Having always lived in the same place and following the same teams I had never even considered changing my loyalties to a different team, then the Nationals came to DC from Montreal and I am still walking around wearing my Orioles hat. I grew up watching them, I see no reason to stop just because they plopped another team here.
That said, I will attempt to put up a poll with what could be major reasons for changing ones’ loyalties. Note this cannot possibly be exhaustive; I’m just putting up things I think could be reasons off the top of my head. There will definitely be an “other” option.
I transplanted from Illinois to California 28 years ago, but I’m still a Cubs/Bears/Illini fan. I didn’t pay much attention to the NBA and NHL when I lived there, but I’ve since started following the L.A. Kings and Lakers since I moved out here, but neither has the kind of attachement that I have to my other teams. I suppose that if I ever moved, I could conceive of changing my NHL/NBA loyalties.
I was raised a (gasp) Bears fan. My father, born and raised in Chicago, was a Bears fans, as was his father before him. When I was young and didn’t know better, I was a Bears fan too. Bears duffel bag. Bears pennants on the wall. Bears bank for my coins.
Then, I grew up. I learned more about football, about teams, about history, and about fans. And like Saul on the road to Damascus, I became a Packer fan.
It didn’t have too much to do with location (I grew up and had my conversion in Iowa), but it did strengthen when I went to college in Wisconsin. And it wasn’t one particular decision by the Bears (although Ditka not giving the greatest football player ever and my hero Walter Payton a touchdown carry in the Super Bowl was the last straw), but a plethora of different factors, including learning the history of the franchises and the death of Halas and hiring of Ditka.
I voted no, but in the sake of full disclosure I should confess to some ambivalence as a youngster. When I was little I pretty much did the opposite of what my parents did out of a sense of immature rebellion I suppose. I wouldn’t say I wasn’t a Bears and a Cubs fan, but I did like to root for the Cowboys since my folks hated them so much and they were always good. I’d root for the Cardinals and White Sox when they were winning, but I rooted for the Cubs in ‘84 too. Growing up on the southside during the Winnin’ Ugly era made the Sox thing understandible as did having an aunt living in St. Louis. I actually went to Busch Stadium and Comiskey Park for games before I ever made it to Wrigley.
As a grade schooler, had a teacher/friend who was a Notre Dame fan. As I got older (i.e. Middle Schooler), I switched to Penn State. I also stopped following BC when they bolted for the ACC, the geographic paradox was too much.
I said yes for a reason which I will explain. I am a fan of every team my dad is a fan of, but he couldn’t care less about the NBA and, thus, had no loyalty to any team. So, when I was a stupid kid, I did whate everyone else did, which was to root for Michael Jordan and the Bulls. However, as I got older I realized I didn’t care much to root for the frontrunners just because everyone else did, so I was determined to become a fan of whatever team drafted my favorite college player at that time, which was Laphonso Ellis of Notre Dame. The Nuggets got him and I’ve been a most loyal fan ever since.
Let it be known that I can’t stand team switching. I know a ten year old kid here in Ohio who switch from the Cavs to…you got it…the Heat. His dad is embarrassed and ashamed, as I would be were I his father.
I was an Orioles fan as a youngster, and lived in Northern Virginia around 1980. Even as I went away to college and eventually settled in Colorado, I maintained my loyalty to the O’s. Then the Rockies came along. I switched my loyalty pretty quickly. Of course, I couldn’t drive for an hour and see my old team, either.
born a Dodger fan, rooted for the yankees as a small boy, realized they was trash at age eight, became a Met fan from 1963 through about 2003, got disgusted with moronic front office (Scott Kazmir for Victor Innameonly? Really? ) and more moronic fans defending said brain-dead front-office, realized I had personal ties to the management of the brainy Red Sox management team that suited my taste, and switched just in time to celebrate their first championship in 85 years. I’m not taking any credit for it, I’m just saying…
I grew up in Green Bay, and have always been a Packers fan. This meant supporting a pretty lousy team through most of the 1970s and 1980s, though that didn’t stop me from being a fan.
But, during the mid-to-late 1980s, I (temporarily) switched my allegiance to the 49ers. I really disliked the Packers then – not because they were losing, but because Forrest Gregg (the coach/GM at that time) kept drafting and signing thugs. They played dirty (especially on defense) and they had several players who had run-ins with the law (particularly sexual assault).
Once Gregg was gone, I returned to the Pack (though I still also liked the 49ers, as well, at least through the Seifert era).
