We have lived in the Bay Area for 2.5 years and are San Jose Sharks fans, because we love hockey and we are originally from San Diego where there are no professional NHL teams. I was in the US Coast Guard for 25 years and had we not moved around so much, we probably would have become Anaheim Ducks fans. The Sharks have a strong fan base, the players are extremely personable, and they continue to show-up to the playoffs.
Now we are moving to Seattle permanently for my job. They are expecting to get a new NHL expansion team in 2020-21. I’m really curious to know what other fans in the area plan on doing with the current teams they support, when this new team starts?
Being originally from San Diego, I was never a big sports fan because the Padres and Chargers could never seem to get the stuff together. Now we’re moving to a location where there is strong support for the Seahawks and Mariners. I have a feeling a lot of fans will drop their current NHL team to support their home team.
Having a brand new team dropped in your lap opens three possibilities, any of which can be done in good conscience:
Drop all loyalty to your old time and root for the new team. But to get the team loyalty exemption, you have to do this immediately.
Switch loyalties to the new team except when they play the old team. This is especially permitted when you have followed the old team since childhood.
Continue to root for the old team, except when they play the new team. This is similar to being a good guest in someone else’s house, and eating what they serve whether you like it or not.
I’m in the Seattle area and I haven’t cared much about the NHL before. I might start when we get a team. I do watch a game every now and then and I admit they can be entertaining.
“Fan for life” seems a bit strange to me. Life is a long time (hopefully)
I was a big Baltimore Oriole fan when I was younger I lived in Maryland from 1972 to 1979. That’s seven years. I continued to root for the team after I left. By 1987 I had settled in Seattle and started going to Mariner games. I have now lived near Seattle for over 30 years. I think I should be forgiven for becoming a fan of new team over a period of three decades. I have no beef with the Orioles, but I’m a Mariner fan now.
Baseball: Red Sox. Picked them in 1986 cause I felt sorry for them losing the WS. Stopped watching baseball around 1991 cause it was hard to keep up with my team. Jumped back on the bandwagon in 2004 not cause they won but because of a videogame. Would only quit if the commish does something stupid like banning the shift or putting a man on second in the 11th inning.
Soccer: Newcastle. Picked them cause of the unis. Lost interest when they fired their greatest manager ever. Sir Bobby. Wished them to be relegated. Laughed my ass off. Still keep up with them but their owner is a tight-assed POS.
Raiders: Jumped off when they bought into their own mystique too much by thinking forming a team of miscreants and felons will work every time. Also lost interest in the NFL when expansion and teams moving made it lose nostalgia for me.
Hockey: Got into Vancouver because of the NHL franchise. They traded Pavel Bure and changed unis. I lost interest.
I lived in Indianapolis from childhood until about 2003, when I moved to Hampton Roads, Virginia.
NBA: I started out with the Chicago Bulls, only because I didn’t know the Pacers existed. I was just with the Bulls because I had a sweatshirt with their logo on it. Once I learned the Pacers were a thing, I started watching them, around the time they started getting good. Their first big playoff run was in 1994.
NFL: Around the same time the Pacers were doing well, the Colts started showing life themselves. When it comes to pro football, I’ve always ever been a Colts fan.
MLB: I was an Atlanta Braves fan because I saw them win the World Series, and shortly thereafter, got to talk with Chipper Jones online. (He teased me because my grandfather and I had been pulling for the Cleveland Indians in that series). I became a Nationals fan after I moved to Virginia; during one week in the summer, I was home sick from work, and there was nothing to do but watch baseball. The Nationals share the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN) with the Baltimore Orioles. I had a natural anti-Maryland bias because they beat Indiana University in the national title game in '02, so Washington, it was. By the end of that week, I was very familiar with that team.
I’m kind of two minds about it, in that I have a pro sports opinion and a college sports opinion.
The nature of modern pro sports means that allegiances are fluid; you may move to a different town, or your team may move out from under you. And a third team may arrive from elsewhere, or an expansion team may arise. My general rule in such cases is that it’s perfectly acceptable for you to do what makes you happy.
For example, I grew up in Houston, and as an Oilers fan. The Oilers left, I moved to DFW and the Texans came about as an expansion team. I’d say that it’s perfectly ok for me to either have switched to the Cowboys (which I have not), or started rooting for the Texans (which I have really lackadaisically done). I’d think it would be strange for me or anyone else in Houston to have continued to give a crap about the Titans, and the natural course of action would be to hate on them and hope they lose.
OTOH, I still mostly keep up with the Astros and Rockets, as they’re the teams I grew up supporting, and they’re still there. I used to draw a somewhat fine distinction between the Astros and Rangers in that I could root for both, because the Astros were National League, and the Rangers were American League, but they’re both AL now, so I choose the Astros.
College teams I’m a bit more hard noses about- it’s your undergrad alma mater first, then your grad school teams. If neither is big-time, then you can choose from there who you like.
Basically what I’m saying is that if you went to say… TCU, then you probably should be a Horned Frogs fan win or lose, not a fan for somewhere else. But if you went to Trinity (NCAA Div III) in San Antonio, then there’s no heartburn with you choosing to follow UT, Kentucky, Florida or wherever in major college sports.
