and the Dodgers, I got a ticket behind home plate in the loge for fifty cents). The new stadium will draw a ton of people. Those people will become fans of the better team (Rams/Chargers).
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<<sigh>>
I should have known better. Have a nice day.
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I shouldn't have clicked it. My mistake. 
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Legend
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I know you love your city/area, but man, it's not a great NFL city. Never has been. Tell this to the Raider fans who packed the Coliseum. Los Angeles has passionate fans for every sport. If the product is crap, they will not show up (just look at the last of McCourt and the Dodgers, I got a ticket behind home plate in the loge for fifty cents). The new stadium will draw a ton of people. Those people will become fans of the better team (Rams/Chargers). I think you are confusing a "bad NFL city" with "fair-weather fan base". LA is a big city. They can support many different teams with the population of the area. They just don't show up when the teams stink. They're about as fickle as it gets. I think the biggest reason the teams moved from LA in the first place was the lack of a proper NFL stadium. California is next to impossible to get public funds for funding a new stadium. The Rams owner is paying for this new stadium, so they finally got that part of the puzzle fixed.
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The moves happened mostly because of stadium issues. The seats were far away from the playing field. There were no good seats in the house. Only fair to really bad.
If everybody had like minds, we would never learn. GM Strong
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Yeah, you're right. That bottom level looks like it sucks even at the 50 yard-line. Unless, you're in the front row. 
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But the luxury boxes look perfectly placed.
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I know you love your city/area, but man, it's not a great NFL city. Never has been. Tell this to the Raider fans who packed the Coliseum. Los Angeles has passionate fans for every sport. If the product is crap, they will not show up (just look at the last of McCourt and the Dodgers, I got a ticket behind home plate in the loge for fifty cents). The new stadium will draw a ton of people. Those people will become fans of the better team (Rams/Chargers). I think you are confusing a "bad NFL city" with "fair-weather fan base". LA is a big city. They can support many different teams with the population of the area. They just don't show up when the teams stink. They're about as fickle as it gets. The Clippers and Dodgers have drawn fans for years when they were bad.
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I found it odd that somebody would write an article like that and not give any actual attendance figures.. so I looked it up.
According to pro-football-reference.com, the Rams were second only to the Cowboys in home attendance. Now I don't know if that's paid or if that's butts in seats, I don't know... but the Cowboys averaged about 92,500 per game and the Rams averaged 83,200 per game...
Which is all that really matters. Money in the pocket is more important than butts in seats. So they averaged 83,200 with that crap of a team in a new city? Not bad... Only thing I'd want to know is what we're the numbers game by game... Being Ina stadium that can fit over 100k I could see it being inflated if say one or two games they were close to capacity and the rest was a huge drop How many seats will the new stadium have? I don't think they'll have trouble filling the stadium... This isn't Jacksonville we're talking about....
<><
#gmstrong
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It's in DC's link. I think their lowest was 50k or so. That attendance would by 1.5x larger than a sell out at the Charger's interim stadium.
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I would also like to point out that even USC, who was basically a pro team for a while, tarps over seats to limit the capacity. The Coliseum is giant.
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Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Ram's Attendance Already Sucking!
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