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When Los Angeles Rams Owner Stan Kroenke received approval from his fellow owners to relocate the organization to Los Angeles, much was made of the spectacle that would need to accompany the team.
Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Kevin Demoff spoke of the need to incorporate the glamour of Los Angeles into the new stadium that will headline the complex Kroenke is building in Inglewood. Kroenke himself offered the idea that the NFL would need to use its new satellite base in LA as a springboard as the “Gateway to Asia.” And the Rams announced their 2016 NFL Draft picks with former Rams Jim Everett, Vince Ferragamo at Universal Studios with, uh, Marilyn Monroe and Homer Simpson:
It was unavoidable from the start. Los Angeles would need to be more than just a home for an NFL franchise. It would need to offer the spectacle of LA.
And perhaps moreso than at any time up to this point, Week 14 of the 2017 season is going to be the best example of just that.
With the Rams at 9-3 thanks to the unbridled and inexperienced offensive genius of Head Coach Sean McVay coupled with an easygoing franchise QB in Jared Goff and a reckless on-field offensive talent in RB Todd Gurley with a legitimate on-camera personality, the Rams already had developed the base of marketability this year. With the 10-2 Philadelphia Eagles coming to town, it was going to be an unavoidable collision.
This is going to be NFL spectacle at its best.
So to capitalize on the hype-up, FOX is sending its NFL pregame studio show to the Coliseum in person:
NEWS on #Eagles-#Rams — FOX is so excited about keeping this NFC showdown and onetime flex candidate that network is moving its entire studio show Sunday to the front of the Coliseum to create a College Gameday environment.
— Sam Farmer (@LATimesfarmer) December 6, 2017
It will be the main studio show — Howie, Michael, Jimmy, Terry — and they will be set up in front of the peristyle end of the Coliseum, where those headless statues are.
— Sam Farmer (@LATimesfarmer) December 6, 2017
It’s going to be, well, spectacular.
So not one to be outdone by FOX and their paltry broadcasting budget...we’re sending Team TST out to the game early. We’ll have seattlerams out there covering things on Facebook. Charlie Hiller will have the sticks on Twitter. Theramsreport will be on our Instagram feed. And somewhere out there, the Professor, better known here as go rams, will be floating in the midst as he has been as a season-ticket holder for...well, decades.
Tickets for this one are, uh, not cheap. But that’s the level of interest afoot. Eagles fans are expected to show up in big numbers and perhaps finally fill the Coliseum to its already capped capacity for Rams games this year. Yes, there will be still be empty seats, but it would at least put to rest the ridiculous chatter about attendance for a week (no, no it wouldn’t).
The bottom line is simple. On Sunday, the city of Los Angeles will be more than just a home to NFL football. It will finally be a springboard for the NFL as a whole.