St. Louis Shows Its Ram Spirit : Football: City has received 72,000 requests for personal seat licenses, surpassing the sales goal of 50,000.

Any doubts about St. Louis’ passion for football were put to rest with Wednesday’s news that the city has received 72,000 orders for personal seat licenses, far surpassing the sales goal of 50,000 by the start of the 1995 season.

In fact, there were more PSL requests in three weeks than seats (65,300) available in the new domed stadium the Rams plan to call home next fall. Even the highest-price PSLs ($4,500) were sold out.

“I was personally very much surprised,” said former U.S. Sen. Thomas Eagleton, who headed the city’s negotiations with the Rams. “I had made an estimate of 35,000. I was wrong by a magnitude of 100% and I’m happy I was wrong.”

Eagleton faxed a letter to NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue Wednesday, informing him of the PSL campaign’s success. In addition, St. Louis has sold 6,000 of 6,200 club seats in the new stadium.

Tagliabue has called a special owners meeting for Feb. 16 in Dallas to discuss the Rams’ proposal for transfer, which must be approved by 23 of 30 owners. That vote probably will come at the March 12-17 league meetings in Phoenix.

“The success of the PSL program is overwhelming,” said Ram President John Shaw, who last fall had questioned whether St. Louis football fans were as “zealous” as fans in Baltimore, the other city bidding for the Rams.

“The number of seats sold is more than we anticipated and a powerful demonstration of the great interest in the Rams and professional football in St. Louis. We look forward to becoming a part of the St. Louis community.”

Not all St. Louis Ram fans will be able to purchase tickets, though. Each request will be assigned a number, and a computer will randomly select which applications are fulfilled.

St. Louis is using PSLs--one-time fees of $250 to $4,500 for the right to purchase season tickets--to raise $60 million to $70 million to pay for the Rams’ relocation costs.