By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
Technically speaking, it was the Los Angeles Rams vs the Los Angeles Chargers in a preseason game at SoFi Stadium last week. Sounded like the battle of LA.
But with so many fans wearing the Silver & Black tonight when the Las Vegas Raiders visited the Rams’ SoFi Stadium tonight, you get the sense the Raiders vs. the Rams game was the real battle for Los Angeles.
With so many Rams and Raiders fans in the building, there were loud cheers on every play.
And many fans stayed for the last minutes of this competitive exhibition game, which featured mostly back-ups and third-string quarterbacks like Nathan Peterman of the Raiders.
But the fact is the Raiders still have a strong fan base in the Los Angeles market thanks to the NFL team’s stay in LA from 1982-1994.
For a preseason game, the fans enjoyed a close game that went down to the last seconds. The Rams scored a touchdown to get within, 17-16, but LA misfired on a two-point conversion with 15 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
And the Raiders left LA with a 17-16 win to go 2-0 in the preseason.
The game took three hours and seven minutes to play, with 68,834 tickets distributed.