Rams News

It's time for Rams to repay
loyal fans with winning season

04/26/98

By Bernie Miklasz
Of the Post-Dispatch Staff

The Rams have the most fascinating team-and-fan relationship in St. Louis. It doesn't matter how bad the Rams are, how many times they fumble, how many times they wilt, how many times they get sacked, how many times they draft the wrong guy, or how many games they lose.
The fans show up. The fans want more. This has got to be one of the best football towns in America. That, or we're all crazy. But after three losing seasons and two rebuilding projects that haven't led to any real construction, there's no sign of substantial defections among the customers.
The Rams closed their three-day minicamp at the Trans World Dome on Sunday with a practice session before a decent turnout of season-ticket holders. I checked the classified section of Sunday's Post-Dispatch and looked for how many Personal Seat Licenses (PSLs) or season tickets were for sale. There were 28 ads hawking the PSLs or tickets. That seemed like a lot. But it really wasn't.
``There are ads every week,'' said Brian Ulione, the Rams' VP in charge of club seats, luxury suites, and PSLs. ``But we can track how many PSLs actually get sold by one fan to another, and we only transact about 600 PSLs per year. That's minuscule. And this year is no different. The fan base is solid and we're thankful for it.''
OK, so you're probably thinking . . . we can see in the newspaper that at least 28 people are trying to dump PSLs. So the PSLs must be losing value, right? Not as much as you'd think.
When some of the higher-priced PSLs are put on the market, they're usually snapped up. Ulione said the Rams placed 154 PSLs on sale this weekend, ranging from $800 to $1000 in price. By Sunday afternoon, all but 19 were sold to new customers. And Ulione said that some existing PSL owners are trying to buy more.
And of the 400 or so PSLs still available, most are in the $250 category (upper deck corners and end zone). The Rams sold around 300 club seats this weekend; only 400 remain. And the Rams have lease agreements on 116 of 123 luxury suites. That's minor, considering that four of the suites are additions for 1998.
The Rams continue to sell, sell, sell.
What's going on here? Isn't this a baseball town? After the football Cardinals moved to Arizona, isn't that what the National Football League sneered, behind the scenes, whenever St. Louis was mentioned?
The Rams have a moral obligation to win and reward their fans' good faith. Some of the indifferent management types don't realize that, but coach Dick Vermeil doesn't need to be reminded. He wants to win to please the customers. DV has been around enough to know that in many NFL cities, three consecutive losing seasons would cause thousands of fans to bail out. Not here. That said, the Rams can't be complacent, because this goodwill won't last forever. It may not survive another awful season.
``It's a motivation, no question,'' Vermeil said. ``How motivating would it be to come in here at the end of the season last year, the way we did, to play the Chicago Bears, with the place half full? The place was full. A record crowd. The most people to ever see a pro football game in St. Louis. These people are very patient.
``The other thing I read in them, the fans I meet and talk with, is that they're understanding. I think they have the abilty to evaluate that there is a program trying to be established. And that we aren't kidding them, we aren't promising them anything. We're just saying we're going to build a football team, and it isn't going to happen overnight. But next season they're going to see an obvious improvement, and that will generate even more enthusiasm.''
Let's hope the Rams improve. St. Louis is definitely a great football town, and it's about time for the Rams to give the people a football team to be proud of.

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