UCLA vs USC: Three things we learned from the real battle for LA
By Keith Rivas
LA fans care more about college football than the NFL
The passion, drive, and excitement that you would expect from an NFL fan base, let alone two in one of the best markets in the world, is just not there. Even with the Rams winning plenty of games and in the thick of the playoff hunt and the Chargers doing their own thing, college football still reigns supreme.
Whether the NFL will like to admit it or not, UCLA vs USC fills the stands of the Coliseum unlike any football event the city has tried to throw for Los Angeles. For comparison, this game dragged in more than 20,000 fans when compared to the Rams’ attendance in their latest regular season win which came against Houston.
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LA was only able to fill about 60,000 seats, while this game had a grand total of around 82,000.
The capacity for the stadium is in the neighborhood of 93,000, so the fact that all of those fans made sure to deal with the traffic, show up on time, and root for the home team makes a statement to the NFL that they probably will never listen to.
The Chargers weren’t exactly wanted in LA, they just left San Diego and figured that if the Rams could do it, they could too. Even when the Rams moved, there was plenty of drama with St. Louis in addition to speculation that a team returning to the city of angels just wasn’t going to work out.
If the Rams can’t draw bigger crowds than the collegiate team they share a stadium with for much longer, that is a problem that the Rams are going to have to navigate sooner than later. However, regardless of what the professional teams do about their respective attendance issues, the fans are putting their money where their mouth is.
And that’s where it belongs — in college football.