WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. – Under crystal-clear blue skies near the Warner Center campus, practice commenced in a new location for Rams players and coaches while support staff continued to get settled into a new environment.
Monday marked the team's first practice at its new Woodland Hills football headquarters, a little over ninth months after the November 14, 2023 ceremony at Topanga Village – part of the nearly 100-acres in Woodland Hills acquired last year by Los Angeles Rams Owner/Chairman E. Stanley Kroenke – in which they officially touched down in the area and announced the plans to move there in advance of the 2024 season.
"What an amazing tribute to so many people behind the scenes getting this place ready to go," McVay said. "You look at just the leadership from so many people in operations... [Senior Director of Operations] Sophie Harlan [and] [Equipment Director] Brendan Berger in equipment. [Vice President, Football & Business Administration] Tony Pastoors [and] [Rams President] Kevin Demoff deserve a ton of credit as well as [President of Kroenke Holdings] Otto Maly. We're really excited. You come in here and getting over here yesterday and the amount of work that's being done [and] that's still to be done. Just the functionality, the thoughtfulness that went into this... It's going to be helpful for us. I think the players are excited about it. I know the coaches and everybody else feels that way."
It also marked an important milestone.
"I think it was an exciting day because you felt like you were truly home in Woodland Hills," Demoff told theRams.com. "And not just as we move into this facility, which is great and has been really well-designed and very thoughtful from a player and staff standpoint, but also, we are now on the 100 acres that we own in Woodland Hills, and this is the first step in the true transformation of this property into a global sports and entertainment district here in Woodland Hills that we think will be unparalleled."
The Rams held a morning practice as that era commenced. The practice fields consist of two full-size, natural grass fields, while the rest of the space is comprised of modular trailers that include office space and meeting rooms for coaches, players, scouts and staff, a weight room and training room, a locker room, a media room, and a meal room.
The weight room, training room and meal room each represented some of the most notable positive changes from the previous iteration of the practice facility.
Demoff said when the Rams built the facility on the campus of California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, they essentially had a couple months to design it fast enough so that would it be ready in time for the season when the team moved to Los Angeles. Demoff said as the organization has studied planning for a permanent facility over the last five years, they were able to design spaces and adjacencies for the weight room, training room, locker room and meal room that would improve players' lives.
"And a lot of those concepts that we've looked at for a permanent facility, we were able to take and put into the temporary facility," Demoff told theRams.com. "And so there was a lot of thought put into the journey for a player each day, from when they walk in, basically going to the meal room first, to the locker room, to the training room, to the weight room, and making sure those spaces for players were really where they could go and have a terrific day-to-day experience."
In terms of the organization's short- and long-term goals, Demoff said having the practice headquarters established in Woodland Hills helps in three key ways.
First, Demoff said it helps "plant our flag in the city of Los Angeles." The exception to that of course was when the team initially played its games at L.A. Memorial Coliseum, "but that was always temporary," Demoff said.
"But this is the first step for the Los Angeles Rams, and it's important to have a physical presence within the city limits of Los Angeles," Demoff said. "While I love SoFi Stadium, and we all do, and the city of Inglewood, Inglewood has been a great home, but this gives us a true physical presence in the city of Los Angeles."
Second, Demoff said it's a "great step working with all the residents and our neighbors in the San Fernando Valley to bring professional sports headquarters to the San Fernando Valley, which has never occurred in the history of the city."
And third is the potential of the area.
"There's so much unbelievable long-term potential here at Warner Center," Demoff said. "And when we have 100 acres, which includes the Village at Topanga, which is currently open and driving as an outdoor mall, and then you add in the 65 acres we've acquired, to go develop a true sports and entertainment district around our practice facility. I think it gives a sense of permanence and place to this organization and the first steps of a long-term vision. This is not just a new temporary facility. This is a temporary facility at our long-term home, and I think that makes all the difference in the world."
And of course, McVay has not just one window in his office, but two. Demoff joked the preseason success helped that request get seen through.
"The head coach has two windows in his office," Demoff said. "The GM still has windows in his office. So I think all of the coaches – most of the coaches have windows in their office to some degree. So we heard Sean's message loud and clear, and I think the exciting wins in preseason were what put us over the edge to make sure he had those windows."
