Magic Johnson Is 1st to Put Deposit on Los Angeles Rams Tickets

The Los Angeles Rams received the first deposit on season tickets for their new Inglewood, California, stadium from one of Los Angeles' greatest sports icons.

The team announced on Monday that Magic Johnson became the first fan to put down a deposit for 2016 season tickets at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, with the chance to buy a season package once the Inglewood venue opens in 2019.

Johnson’s payment was merely a deposit, as the Rams aren’t yet allowed to begin selling tickets until they know whether they’ll be sharing the new stadium with another team, according to Nick Wagoner of ESPN.com.

Deposits like Johnson's cost $100 for 2016 season tickets at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Per Wagoner, the team received 5,000 deposits within the first five minutes of sale and another 5,000 through the first hour. 

Shortly after the Rams announced their first deposit, Johnson voiced his excitement about the team returning to L.A. after 21 seasons in St. Louis:

In addition to reserving tickets at the Coliseum for 2016, the deposits will also serve as an early in on a chance to buy personal seat licenses at the Inglewood stadium, which won't go on sale until 2017.

PSLs have become the most practiced method of selling season tickets among NFL teams and are merely warrants that reserve the right to buy season tickets, thus creating an extra means of profit. Those are expected to be much more expensive given that the stadium will be the most state-of-the-art in the NFL, if not the entire nation, per Scott M. Reid of the Orange County Register.

That Johnson is among the first—and perhaps more importantly, most vocal—fans to scoop up tickets for next season has to have the Rams excited about their transition back to L.A. Public support wasn't ever in question, but receiving it from such a prominent figure this early is encouraging.