Will the LA Rams suffer from no fans in SoFi Stadium stands?

The LA Rams will open the season with no fans at SoFi Stadium. Which team will that impact more?

The LA Rams open the season in empty SoFi Stadium. Empty, because the decision for the community is that there are no safeguards capable of preventing the spread of COVID-19 among players, coaches, and spectators if fans are permitted to view the game from the stands. That is not the case for all NFL teams, as this article indicates. But in that article, the Cowboys will likely play in front of tens of thousands of spectators.

While the LA Rams play before nobody. Just a huge SoFi Stadium which will remain vacant of fans. How will that impact the season opener? Some think that it will give the Dallas Cowboys an advantage. But let’s rethink that foregone conclusion here.

SoFi experience

We know the initial impact of SoFi Stadium is breathtaking. If you watched HBO Hard Knocks: LA -Episode 3, you witnessed how much of a breathtaking experience seeing SoFi stadium for the first time it was upon LA Rams players.  Seeing first hand is nothing like reading about it. And that “shock and awe” await the Cowboys players on game day.

The Cowboys, for all the applause and high marks given this off-season, cannot prepare for what awaits them.  SoFi will distract visiting players during the entire game. There will be no crowd noise, save the artificial version that is NFL-sanctioned. On game day, SoFi stadium will still be a home-field advantage. The Rams have been here twice already. The Cowboys will be soaking in their one and only visit of 2020 on game day.

Cowboys are offseason Super Bowl Champs, each year

Sure, the Cowboys opened as 2.5 point favorites, and are now giving up 3.0 points to the Rams in the latest odds. But that is set to the seasonal norm. And the Cowboys, in each season, are given the lions share of the hype and talk ups from the national media. If the Cowboys have a great year, it’s a Super Bowl season. If they have a “meh” year, then the media focuses on every change to their roster and coaching staff with the most positive outlook.

But the odds are set to attract bets, and Cowboys fans love to bet on their team. To counter, the odds run more and more favorably to their opponent’s side until the money bet for the Cowboys is at or nearly at the amount bet against them.

There has never been a season like 2020 in the NFL before.  But there have been teams like the 8-8 Cowboys before. A team with a new coaching staff and an NFL Draft full of stars on the team that wears stars on their helmets.  Don’t get me wrong, The Cowboys were the best 8-8 team in the NFL in 2019. But the Rams were the best team in the NFL who failed to make the playoffs.

The LA Rams may not have fans cheering them on in the stands this year. But more importantly, they still have head coach Sean McVay coaching them.  He struggled a bit in 2019. Watch how he responds in 2020.