The Los Angeles Rams are taking some desperate steps to avoid the visual of a nearly empty SoFi Stadium for their game against the Denver Broncos on Christmas Day.
The 2022 season for the defending champion Los Angeles Rams has been a massive disappointment. The team that returned much of their roster from last season, and dealt out huge contract extensions to quarterback Matthew Stafford and defensive superstar Aaron Donald in the offseason, and have well underperformed nonetheless this season.
Heading into Week 13, the team has the third worse record in the NFL and won’t even make the playoffs a year after winning the franchise’s second Super Bowl. While they are likely to get flexed out of any primetime games the rest of the season, the one slot that can’t be switched is their Christmas Day matchup with the Denver Broncos.
What was expected to be a clash of two Super Bowl contenders on one of the biggest holidays of the year will now be a matchup of a pair of 3-8 squads. The Broncos have also been a shocking disappointment in 2022 after trading a bunch of premium draft picks for Pro Bowl QB Russell Wilson in the spring.
Related: NFL standings – Who are the division leaders heading into Week 13?
A Christmans game between two bad teams in a city with a football fanbase that has never been reliable has the Rams worried they could be embarrassed by the visuals the nation sees on their television screens Dec. 25.
Los Angeles Rams asking fans to donate Christmas Day tickets
On Tuesday, Sports Business Journal revealed that in an attempt to avoid a bunch of empty seats in SoFi on the Xmas, the Rams are asking season ticket holders who aren’t likely to show up to donate that ticket to charity. Los Angeles is incentivizing the donation by offering ticketholders the “chance to win prizes from sponsors including New Era, Diageo, Hilton, Meat District, Ikon, and La Brea Bakery.”
The organization is also asking fans to give their tickets specifically to charities like the “Boys & Girls Club of Metro LA, Brotherhood Crusade, A Place Called Home, Heart of Los Angeles, Operation Progress, and Anti-Recidivism Coalition.” Dec. 25 will also be the seventh and final day of Hannukah, which is notable since Los Angeles does have a sizable Jewish community.
This is just the latest instance of the Los Angeles Rams admitting they don’t have a reliable fanbase — a hallmark of LA football fans — and have to plan in advance for them being undependable. Certainly playing terribly this year doesn’t help, but an NFL game on Christmas Day would be a gift many NFL fans around the country would covet.