In the 2015 NFL season, the city of Los Angeles had zero NFL teams. In 2017, it will have two. But Los Angeles Rams legend Eric Dickerson isn’t worried about the re-branded Los Angeles Chargers cutting into his team’s fan base.
Arash Markazi of ESPN posted a video on Twitter asking Dickerson if two teams in Los Angeles might be too many.
“Two losing teams is too much; I hope my team starts winning again,” Dickerson said in the video. I don’t think the Chargers will effect us, even if they win. They still don’t have a big fan base. I think the only thing that can hurt us is if they start winning and keep winning. With the millennials, the young kids coming up, the girls and boys that don’t have a football team and the Chargers get hot. But the Rams have a lot of fans and I think we’ll be okay. That’s not even a concern to me.”
The only criticism of Dickerson here is that perhaps he was too dismissive of the millennials. The millennials are the ones who will soon have young families, if they don’t already. Soon enough, they’ll be the ones with most of the money. If the millennials break towards the Chargers, the future generations are more likely to go that way, as well. So, winning that generation of Angelenos over is going to be hugely important.
But ultimately, Dickerson is right. The Rams have the more established fan base within the city of Los Angeles. The only thing that can really hurt the Rams would be the Chargers being successful and the Rams continuing to falter.
Heading into 2017, the Rams are a long way from winning. Fortunately for them, the Chargers don’t seem to be much closer. The team that wins first will eventually have a huge edge in the race to be Los Angeles’ primary team. But until that happens, the Rams win that honor — even if only by default.