There is a common belief among die-hard Los Angeles Rams fans that once the new stadium opens in 2020, COO Kevin Demoff and the rest of the front office will do the right thing and make the official colors of the Rams yellow and blue in accordance with the color scheme they adopted beginning in 1973:

It’s been made abundantly clear by old school Rams fans that the uniforms that are currently used as the throwback uniform should be the default look of the team, with possibly some minor improvements (like the blue in the helmet matching the blue in the jersey).

Or some believe that a modern take on the yellow/blue will be the eventual look.

In fact, Chief Operating Officer & Executive Vice President of Football Operations Kevin Demoff told season ticket holders at a breakfast last year that the team is heading towards the direction of going in this direction. Good news for old school fans, right?

But Demoff and the rest of the Rams’ front office don’t have a sparkling record in matters of transparency and honesty. Just ask Rams fans in St. Louis..

On the Turf Show Radio podcast this week, we discussed the fact that Rams Owner Stan Kroenke is standing to make an endless amount of dollars on this new stadium complex that he’s funding himself. Yet, for the money to roll in, Kroenke knows that the product needs to appeal to a newer, younger group of fans.

To put it bluntly — all those trendy football fans in LA that are walking around in Tom Brady jerseys need to guy a Jared Goff jersey in a couple years. Or the kids that will be buying Patrick Mahomes jerseys in the next few seasons need to be copping a Goff one instead.

The LA Rams are close to the basement when it comes to revenue, but near the top of the list when it comes to value as a team. That means that they have the potential to make a mint from fans since they’re in the huge LA market and they happen to have a winning team as long as they can build one of the smallest fan bases in the NFL into something more populous.

So, once they switch to their throwbacks full-time they’ll be all set, right?

Not exactly.

A Rams fan in his 50s or 60s could be very passionate about the throwback colors and uniforms, but a sixteen year-old kid in LA doesn’t have any connection to those colors for the most part. I expect Demoff and the design team at Nike to run extensive focus groups to come up with what they deem to be the coolest take that will change the identity of the franchise.

If I had to bet right now, the Rams will keep the helmet design, but everything else is fair game. Again, the Rams do not sell a lot of merchandise right now. And the fact that they have three different color schemes that they are selling in stores isn’t helping.

I like this design because it’s bare bones, but still has the horns on the jersey and the colors just work for me. I’m a blue/white guy because I have a problem with the color yellow for sports teams — I’m sorry, I’m a monster. But the heart wants what it wants.

Moving forward, the yellow and blue throwbacks will continue to be a large part of the Rams’ identity and the blueberry/gold will be wiped away like a bad dream.

And that means that once this awkward transition comes to an end, the new bandwagon fans will most likely accept whatever new design Nike throws out (if it’s cool, and that’s a big if…) and the old school fans will dig in their heels, as they should.

You’ll either be yellow/blue or whatever the new colors are. There will be two camps in the Rams fanbase. The Sharks or the Jets, the Montegues or the Caputlets.

So, even if the Fight for LA actually presents itself within the Rams’ fanbase, it might actually be a good thing. It could incite passion, discussion, and merchandise sales.

Which at the end of the day, is exactly what Demoff and company are hoping for.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

Source link