LA Rams all too familiar with crisis management
The franchise has soldiered on through wildfires, a shooting, now a pandemic.
This was supposed to be such a pivotal spring for the marketing of the Rams, ramping up to the opening of their $5 billion showplace, SoFi Stadium. It was all so meticulously planned. The usual draft events for fans and community service projects were to be accented by grand, public celebrations to unveil new logos and uniforms that mark a new era, coinciding with the obvious efforts to sell tickets along with Super Bowl hopes.
Yet as it has impacted all specters of society, the coronavirus pandemic changed those big plans. While construction continues on the stadium at a nearly 300-acre site in Inglewood – exempt from the “Stay Safe at Home” order in California that has shut down non-essential businesses – the Rams’ ability to adapt as an organization has again been put to a stress test.
Never mind (for now) the new logos that generated a torrent of heat on social media from Rams backers (including a prominent former running back, Eric Dickerson). Off the field, the
Rams’ identity since moving back to Los Angeles from St. Louis in 2016 has been stamped by crisis response.
“You try to lay out the best plans,” Rams COO Kevin Demoff told USA TODAY Sports, “but right now the two best traits in the organization are the ability to be flexible and adaptable.”
Demoff was hardly beating his own chest. He was adding context to the franchise’s approach in dealing with crisis. On Tuesday – the day after unveil
ing new logos on the team’s website – the Rams collaborated with media partner KABCTV for a telethon that raised more than $2 million to support local food bank efforts.
It was quick-thinking action to generate a positive outcome while staff members primarily worked from their homes to put together the digital events.
“The spring of 2020 is going to be vastly different than we all thought it would be three months ago, three weeks ago, three days ago,” Demoff said last week. “As we all learn to deal with this pandemic and keep each other safe, everything changes every 48 to 72 hours. I think you think in small increments. As an organization, you keep your long-term goals in mind … but in the short term, our thoughts and focus, everything, pivots to people most in need.”
Surely, after team owner Stan Kroenke moved the franchise under a cloud of disgust from St. Louis residents, the Rams have desired to reconnect with the Los Angeles community that the franchise abandoned 20 years earlier. Yet they could have hardly imagined the scenarios that have unfolded to put such commitment to a test.
In 2018, the Rams staged the first Monday night game in Los Angeles in 30 years on four
days’ notice after the NFL pulled their game against the Chiefs out of Mexico City due to field conditions. At the same time, some players and others in the organization had been evacuated due to wildfires. The team’s training headquarters and business offices were in the evacuation zone, forcing staffers to work remotely. During the same month, a mass shooting occurred at a bar not far from the team’s training facility in Thousand Oaks.
The pandemic affects significantly more people, and Demoff said the Rams have drawn on the previous crises in devising how they can respond.
Of course, the Rams, like other NFL teams, are kneedeep into contingency planning for the season. While the NFL will conduct its draft in late April with a revised format that could even involve teams making selections from locations other than team headquarters, the rest of the offseason
calendar is up in the air.
Team headquarters are shut down. Offseason workout, held in April and May, are tabled until further notice. It’s questionable whether minicamps will take place in June. And it’s way too early to predict whether the pandemic will disrupt training camps that open in late July and attract thousands of fans.
Timeline for the stadium opening, though, is intact. Construction, deemed 85% complete in late January, is on track to open on July 25 with a Taylor Swift concert, which conceivably would be followed a few weeks later with the Rams and the Chargers hosting preseason games. That opening seemingly would depend more on whether large crowds are gathering in public by late July. (USA TODAY’s Josh Peter reported Sunday that a worker at the construction site has tested positive for COVID-19 but that work is continuing.)
Alluding to the Swift concert, Demoff said, “We’re hopeful that will remain the goal and then be open for the NFL season, which hopefully comes on time, the preseason and all of that. The hardest thing to do in this period of time and probably the one thing you’ll regret is to speak to anything with certainty.”
That’s a sign of the times. Demoff knows. The opening of a stadium and the NFL’s season – as popular as they are – are post-pandemic matters.
“Lots of people in the world are dealing with their own disappointment, their own problems,” he said. “Whenever the first game is played at SoFi Stadium, which we certainly hope will be as soon as possible, it’ll be a great celebration . ...
“The health and priority of the nation for everybody to stay safe comes first. If that changes timetables, then we’ll adjust, as everybody has had to adjust to the disappointment that has come through some of the cancellations and closures. Lots of life moments have changed.”