Both the Rams and Chargers opened this season as "favorites to win their divisions," so L.A. fans should "get excited" about the NFL this year, according to Lindsay Jones of THE ATHLETIC. The franchises' "short-term focus is on winning division titles and making the Super Bowl, but the long-term focus is on selling suites and season tickets" and building toward the $4B stadium set to open in '20. Rams COO & Exec VP/Football Operations Kevin Demoff said, "Winning might be the cover charge to get in, but it's not just that. You have to have stars, they have to have personalities, you have to be able to break through the clutter of the entire market." Jones noted both teams are "anxiously looking for ways to break through with a notoriously fickle fan base" and find a way to compete not just with each other for fans' expendable income, but also with "iconic franchises like the Lakers and Dodgers." The Rams are "certainly also investing in the present, stealing from the blueprint of the Showtime Lakers by trying to attract some of the league's biggest stars." LeBron James' arrival in L.A. this summer "could make it more difficult" for the Rams and Chargers to compete with the Lakers, but to Demoff it just "reinforced the Rams' theory on what fans here want: big stars." Meanwhile, the Chargers are "trying to make smaller, incremental moves" into the L.A. sports scene. That includes "Backstage: Chargers," a "'Hard Knocks'-esque show that premiered" last week. The Chargers have also "made a push to integrate themselves" into the community, through more than 150 "community service events in the past year, many focused on social justice initiatives" (THEATHLETIC.com, 9/10).
HOME-FIELD DISADVANTAGE: NBCSN's Mike Florio said of the Chargers' smaller home crowds at StubHub Center in L.A., "How did the NFL not see this coming? They had 20 years of no teams in L.A., so there are fans of every team in L.A. because they were seeing all the different games. So, now you're going to have Chargers games in a 70,000-seat stadium. Nobody cares about the Chargers in L.A., so every team that they are playing are going to overrun that stadium. It's only going to get worse when the stadium doubles in size." NBCSN's Chris Simms said he does not know if it will "ever really change over" until the Chargers "make a Super Bowl-type run" ("PFT," NBCSN, 9/10).
NO END IN SIGHT? NBC's Peter King said he does not know who is "going to pay the PSL cost to see the Chargers" in the new Inglewood stadium. King: "That has a chance to be like the Yankees when you watch one of their home games at Yankee Stadium -- all the seats behind home plate, two-thirds of them, are empty even for significant games. That's what I would worry about. The cost of the tickets and the PSLs in L.A. are so high, who's paying that to go see the Chargers?" ("PFT," NBCSN, 9/11).