Grew up as an Angels, Rams, and Clippers fan. Interestingly enough, I am no longer a fan of any of these teams.
The Rams made it easy by moving away. Go to hell, Georgia Frontiere.
I was raised as an Angels/Giants fan in Orange County by my dad, who lived in San Francisco from the age of 5 until 30. Since he was a Giants fan, rooting for the Dodgers was not an option. Living in Orange County made it convenient to root for the Angels as well. I considered myself primarily an Angels fan, although I did root for the Giants (and the losses in 1993, 1997 and 2000 stung me quite badly), even after moving to Northern California for college (I’ve stayed ever since). Still, I rooted for the Angels in the 2002 WS. Shortly thereafter I switched over to Giants fandom. I hardly root for the Angels at all anymore.
Similarly, I grew up as a Clipper/Warrior fan because of my dad. Geographically it made sense to root for the Clippers first, but after moving up here I became primarily a Warriors fan. I hardly consider this any sort of frontrunning as these are 2 of the most sad-sack franchises in the NBA.
Besides baseball, I watch mostly college sports, and once they hand you your diploma, your college loyalties are pretty much set. Especially if you go to grad school in the same place.
With respect to baseball, I’m a White Sox fan, and one summer while I was in college I thought about switching because the Cubs were on TV and the Sox weren’t. But I couldn’t. I could watch the Cubs, but I couldn’t stop laughing when they’d lose. So I didn’t switch and never tried again.
Agreed. A friend of mine who grew up in Michigan and still lives in the state is a notorious team switcher. His teams of choice are the (hated) Yankees, the Colts, and most obnoxiously both the Miami Heat and the LA Lakers. In fact, he was so moved by his fandom as to proclaim on facebook last night that he hoped the Lakers whupped the Detroit Piston’s ass. Aside from the fact that hoping for something that obvious is as intelligent as hoping that you’ll blink sometime during the day, what kind of a douche roots for his bandwagon team to humiliate his hometown team?
In my view, sports fandom is akin to family. You may not like it. In fact, you may hate it (being michigan born, I am a Detroit Lions fan so I truly know of what I speak), but you’re born into it so suck it up. That said, I can understand if your team moves. You get a pass. No sports teams in your area? You get a pass too. Only one pass though. No switching teams based upon winning percentage or signing of big name talent as bandwagoning fairweather fans like that deserve to rot in sports fan hell which I’m pretty sure means being a Detroit Lions fan.
I used to be a fan of Bradley University basketball in my hometown of Peoria, IL, back in the mid- to late 80s. They had Hersey Hawkins and were an excellent team. Then they started to suck after Hawkins left. I quickly became obsessed with their conference rival Southern Illinois because I love dogs and SIU is the Salukis.
I have no real loyalty anymore. Post-free agency, you’re just rooting for a uniform, anyway.
I grew up in an area without pro sports teams, but it was Cowboy Country, and I began to despise them for being the Only Team On TV, Ever.
Now I’m in DC, and I don’t really care for the Redskins, either, and I am sick to my guts of seeing the East Coast feed. I’d like a Manning-free weekend now and then, as well.
The NFL needs to ditch their regional BS yesterday and show double headers on both networks every week. I should not be seeing reruns on Fox at 1:00 when the Redskins have a 4:00 game. That’s complete BS.
ETA; I used to have Sunday Ticket but I just moved to where it won’t work, damnit.
I started getting into sports – notably baseball – in 1961, when I was nine. I lived near New York City, so there was only one team to root for.
I switched to the Mets after the 1964 season. That summer, I had been in summer camp, so I had no baseball news all summer, and never got back into it in the fall. After they lost the World Series again, I decided it was more fun to follow the Mets. Some friends of our also were Mets fans, and in the off-season I saw Larry Miller on a signing tour, the MLB player I saw up close. I was old enough now to follow a team seriously, so I’ve stuck with the Mets ever since.
I became a Jets fan about the same time, since they played in the same stadium.
Been a loyal Canadiens fan since 1987. If I were going to switch, it would have been during the late 90s, the worst period in team history since the Depression, when the team was bad and the future didn’t look very promising. Funny enough, the tough years actually rejuvenated my fandom a bit. Since I started following the Habs, while they were never guaranteed to win the Cup, I always figured they at least had a shot at it, and I’ll admit to getting spoiled a bit. When they missed the playoffs in '99 for only the second time in a full season since 1948, and the near future looked as grim as ever, I remember being really psyched to see what the team could do with a bunch of young guys and minor leaguers, for some weird reason.