I was at the Blackhawks-Canucks Playoff Game 6, the big comeback, last season in the United Center. I was a bit surprised how many Canucks fans made the trip. It was an extremely tough ticket to get and Chicago is a long ways away. That said, the Canucks were a heavy favorite to win the title, they were hoping to get revenge on the hated Blackhawks by eliminating them in a rematch and Canucks fans are pretty damned rabid.
At Cubs games, there’s always a really high percentage of Cincinnati Reds fans. Cincy isn’t that far away and I know a ton of people who moved to Chicago from the area, but the Reds tend to not be any good. But, Wrigley is iconic and there’s always a lot of road fans there for about any game. Cincy just seems to have the most (other than St. Louis natch), even more than Milwaukee.
Of course in contrast, games at Miller Park versus the Cubs are legitimately Wrigley Field North games. Brewers fans are pretty good considering the size of the market and the tailgate up there is kind of awesome, but they just can’t compete with the avalanche of Cubs fans making the drive. The last couple years have been a bit better though since they’ve had such a good teams and the Cubs team is one of the least likable that I remember.
I was in Nashville for a Blackhawks-Preds game a month or so ago and was shocked by the number of Blackhawks fans there. There’s a weird pipeline of Chicago expats in Nashville and as noted Blackhawks fans travel ridiculously well, but this defied logic. At the time the two teams were battling for divisional supremacy so it was a hot ticket, and yet the Chicagoans had close to half the seats and just owned Broadway that night.