With the BoSox big win last night I have seen plenty of stories saying how New England is celebrating big time.
Looking it up geographically New England consists of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticuit, and Rhode Island.
So, do teams like the Patriots and the BoSox represent these 5 states? Do these 2 teams really have a 5 state fan base?
Or is it limited to Massachusetts? Would a better team name be the Massacusetts Patriots?
As you might note, that’s a six-state area. And Massachusetts is the central state of the group. I know that there’s a tendency among sports fans (of all team sports) in the New England area to rally around teams based in or around Boston, by far the largest city in the six-state area, as “their” team, even if they live in a neighboring state.
It might be worth noting, while we’re on the subject, that in addition to the six U.S. states northeast of New York, “New England” is also the name for a region of New South Wales – IIRC the northeast of that state, along the coast near the Queensland border. Perhaps an Aussie Doper can confirm or correct that.
Also note that some people in the southwestern corner of Connecticut (Fairfield County and New Haven County to a lesser extent) tend to identify with New York City and its teams rather than Boston. Many people down there either work in NYC or are transplants from it.
Born and raised on the coast of Connecticut here: Yes, most New Englander’s do subscribe to Boston teams. if you take New England as a whole, I would say the majority do favor the Pats and Sox. I however, am a devout Chicago Bears Fan, and a Yankee fan. I know, Odd mix, but hey it works for me. Now I was never a big Boston fan of anything, mainly because before I was married I was not a Baseball Fan, I was turned into one after getting hitched. I was mainly a Hockey fan, and at that, was a devout Whaler. So Boston was always my nemisis, as they were home to the Bruins. In all, Last night was bound to happen sooner or later, so I am not THAT ticked off.
Surely, I WAG, one would expect to find a mix of sports-team loyalties on the NY-CT border? - Jinx
You should also note that there is no Major League baseball, football, basketball, or hockey in New England, except in Boston (or the suburb of Foxboro for football), now that the ‘Forever .500’ Hartford Whalers NHL team have left. So it’s not surprising that Mainers cheer for the Red Sox – they’re the closest geographically, even without the cultural connection.
And Southwestern Connecticut is indeed a suburb of NYC, sports-team wise. The dividing line is not the CT/NY state line. It more or less seems to run through New Haven and Hartford. And, interestingly, there are mixed loyalties – fans who cheer for the Red Sox, Celtics, Jets and Islanders, for instance.
I bet the bars in central Connecticut were interesting last night.
Not just the NY-CT border, but even some people in VT along the NY border (especially southern VT, in the Rutland-Bennington area) are Yankees fans. Of course, the rest of the state usually pretends southern VT doesn’t exist anyway, so we don’t care. 
I even know lots of people from western MA that are Yankees fans. It seems that once you go west of Springfield, the people there lose their sense of New England. Just as western CT is an extension of long island, so is western MA an extension of the greater Albany area.
Hampshire, you should note that, except for Maine, the New England states are really small, so even though New Englanders might identify with an out-of-state team, it’s still one that’s very close.
How do your local networks handle something like NFL games?
In bigger states the local FOX affiliate will always show the local game, e.g. you live in Chicago you’ll get the Bears, you live in Tampa you’ll get the Bucs, you live in Milwaukee you’ll get the Packers.
So on any given Sunday in say Providence? Hartford? Concord? Montpelier? Augusta? who does the FOX affiliate give precedence to? Do they always show the Pats?
And as far as that goes, how about other big cities with no NFL team? Who does fox put on in Albuquerque? Des Moines? Las Vegas?
Around here, most cable stations give you both Hartford and New York TV stations. Hartfords tends to have Patriots, NY has Jets/Giants. So it works out.
Just as southwestern Connecticut is divided between Boston and New York sports loyalties, eastern Long Island and upstate NY in the Albany area both tend to have some pockets of Boston/New England fandom. Located about as close to New England as to New York (especially back in radio days) and with an inherent anti-NYC undercurrent this is understandable.
