California is on the brink of the NFL apocalypse, and it could have massive economic repercussions for all involved.
A few weeks ago, it was widely reported that a Los Angeles Rams and Chargers game, combined, were out-attended by an area college game the day before. The Chargers have been having trouble selling out their 27,000-seat temporary home in Carson, California, all season; and the Rams have seen attendance figures drop by 20,000 year over year, per the Wall Street Journal. Subsequently, ticket prices have been nosediving, too, in some cases as much as 70 percent in the secondary market.
Add in poor play from the San Francisco 49ers and an impending move to Las Vegas by the neighboring Oakland Raiders, and the league’s longstanding marriage to the nation’s most populous state could be heading for a messy divorce.
It’s not always been this way. The Chargers, 49ers, and Raiders have all found success in the NFL throughout the years, each having winning runs and the latter two, taking home multiple Super Bowl rings. But at least in Northern California, football is now being outpaced by basketball, as the Golden State Warriors reign supreme.
The Rams do have some momentum of late, with solid play from quarterback Jared Goff and a resurgence from running back Todd Gurley. But it remains to be seen whether one team’s good fortunes can have any effect on the overall picture, which looks awful bleak at the moment.
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