There are plenty of teams who will always draw fans on the road. The New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings, Los Angeles Lakers, and other teams have a huge nationwide fan base.
But what are some teams you’ve seen at home where you saw some fans of the road team that you weren’t expecting, either due to distance or a perceived weak fanbase?
1, I saw quite a few Columbus Blue Jackets fans at a Dallas Stars/Columbus game in Dallas.
I’ve been the lone Arizona Cardinals fan at a Dallas Cowboys home game (before the Kurt Warner years).
3.There were many Vancouver Canucks fans at a Florida Panthers home game. Canadians in South Florida aren’t unusual but they’re usually Leafs or Habs fans. Vancouver to Fort Lauderdale is quite a long trip.
I’ll probably be the only Dallas Stars fan at the Stars/Coyotes game tonight.
I once went to an exhibition game between the Oklahoma City Thunder and CSKA Moscow, and there were CSKA fans in attendance. I don’t know, but I assume they were Russian expats living in the United States; Moscow to Oklahoma City would be a long way to travel to see an exhibition game!
If its in Phoenix, you might be the only fan at the game.
I’ve seen Blue Jackets fans at a game in TORONTO, a place that doesn’t even have a box office because all seats are sold, always, and so the tickets had to have been bought from scalpers for extremely high markups. Maybe people in Columbus like road trips.
You’ve obviously never been to central Ohio. That’s why even the universally crappy teams of the state have such rabid fanbases: road games are a great reason to leave, often!
My wife and I were not the only Texas Ranger fans in Skydome for two years running. Last summer, it wasn’t as surprising since we’d won the ALCS the year before, but in 2010, we were still nobodies.
In college baseball, I would often go to games at Florida to see the Gators. I was always surprised to see how many fans there were for some northern teams like Brown, Villanova, and Northwestern. There would be maybe 50 or even 100 fans. I figured some of their alumni made a trip down to Florida for a spring vacation, but even then, Gainesville isn’t exactly a tourist hotspot and isn’t close to any beaches.
I’ve gone to Lakers games in Chicago and Milwaukee, and as you’d expect, there were tons of Lakers fans. The one Lakers home game at Staples Center I attended, they played Oklahoma City, and I don’t think I saw ANY Oklahoma City fans (not even immediately behind the OKC bench). Similarly, I went to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field a few years ago against the Marlins, and I think I saw one or two Marlins fans. Most other opponents are much better-represented (even the Pirates).
I was suprised at how many Kansas City Royals fans I saw at a Royals-Mariners game in Seattle two years ago. At least it’s better than having most of the spectators rooting for the road team, like Redsox/Yankees/Bluejays games in Seattle.
All time oddest jersey I saw was a Saskatchewan Rough Riders shirt at a Blue Jays/Mariners game.
Once each year, the University of Illinois plays a game at the United Center. This year, they played UNLV. Sometimes they play a women’s game before the men’s game. This year, the women played Texas Tech. Of course most fans just show up for the men’s game–sad but true. So we admired the Texas Tech fans (maybe 10 or 20) who showed up, either Chicago-area alums or making a long road trip, for the road team in the lesser game of a double-header.
A curious fact about U of I home football games in Champaign–of all the Big Ten teams, except perhaps Minnesota, Northwestern brings the smallest road crowd. It’s only 150 miles away, but the alums can’t be bothered to make a road trip.
Speaking of the Kansas City Royals, in 1983 I attended a Royals/Chicago White Sox game at the old Cominskey Park. I was with a group of fellow students from my school, but they weren’t rooting for anyone, just there for a game.
I had on a Royals button, wore a Royals hat, and carried a Royals pennant. And was I ever glad to be with a group, rather than alone, when I saw the behavior of the Sox fans to the Royals team members. “Ugly” is putting it mildly. Being the only fan cheering(that I knew of) when everyone else was booing, was an odd experience.
When the Royals won and we went home by bus I took my stuff off, the better to be inconspicuous.
I was at a Cubs game a few years ago in my Royals hat. Got a few comments - but even stranger was the fact that there were eight other Royals hats in my section alone, and none of us knew each other. (It was at one of the rooftops across the street, and we all got our picture taken together. Very odd.)
I ended up not being the only Stars fan at the game last night. There were enough Stars fans that you could hear the “STARS” shout during the Star Spangled Banner.
A few years ago, my wife and I were attending a Royals game at the K. The Royals were playing the Orioles, and the park was less than half full. In our section were two people wearing Oriole jerseys. I asked if they had driven a long way to root for their team, and they said they had come up from Texas. I asked them why.
Turns out their son was a minor league pitcher for Baltimore and had just been called up. They had driven more than 12 hours on the off-chance that they might get to see their son’s major league debut.
When they announced his name our entire section (all 20 or so of us) cheered and clapped. For about half an inning, the whole section became Oriole fans, some of us wearing our Royal jerseys.
I seem to recall a bunch of Quebecois coming to Nassau Coliseum to try and convince the Islanders brass that the Isles will find a warm welcome in Quebec, should they choose to move.
I went to an Oilers vs. Senators game this year and was surprised by the number of Senators fans there. There are people outside Ottawa who cheer for the Sens?
Indeed. It’s mentioned in the article… some 1,100 fans attended an Islanders game the year prior, but they (the organization who, erm, organizes these trips) explicitly state that they’re not targeting any team specifically. It’s just that the teams who don’t consistently sell out and reside relatively close to Quebec are the easiest to get large groups of fans to attend… though it is a bit of an odd coincidence that the game they chose was the Islanders vs. the at-the-time Thrashers.
