Los Angeles Rams
The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team based in Los Angeles, California, which competes in the National Football League's NFC West division. The franchise has won three NFL championships, and is the only one to win championships representing three different cities (Cleveland in 1945, Los Angeles in 1951, and St. Louis in 1999). The Rams play their home games at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
History of the St. Louis Rams
Prior to the Rams’ 1979 Super Bowl season, owner Carroll Rosenbloom drowned in an accident. His widow, Georgia Frontiere, inherited 70% ownership of the team. Frontiere fired her step-son, Steve Rosenbloom, and assumed total control of the franchise. As had been planned prior to Carroll Rosenbloom's death, the Rams moved from their longtime home at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to Anaheim Stadium in nearby Orange County in 1980. The move was necessitated in part by the fact that the Coliseum was difficult to sell out because of its abnormally large seating capacity (100,000), subjecting the team to the league's local-market TV blackout rule, whenever home games did not sell out. Also, Southern California's population patterns were changing; there was rapid growth in L.A.’s affluent suburbs (e.g. greater Orange County) and a decline in the city of Los Angeles’ citizenship and earning power. Anaheim Stadium was originally built in 1966 as the home of the California Angels Major League Baseball franchise. To accommodate the Rams’ move, the ballpark was reconfigured with luxury suites and enclosed to accommodate crowds of about 65,000 for football.