49ers fans flood SoFi Stadium for NFC championship game despite Rams' efforts

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Walk around SoFi Stadium before Sunday’s NFC championship game, and it’s easy to forget who the home team is.

A sea of red-clad San Francisco 49ers fans poured into parking lots a few hours before kickoff despite the Rams’ best efforts all week to protect their home-field advantage.

One carload of 49ers supporters honked their horn and waved team gear out their windows as they approached the stadium. Other big groups of 49ers fans posed for pictures in front of the stadium brandishing signs that read “Levi’s South” or “Beat LA … Again” And there was so much red in some tailgate areas that the cloudless sky was practically the only visible blue.

By 30 minutes before kickoff, the crowd split inside SoFi Stadium confirmed that the red-and-gold-splashed scene outside was no fluke. 49ers supporters easily outnumbered Rams fans, maybe by as much as the 65-35 margin Vivid Seats projected earlier this week.

While a spot in the Super Bowl is Sunday’s ultimate prize for the Rams and 49ers, the battle for control of the stands has been an intriguing sidebar. The Rams did everything they could to avoid a repeat of their regular season finale when so many 49ers fans invaded SoFi that quarterback Matthew Stafford had trouble communicating with his teammates and resorted to using a silent count.

The Rams initially intended to limit ticket sales to buyers with credit card billing addresses in the Los Angeles area. That policy was lifted Monday morning after all available presale tickets were sold, but Rams players, coaches and their wives continued to plead for fan loyalty.

“If you @RamsNFL fans want to sell your tickets — I’ll buy them,” Melissa Whitworth, the wife of Rams left tackle Andrew Whitworth, tweeted. “Just DO NOT sell them to the other team PLEASE!”

Kelly Stafford, wife of Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, wrote on Instagram that she bought “a good amount” of tickets and intended to give them away to Rams fans.

Judging from the response of 49ers’ fans this week, the Rams’ attempts to horde tickets may have ultimately backfired. Many 49ers fans outside Southern California asked Los Angeles-area friends or relatives for help buying tickets or scoured the pricey secondary market for the best deals they could find.

“The Rams aren’t going to stop anybody who wants tickets from coming,” Joe Leonor, founder of a 49ers fan group with more than 100 chapters worldwide, told Yahoo Sports earlier this week. “What they’re doing really just infuriates 49ers fans. You’re trying to keep us out? OK, now we really are going to go.”

49ers fans who came to SoFi on Sunday certainly shelled out big bucks to see their team play for a spot in the Super Bowl.

Stubhub said Thursday that the NFC championship game is on track to be the best-selling playoff game in the ticket resale company’s 22-year history. For most of the week, even SoFi’s cheapest nose-bleed seats were going for an excess of $600 apiece.

With the dearth of open lots at SoFi, parking, in some cases, was almost as expensive as a ticket to the game. SoFi parking passes were going for a few hundred dollars apiece on the secondary market. Motels nearly a mile from the stadium were offering parking spots for more than $100 apiece, almost as much as the price of a room.

As kickoff approached, 49ers fans stood up, waved towels and roared when their team took the field for warmups. Rams fans did the same for their team a few minutes later.

Only once during pregame did fans of both teams cheer at the same time: When the SoFi scoreboard showed the Bengals' AFC championship-clinching field goal to beat the Chiefs.