Why is Vermont considered to be New England? The other states basically spun off of Massachusetts, but at the time of the Revolution, Vermont was a part of New York.
New York does have a team besides, the Yankees, you know. LI used to tend to have Mets fans, though I suppose there are fewer now.
Not really. The original colonies in this area were New Haven, Connecticut, Plymouth, and Massachusetts Bay. They joined together in a loose association called the New England Confederation in 1643. Later, there was the Dominion of New England, that encompassed all the land that England claimed north of the Dutch in New York and south of the French in Canada. Rhode Island and New Hampshire were later still created as colonies in this area. Vermont declared itself an independent republic in 1777, and Maine was part of the State of MA until 1820.
I guess I should also note that that list of original colonies looks a bit strange to modern Americans. Connecticut colony was established around Hartford by a separate group than the Puritans in New Haven colony. They later merged, of course, but the State of CT maintained two separate state capitals until 1873. Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth similarly merged into Massachusetts (including present-day Maine), though the capital was transferred to Boston immediately.
At the time of the Revolution, all of Vermont was claimed by both New Hampshire and New York and a small part of Vermont was claimed by Massachusetts. Legally, New York had the best claim, but the area was settled largely by New Englanders moving up the Connecticut River valley from Connecticut and Massachusetts who settled on land sold (illegally) by New Hampshire. When New York tried to charge the settlers for the land they had already paid New Hampshire for, the Vermonters rebelled against New York. Even though N.H. didn’t have a strong case for the right to sell the land, it’s not surprising that Vermonters have always identified more with New England than New York.
Hmm. I’ve always been fascinated by these kinds of boundaries. I’m not sure I agree with this. I’ve found (with limited experience) the Northern Berkshires to be pretty Massachusetts in outlook, and the entire Connecticut River valley is definitely Mass (though there are more NY expatriates at U-Mass Amherst than BU, so more likely to find Yankees fans at a given bar in Amherst than Boston).
Williamstown residents know Albany exists, and might be more convenient for many things than Boston/Springfield, but my impression was that it’s still a foreign state.
I would think the southern Berkshires might be more expatriate New Yorkers, but probably still a lot of Red Sox fans as well. Anybody have a report on percentage of fans in Pittsfield, MA bars last night?
This is true; however, I must note that Connecticut is home to the reigning National Champions in both men’s and women’s basketball–lots of excitement through the winter.
I have relatives that have lived in Providence for years. AFAIK the answer to this question is emphatically yes. Providence is actually closer to Foxboro (where the Patriots play their games) than Boston is.
I think the Patriots have been pretty shrewd in emphasizing that they are a regional team, not a Boston team. It greatly broadens their fan base. You see a lot of out of state plates in that parking lot in Boston. After they won their recent Super Bowls they had parades in Boston, then had smaller ones in other New England cities.
As for Hartford I don’t know. I think traditionally they had a lot of Pats fans but the current owner pulled some shenanigans a few years ago when he threatened to move the team to Hartford if he didn’t get a new stadium in Foxboro. Eventually he did get his new stadium and after that there were a lot of hard feelings in Hartford which may have permanently soured some on the franchise.
As for major cities without an NFL franchise I imagine the network shows the matchup which it thinks is likely to get the best ratings, using whatever alchemy they have at their disposal to decide this. I imagine it is similar to the process they use to decide what, say, the 4:00 game is going to be in Boston when the Patriots had their game start at 1:00. Usually it is something involving a team that is either from a large market (NY or LA maybe) and/or has historically been competitive (Denver, maybe, or Green BAy).
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Gratuitous words added to make post long enough for hamsters to accept it.
LL: * Providence is actually closer to Foxboro (where the Patriots play their games) than Boston is. *
Furthermore, the Red Sox’s minor league farm team, the Pawtucket Red Sox, is located in Pawtucket RI. Go Paw Sox!! 