NFL Relocation Carousel, New Stadiums, International Talk...

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: the crowd at StubHub Center for a San Diego Los Angeles Chargers game was awful. A huge portion of the crowd were Kansas City Chiefs fans, and for the fourth time in four games at the stadium (including two preseason contests) there were plenty of empty seats. And just a friendly reminder, StubHub only seats 27,000.

How bad was it? Well, the Chargers knew the crowd was so pro-Chiefs that they didn’t even do player introductions over the public address system due to fears their own players would get booed.

This wouldn’t have been shocking — the San Diego Chargers frequently played to empty seats — if it weren’t for the fact that the team’s temporary home is a Major League Soccer venue, the StubHub Center, with a capacity of just 27,167, compared with the average NFL stadium capacity of a little more than 69,000 in 2017. Perhaps even more worrisome is whether the Chargers will be able to fill their planned new stadium in Inglewood, which will hold 70,240. In the Chargers’ debut game, the crowd was apparently very loud, but not all of the noise was for the home team: Many of those cheers reportedly came from the visiting Miami Dolphin fans, at least according to Chargers’ quarterback Philip Rivers.

This lack of apparent enthusiasm has even sparked grumblings that the team might be forced back down the 405 to its old home in San Diego. But lost in the hoopla of this — L.A. fans don’t just give their devotion, teams have to earn it — is that the Chargers’ problems are masking a bigger problem across town. As it stands now, the Rams are on pace for the biggest season-to-season drop in average attendance of any NFL team in 25 years (among teams that didn’t change stadiums). And it’s not even close.

But what’s more mystifying is that the Rams were expected to be a better team this season. After last season’s dismal 4-12 showing, the team had a productive offseason, hiring wunderkind coach Sean McVay, signing Pro-Bowlers in pass-rusher Connor Barwin and tackle Andrew Whitworth, and then trading for Buffalo’s star wide receiver Sammy Watkins to give second-year quarterback Jared Goff a new weapon. If anything, enthusiasm should have been on the rise.

And yet through two games at home, the team is averaging about 58,000 fans per game, down from last season by roughly 26,000 — which is oddly almost the same number as the Chargers have averaged in two games (25,384). Could it be that simple? That there are just 84,000 people in L.A. willing to pay for the NFL?