I’m not a sports fan myself, but I was wondering: It seems to me that once upon a time, you cheered for the home team because the players really were from your home town. Then teams started to move around; The Dodgers, The Raiders, plus the players that make up a team are actually from all over the country. So it seems to me that rooting for the “the home team” just doesn’t carry the same significance as when you were cheering for your neighbors, no?
It has been a long time since players on professional teams were all local residents. Jerry Seinfeld joked that fans were really just “rooting for laundry.”
I don’t know. I am a sports fan and always root for the home team (often unsucessfully, I’m from Calgary, Canada). The Flames best player, Iginla, was born and raised by the enemy, Edmonton, but I still cheer for him all the time. I like to watch hockey and what better a team to cheer for than the one that plays in my home town.
Same with me, but substitute baseball. And when I was a kid, the Giants had a pretty healthy core of players that was somewhat steady (Uribe, Thompson, Clark, Mitchell…) Plus in my case, toss in a guy who will be remembered as one of the greatest baseball players of all time in Barry Bonds, and our history (Willie Mays and Co., our rivalry with the Dodgers, The Battle of the Bay) and we have a lot to base our loyalty on. But I guess when it comes down to it, I love baseball and I love my City, so the choice is obvious (and convenient).
This wouldn’t bother me so much if players stayed with one team for life. I hate how they bounce around so much.
But that being said I’ve been a Bucs fan since I as 8 (I was born & raised in Orlando) and used to go to their games as a kid. I’ve always rooted for them regardless of who is on the team, but it seems we get a lot of people from FSU and Florida (my alma mater) & Miami luckily so it feels like I’m rooting for local Floridians. But I also dislike Jacksonville Jaguars, even though it was closer to being a home team to Gainesville (where Univ of Florida is located).
To me, the biggest advantage in rooting for the “home team” today, is that their games tend to be televised far more often. If your favorite team isn’t in close proximity to where you live, chances are that the only times you’ll be able to see your team on television is on nationally broadcast games, which are far from every game they play, regardless of which sport it is.
In my case, I’m a Pittsburgh Steelers fan (football), and I live in New York. I only get to see them play 5 or so times a year. If I were less stubborn, I’d start rooting for the Giants or the Bills or the Jets, who are on tv every week because I’m in the same state as them (yes I know the Giants/Jets are actually in New Jersey, but I’m not the one in charge of their names).
This is largely a matter of opinion, so I’ll move this thread to IMHO.
I’ve always thought my way of deciding who to cheer for was odd. I cheer for whoever I have an emotional attachment for. The ways that usually manifests itself are:
[ul]
[li]currently live in the area[/li][li]have lived in the area at some time during my life[/li][li]would like to live there[/li][li]have attended school there[/li][li]wanted to attend school there[/li][li]know someone who lives/lived there[/li][li]know someone who attends/attended school there[/li][li]or in the case of the Phillie Eagles, I went to high school with the coach…that’s probably the most unusual criteria for an emotional attachment for me so far[/li][li]started following a player in college who is now playing for that pro team[/li][li]and i think last but not least, I like their team colors better then the other team…I use this one for when i don’t have a real emotional attachment for either team[/li][li]I almost forgot this one… to be oppositional when someone else is cheering for the other team[/li][/ul]
I have yet to figure out how most of those ways have much of anything to do with the home team so to speak so I’m in no position to pontificate on the OP specifically…or maybe I did now that I just reread it.
Nope, it just doesn’t carry the same significance at all.
This has NEVER been the case in North American pro sports, with some notable exceptions.
The first major North American pro sport was baseball, but as far back as the 19th century there was little connection between the team and the local talent pool. The Cubs of the 1900s, who were probably the best team of that decade, had NO PLAYERS FROM CHICAGO. Not a single major contributor I can find was from Chicago, or even anywhere NEAR Chicago. (Unless Marengo is near Chicago - so that’s one.) Here’s the 1906 team:
1B - Frank Chance - Fresno, CA
2B - Johnny Evers - Troy, NY
3B - Harry Stienfeldt - St. Louis, MO
SS - Joe Tinker - Muscotah, KS, lived in Florida as an adult
C - Johnny Kling - Kansas City, MO
LF - Jim Sheckard - Upper Chanceford, PA
CF - Wildfire Schulte - Cohocton, NY
RF - Jimmy Slagle - Worthville, PA
P - Three Finger Brown - Nyesville, IN
P - Ed Ruelbach - Detroit, MI
P - Jack Pfiester - Cincinnati, OH
P - Carl Lundgren - Marengo, IL
P - Jack Taylor - New Straitsville, OH
The NFL, NHL and NBA all came well after major league baseball, and none started out with any sort of locality in their player selections. It’s pure myth that there was ever any time when the home town team was made up of home town boys, at least in pro sports in North America. The professionalization of sports prevents that.
