It’s still a good two months before the season begins but the Los Angeles Rams have nearly met their season ticket sales goal. Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum can hold 80,000 fans and the Rams have already sold 63,000 season tickets, just 7,000 shy of the goal they set when they moved to Los Angeles this offseason.
The return is a literal homecoming for the Rams. The team played at the Coliseum from 1946-1980 when then owner Georgia Frontiere moved the team to a new stadium outside Los Angeles in Anaheim. The Rams’ new stadium in Inglewood won’t be ready until 2019.
Demoff says the Rams have already sold 63,000 season tickets. Only planning to sell 70,000.
— Joe Curley (@vcsjoecurley) June 23, 2016
It shows the excitement the city has with the return of its prodigal franchise. The Rams were one of the best teams in football in their Los Angeles stint, consistently making the postseason and even the Super Bowl in 1979. The final Rams teams of the 1980s had the misfortune of bumping up against history in their quest for a second Super Bowl appearance. In 1985 they made it all the way to the NFC Championship only to be defeated by the 85 Chicago Bears. The Rams made it back in 1989, but ran into the Joe Montana-led San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship game.
Wave 7 emails will be going out this afternoon! The cutoff is around 4 PM PST! pic.twitter.com/XQcHXGY0jl
— Rams Ticket Services (@LARamsServices) June 23, 2016
The Super Bowl victory eventually came in 1999, only it was after the team moved to St. Louis. But the team never did surrender its L.A. roots in Missouri and it won’t put St. Louis in the past after moving back to southern California. The Rams are holding a celebratory Legends Game of flag football at the StubHub Center in Carson. Hall of Fame running back Eric Dickerson will coach the Rams Legends against a team of NFL All-Stars on August 14.
For the Rams, Kurt Warner and Marshall Faulk will field a team mostly of their St. Louis teammates, including a couple in or going to the NFL Hall of Fame, specifically offensive tackle Orlando Pace (Class of 2016) and cornerback/safety Aeneas Williams (Class of 2014). Torry Holt, Az-Zahir Hakim, London Fletcher and former Los Angeles Rams Henry Ellard are all slated to play.
The Rams Legends Game will take place Sunday, August 14 at StubHub Center in Carson 🏈 | https://t.co/SDJfgZEtG4 pic.twitter.com/ewChcRdOcj
— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) June 24, 2016
They’ll be taking on an NFL All-Star squad led by former New England Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe. There’ll be plenty of old NFC West foes on the roster too, with 49ers running back Roger Craig, wide receiver Terrell Owens and cornerback Eric Davis. Willie Gault will return to the Coliseum where he played pro ball with the Los Angeles Raiders in the late 1980s and early 90s.
With the move settled and the team already holding its offseason practices, there are plenty of other business moves required before the season begins. The Rams have cut a deal with ESPNLA 710 AM and The Sound 100.3 to broadcast games and eight hours of gameday programming.
Then there’s the important matter of picking out some cheerleaders and for some reason Los Angeles had plenty of talent to choose from. Imagine that. The preliminary auditions cut the more than 400 original participants down to 66 women in April, with the final 28 ladies getting the nod two weeks later.
Your 2016-17 Los Angeles Rams Cheerleaders!
Congratulations ladies! 🎉 | https://t.co/m9BawHAfWZ pic.twitter.com/hWZT6ck2nI
— Rams Cheerleaders (@LARamsCheer) April 18, 2016
While 28 new cheerleaders made the squad, a couple of players have already cleaned out their lockers. The Rams cut wide receiver J.J. Worton and linebacker Matthew Wells with no corresponding roster moves. It could mean the Rams are gearing up to sign a couple of new players or they’re going ahead and trimming their roster of the chaff before they actually have to begin cutting down to 53 players.
Worton floated between the Rams and the New England Patriots, ending up on their practice squad. He was an undrafted free agent out of Central Florida who was never more than a solid No. 2 receiver and red zone target. Worton was arrested in Foxboro, Mass. last January for punching a guy at a bar.
Wells was a sixth round pick by the Patriots in 2015, but never played for them. The Pats traded him to the Chicago Bears, who cut him. He spent last season on the Rams practice squad. Wells had a solid senior season at Mississippi State in 2014, recording eight sacks and returning an interception for a touchdown.
