SAN DIEGO — About an hour before the St. Louis Rams kicked off against the San Diego Chargers on Sunday, Rams owner Stan Kroenke stood on his team’s sideline visiting with Chargers owner Dean Spanos.

As the two owners huddled together, it wasn’t hard to imagine the subject of Los Angeles coming up considering each team’s battle to build new stadiums in their current cities and the growing speculation one or both might soon relocate to the City of Angels.

But more on that in a bit.

Whether they talked about it or not, L.A. was very much in the air Sunday thanks to the loud, passionate, well-place group of die-hard Los Angeles Rams fans occupying at least three sections just behind the Rams’ bench.

And they let Kroenke know in no uncertain terms just how much they want their Rams back.

“Bring back the Rams, Bring back the Rams,” they screamed in unison.

“Stan, bring our Rams home,” others shouted. “Bring our Rams home where they belong.”

Kroenke didn’t acknowledge them. But he clearly heard them.

It was all part of the plan.

With speculation growing the Rams might be coming home, the fans they left behind in Los Angeles seem prepared to welcome them back with open arms.

“We’re determined to let Stan and the Rams understand just how badly we want them back and just how much support they’ll get when — not if — they come back home,” said Tom Bateman, a 43-year-old lifelong Rams fan from Anaheim.

That was an understatement.

Rams fans easily filled 40 percent of Qualcomm Stadium, and they made themselves heard whenever the Rams did something positive.

“Just look around,” Bateman said before the game, pointing to the countless Rams fans milling about the parking lot. “We’re going to make this a home game. A Los Angeles Rams home game.”

Bateman is the founder and president of Bring Back the Rams, whose 42,000-strong booster club was well represented in San Diego over the weekend.

More than 1,500 of them took over a tailgate section at Qualcomm Stadium, arriving from Lompoc and Yorba Linda and La Puente and Pico Rivera and decked out in Jack Youngblood, Eric Dickerson,Pat Haden jerseys while displaying the Rams’ blue and gold colors with pride.

And that was just the ones associated with Bring Back the Rams.

Everywhere you looked, someone was wearing Rams gear.

“Los Angeles Rams pride is strong and loud,” Bateman said. “I’m not surprised in the least.”

They came clutching personal memories dating back to the 1970s, of spending innocent Sunday afternoons at the Coliseum watching the Rams alongside their fathers and uncles and brothers and friends.

“I can remember watching Archie Manning and the Saints play us in 1975,” said Ralph Valdez, a 52-year-old Rams fan from Pico Rivera. “Manning was big and strong and fast, but Jack Youngblood caught him from behind and sacked him to save the day. I can remember it like it was yesterday.”

Like the distinct aroma of brats, ribs and burgers barbecuing on nearby grills, memories hung thick in the air of watching Jack and Jim Youngblood, Vince Ferragamo, Fred Dryer, Billy Waddy, Dave Elmendorf and Nolan Cromwell over the years.

Or the seven straight NFC West championships the Rams won between 1973 and 1979 and upsetting the Dallas Cowboys on the way to Super Bowl XIV.

They showed up representing the rich history of the first professional sports team to call Los Angeles home — the Rams showed up in 1946, or 12 years before the Dodgers and 14 ahead of the Lakers — and of setting attendance records and winning championships.

“You have to understand, the Los Angeles Rams are our team,” Valdez said. “We grew up with them. We lived and died with them. And while they left us, we never forgot them.”

But they also arrived in San Diego with agonizing memories of the team they loved bolting to St. Louis, where a pot of gold awaited late owner and St. Louis native Georgia Frontiere.

Like Ernie Almeida from La Puente, who skipped work to go to Rams Park the day they moved and watched in silent anguish as his nightmare played out in front of him.

“I literally stood there, stunned, as the buses drove off,” Almeida recalled. “It was beyond painful. I never actually believed it would really happen, that they would really leave. But as those buses rolled by, it finally hit me it was actually happening.”

Valdez burned all his Rams gear and memorabilia that day, vowing never to root for them again.

“That’s how hurt I was,” he said. “I was disappointed, I was hurt. I was mad.”

Valdez eventually made peace with the Rams, his passion for them as strong as ever.

“It’s in my blood,” he said.

Fellow Rams fan Art Martinez also ditched the Rams gear he collected over the years, giving it all to his brother, Sam, a barber in Seal Beach.

“It just hurt so much to keep it all,” Art Martinez recalled. “I tried to still be a fan. But when they left, the connection was never the same.”

But mostly they arrived with growing hope the Rams will soon be coming home.

And for the first time in nearly 20 years, that hope seems warranted.

The Rams, Chargers and Oakland Raiders are all in fights to build new stadiums — the Chargers and Raiders waging a decade-long battle that seems no closer to being resolved today than when they started.

All three have been mentioned prominently as candidates to relocate to Los Angeles, but it’s the Rams who have emerged as the most likely to relocate thanks to a clause they negotiated back in 1994 that allows them to break their 30-year lease with the Edward Jones Dome after the 2014 season.

Basically, St. Louis officials promised that the Edward Jones Dome would be among the top quarter percent after the 2014 season. Unfortunately for St. Louis, more than 15 new stadiums have emerged around the NFL over the last 19 years, and it will cost the city more than $700 million to make the necessary improvements.

Long story short, St. Louis doesn’t have that kind of money to invest in a massive rebuilding project. And while local government officials hope to keep the Rams in Missouri, no plan has emerged to facilitate that hope and the Rams are free to leave after this season.

In the meantime, Kroenke recently purchased 60 acres of land across the street from the Forum in Inglewood, leading to speculation he is positioning the Rams to relocate to Los Angeles as soon as next season.

He hasn’t said yet what he intends to do with the land, but then the reclusive billionaire hasn’t said much of anything about the Rams’ future.

Rams vice president Kevin Demoff, who typically speaks on the stadium issue, declined comment when approached after Sunday’s game.

Back in Missouri, Governor Jay Nixon recently formed a task force to come up with stadium plan by Jan. 28 — coinciding with the Rams announcing whether they’ll convert to a year-to-year lease with the Edward Jones Dome, a virtual certainty at this point.

It seems presumptuous to think a viable plan will be in place to satisfy the Rams by late January, although it’s not impossible.

Meanwhile, former Los Angeles Rams fans are starting to get excited about their team coming home.

And a whole bunch of them made the trip south to San Diego to express just how pumped they are about that possibility.

“We’re going to let them know how much we want them back. But not only that, we want them to know how we’ll welcome them back with open arms,” said Valdez. “We just want our team back. It’s time.”

Bateman agrees.

“I wouldn’t be doing everything I’ve been doing the last five years with Bring Back the Rams if I didn’t have strong feelings this is headed in the right direction,” Bateman said. “But if you’re paying attention to what’s been going on, it’s like playing connect the dots. And every dot leads to the Rams coming home. It all makes sense, not just from a fan’s perspective but from a business sense.

“And trust me, the Rams fanbase is alive and well. It just needs to be reawakened.”

That was obvious Sunday.