It was a typical February weekday in Los Angeles. Mild weather. Massive traffic. Downtown was bustling but not much more than usual, even though the newly crowned Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams took to the streets for a victory parade. Only about 20,000 people showed up. One social media jokester quipped that there were more Aaron Donald abs than there than fans. In comparison, the Kansas City Chiefs attracted more than 800,000 fans to their Super Bowl victory parade after the 2019 season.
Despite the sparse attendance, there was plenty of excitement around the Rams. Sure, the franchise was fresh off a few missteps and unfortunate events. There was the controversial, financially driven move from St Louis in 2016, which alienated a massive chunk of the team’s fanbase. Playing the 2020 season in an empty SoFi Stadium due to Covid-19 was not ideal. And sharing that stadium (and a market) with the Chargers didn’t help build a new fanbase either.