Babe Ruth was from Baltimore, not New York. Walter Johnson wasn’t from Washington, Ty Cobb wasn’t from Detroit, Ted Williams wasn’t from Boston, etc. etc. It’s true of any other sport, too. There are exceptions (Lou Gehrig, Honus Wagner, Pete Rose) but that’s more by random chance than anything else.
People cheer for the home team simply because they can identify with the team representive their city. If the player from your home town are spread all over hell’s half-acre, it’s hard to cheer for EVERY team they played for. So you cheer for the team that represents your city.
Of course, many fans also cheer for teams just because they like the uniforms or like the team’s style of play. I’m a passionate Ottawa Senators fan, but I’ve never lived in Ottawa and for most of my life they didn’t even exist. Having cheered fvor them for years, tho, I’ll continue to do so because I’ve invested so much emotional effort into it.
One exception I forgot to mention is the Montreal Canadiens.
Prior to the 1960s, the NHL had a gentleman’s agreement whereby Montreal had first dibs to sign a few French-Canadian players before the rest of the NHL did, so Montreal-area and Quebecois players were much likelier to end up on the Habs than on other teams.
This rule, believe it or not, was actually formalized in 1968; Montreal was given two “cultural picks” in front of the regular draft. The rule was quickly done away with in 1969, however, when it became apparent that it would hugely unbalance the draft.
IMHO, fans root for teams because they know something about the players and coaches. They read about them in the paper, see them on the local news, etc. The more they find out about them as individuals, they more they tend to like them. (Yeah, sometimes the more you know the more you might hate someone, but not all that often.)
Big player turnover is disastrous for fan interest. It doesn’t matter how good they are, it takes a couple of years for fans to warm up to someone in most cases. Watch the attendence figures for the Braves this season. It’s going to be bad regardless of performance.
I was completely uninterested in the Superbowl because I know nothing about any of the players in coaches. (The closest is an Oakland player went to the same high school as my kids. His mother is also a teacher there and my kids had classes from her.) The distant teams I used to root for long ago I no longer care about since nobody is left on the teams that I knew.
The team is still representative of your city, though. So you should cheer for your home team, with a few exceptions. Plus, it definitely makes it easier to watch games and follow the team.
Frankly, IMO, you should cheer for the team you grew up cheering for. I live in Arlington now, but I will always be an Angels, Lakers and Kings fan. My dad is from Philly, so he is an Eagles, Phillies, Kings and Sixers fan even though he is now living in Orange County.
The only time you should switch allegiences is if your team treats the fans really poorly and never makes an honest effort to win (think Clippers, Expos and Bengals here), the team leaves the area (was a Rams fan until they left) or your home area never had a team and they suddenly get one.
And you should never, ever, ever just keep switching allegiences based on who’s winning championships at the time.
Of course, in reality, it’s just sports…
San Francisco, 49ers and Boston Red Sox fan here. Living in NY, I should root for the Giants and the Yankees but, I can’t stand either of them.
We had to buy a satellite dish and purchase the NFL Sunday Ticket so that we could watch the niners play every week instead of the televised NY teams.
There are many reasons to cheer for a team. But you’ve got to pick a team (or teams) to root for to make it fun to watch. It’s no fun to watch the sport if you don’t care who wins. In the case of the Superbowl, I’m not really a Tampa Bay fan, but I cheered for the Bucs because
1.) I live in Florida
2.) I don’t like California
3.) Raiders fans are thugs (they riot when they win, and they riot when they lose.)
4.) The Bucs were the underdogs (in retrospect, apparently not)
Just pick a reason to root for a team and go with it. If 2 teams are playing that I don’t care about, I’ll root for either the team that’s closest to my city, or the underdog.
Up until the 1980s or early 1990s there was a requirement stating that players in Australia’s major Rugby League competition (NSWRL/NRL) were obliged to live in the ‘drawing area’ of the club. I believe such a rule did (or may still) exist in the VFL/AFL.
Regardless, many League teams are run by public clubs of which anyone can become a member. I’m a member of my club - the Newtown Jets - I like to think that that gives me a right to use the royal ‘we’ when I’m talking about ‘our’ inevitable march to the premiership this year.
The NBA used to have “territorial” picks that would ensure a local collegiate star would play for the nearby NBA team.
One notable example of this was Oscar Robertson, U of Cincinnati star playing for the Cincinnati Royals.
I’m not sure, but I assume that the NBA got rid of those picks once the league became more popular and didn’t need to resort to such marketing techniques.