If Seattle is now your hometown, and you’re committed to living there for the long term, I can’t see anybody criticizing you for adopting its new team as your own. Part of being a team’s fan is being part of the community of its fans, and being a member of the Seattle community is going to include being a supporter of its teams. You’re not cheating on the Sharks, you’re divorcing them because you found somebody new who will love you back.
Number 2 is basically what I did when the Sharks started about 26 years ago. I had been a Canadiens fan since childhood, but I’m now a Sharks fan — except when Montreal comes to town.
I double-checked to see if I’d posted in this thread the first time around (I hadn’t).
I grew up in Green Bay in the 1970s and 1980s, which were definitely the lean years for Packer fans. And, in the 1980s, while I didn’t stop being a Packer fan, I also started following the 49ers (which were, of course, riding high).
Part of that was that I was a fan of Joe Montana, but a bigger part was that, when Forrest Gregg was coach of the Packers, he cultivated what turned out to be a toxic team culture. Gregg prized “tough players,” but what we wound up with (particularly on defense) was a bunch of goons and thugs, who specialized in cheap shots (when they weren’t getting arrested). For a few years there, I was embarrassed to say I was a Packer fan.
You’re trying to apply logic to something that is completely based on emotion. Remember, fan is short for fanatic. I root for the Mets partially because it is something that has existed all of my life. I don’t remeber a time that I wasn’t a Mets fan.
I grew up completely entranced by Pete Rose and the Cincinnati Reds. Then I grew up and realized that they are people like anyone else (actually maybe worse), and, moreover, a sports team is a commercial entity with no loyalty towards me. Furthermore sports teams tend to exploit local politics to the detriment of the welfare of the local community.
So, as an adult, I temper my loyalty to any sports team. I expect any fellow adult to do the same.
I’m having this same problem now. When I was a kid, I chose the Green Bay Packers as my team, only because someone in my family gifted me a shirt that was a GB/LooneyToons crossover. Then when NFL Blitz 2000 came out for N64 my favorite team became the Tampa Bay Buccaneers… even liked them into their super bowl run. Then I got married and my (ex wife’s) family were big into the packers so my loyalty went back to them. Years of disappointment and watching ARodgers turn into a dbag and watching the front office crumble… then I got divorced. I hung on to my Packers loyalty. But slowly, over the last few years, and especially this year I’ve turned into a Buffalo Bills fan. I’m from Upstate NY… about 31/2-4 hours east of Buffalo… the team has great chemistry… I feel like I’m rooting for the home team. Tbh, I’d rather root for the NYG than the packers… only problem is now I own hundreds of dollars of fan gear that’s all packers gear and I’m a bills fan. How do I justify this?
Funny to see those posts from 2019 about the Seattle expansion NHL team.
I got into hockey via living in San Jose for twenty years. I’ll pull for the Sharks from a distance, I spent too many years watching and going to games to not have any affinity left. But now I live in the Seattle area. I’m a Kraken fan, happy to have a local team I can root for with my friends, coworkers, and neighbors. (Kinda funny to hear them ask what’s icing or how do you follow the puck.)
You see, I’m a 49er fanatic and will be forever. And that’s NOT from living in the Bay Area. I grew up in a Portland, OR suburb and picked them entirely on my own. At six years old, knowing even then it was a lifetime commitment. It’s antagonistic around here, but fun.
I’ll root for the Mariners for my more local family, but I’m not a baseball guy. It was fun back in the bay seeing the Giants win those three championships, but they weren’t “my” team. Same with the Warriors. Basketball broke my heart as a Rip City maniac when Clyde Drexler and the Blazer boys just couldn’t get past the Lakers and Bulls.
Maybe I misunderstand the definition of morality. Anyway, my story is that I became a baseball fan in mid 70s in my early teens when my father brought me to a Montreal Expos game. Only natural since it was the only major league team anywhere near, although still a couple hours drive away. So I followed the team. When the Blue Jays came along, I was interested but really didn’t follow. When they won the World Series, I was happy for them but I would have been much more excited if the Expos had won. When the Expos left, I did not follow the Nats at all. Didn’t care. I couldn’t follow like I did for Montreal listening to every game on radio. I started to follow the Jays but it wasn’t really the same it seemed. I followed them more when they became better of late.
As for Washington, I heard a few years ago they were going to wear Expos uniforms for one game. I watched it (had MLB.tv sub) out of nostalgia I suppose but only for the first few innings. They wore the baby powder blue road uniforms where I expected the home unis. When they won it in 2019, I remember my girlfriend at the time asking who I’m rooting for. Nobody in particular although I was more partial to the Astros. It didn’t even occur to me until some days later that the Nats were the old Expos and that had they remained in Montreal, I would have gone crazy that they won. Instead, I just went to bed knowing the season was over.
We had a minor league team that was first affiliated with the Expos then the Orioles and finally the Phillies for just one year. I sort of followed the O’s and Phillies, especially after the Expos left but not much. I thought about adopting the Phillies as my team. With the internet, it would be easy and I could follow any team I wanted. But baseball was less in my mind in those years: the Expos having left, the local team about to do so, my separation, my dad being sick, the ex-wife then getting sick herself. I’m now a Jays fan by default. I’ve been to a few games despite more than twice the drive and listen to most games on radio just like when I grew up with the Expos.
I saw just this morning an interview with Alex Manoah surrounded by friends and family. A few were wearing Toronto gear. I guess they changed their alliance, at least for now. I believe they were in Florida so maybe not that big of a deal for them.