# "Takeover" of home stadiums **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [August 7, 2013, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/takeover-of-home-stadiums/665557 "2013-08-07T03:55:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/takeover-of-home-stadiums/665557/1 "2013-08-07T03:55:06Z")
I’m listening to the Mariners-Blue Jays game from Seattle on the radio, and it’s embarassing. The Blue Jays fans (mostly fans down from BC) is twice as loud as the Mariners fans. Have you watched or attended a game where opposition fans outnumber home fans? ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/takeover-of-home-stadiums/665557/2 "2013-08-07T04:13:11Z")
Usually when the Tigers, Red Sox or Yankees come to Cleveland it’s hard to tell which team is up to bat by listening to the crowd. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/takeover-of-home-stadiums/665557/3 "2013-08-07T04:35:26Z")
The Yankees and Red Sox have a habit of doing that in many places. And Giants fans have been quite numerous at road games the last couple years…especially in San Diego. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/takeover-of-home-stadiums/665557/4 "2013-08-07T04:43:09Z")
> [@installLSC](#): > > I’m listening to the Mariners-Blue Jays game from Seattle on the radio, and it’s embarassing. The Blue Jays fans (mostly fans down from BC) is twice as loud as the Mariners fans. Have you watched or attended a game where opposition fans outnumber home fans? I saw the Bulls vs. the Hawks in 1997 and the number of Bulls/Jordan fans easily outnumbered Hawks fans. I mean, for starters, the game was a sellout. Pissed me off that Pippen didn’t play. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/takeover-of-home-stadiums/665557/5 "2013-08-07T04:59:46Z")
There are so many former Saskatchewan residents living in Calgary, Alberta, that when the Riders play there, it’s called the Christmas Tree Game: the fan colours in the stadium are evenly divided between red (the Calgary Stampeders colour) and green (the Riders). The Calgary stadium is also referred to as “Taylor Field West” for that game. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/takeover-of-home-stadiums/665557/6 "2013-08-07T05:17:13Z")
My high school football team did that a few times. We were pretty good. Made it to the state championship for our classification my junior year. We were tiny school, but generally all of the parents of the players, a large number of the band parents, and a good portion of the student body traveled with us to road games. Some of the weaker schools we played did not get that kind of support. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/takeover-of-home-stadiums/665557/7 "2013-08-07T05:32:03Z")
> [@installLSC](#): > > I’m listening to the Mariners-Blue Jays game from Seattle on the radio, and it’s embarassing. The Blue Jays fans (mostly fans down from BC) is twice as loud as the Mariners fans. Have you watched or attended a game where opposition fans outnumber home fans? It also happens when the Red Sox come to Seattle. . It’s kind of fun. ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/takeover-of-home-stadiums/665557/8 "2013-08-07T12:40:35Z")
Almost every Rockies game I attend is like this. I’d say at best 50% of the people actualy care about the game of that half probalby hafe are cheering for the away team. Of course this year I’ve mainly seen the Dodgers and Yankees both of which have fans all over the place. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/takeover-of-home-stadiums/665557/9 "2013-08-07T12:49:35Z")
It’s happened a lot in Baltimore, though not as frequently as in years past. There are lots of Yankees, Red Sox and Steelers fans who are happy to attend and say “hooray” for their teams. I’m not the least bit embarrassed by this but then I’m a terrible fan. Saying “hooray for my team” in any form has always felt a little juvenile to me. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/takeover-of-home-stadiums/665557/10 "2013-08-07T13:10:24Z")
Speaking of Baltimore, this used to happen when the Ravens first got started and the Steelers came to town. For a variety of reasons (anger about personal seat licenses, the fact that they were playing in Memorial Stadium, resistance to supporting a “stolen” team from old school Colts fans), there were a lot of tickets available for games via ticket brokers. Enough Pittsburgh fans bought these and made the 4-hour trip that they seemed to outnumber the Ravens fans. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/takeover-of-home-stadiums/665557/11 "2013-08-07T13:12:29Z")
St Louis Cardinals fans often outnumber Royals fans in KC during interleague play. Also, back when Colorado was still a member of the Big 8/Big 12, it was not unusual for the home basketball game against Kansas to be packed with Jayhawks fans from western Kansas. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/takeover-of-home-stadiums/665557/12 "2013-08-07T13:13:08Z")
It’s been so common for years for Red Sox games, in Baltimore and Tampa Bay especially, that it’s no longer worthy of comment by the broadcast guys. Air fares on Southwest are pretty low to those places, and ticket prices are cheap, so the bottom line cost is not much more than for a home game. When the Hartford Whalers still existed, and played against the Bruins, they’d actually advertise in Boston media to try to sell out their home games - _even in the playoffs_. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/takeover-of-home-stadiums/665557/13 "2013-08-07T13:15:00Z")
In the 00s, when they played the Marlins, there were often more Mets fans in the stands than Florida fans. Even now, Mets fans are well represented. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/takeover-of-home-stadiums/665557/14 "2013-08-07T13:35:16Z")
The Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens have been around longer than the NHL. The Ottawa Senators, on the other hand, were formed in 1993. Ottawa is nearly half-way in between Montreal and Toronto and it’s on the Quebec/Ontario border, so it sees a fairly large invasion of foreign fans (many of whom live in the city) during games against those teams. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/takeover-of-home-stadiums/665557/15 "2013-08-07T13:36:19Z")
Sure- been to dozens. Back in the day (1985-ish), we could get service hours for Boy Scouts by being volunteer ushers at Rice U. football games. We’d basically put our uniforms on and help old folks and the stupid to their seats. Anyway, it was not at all uncommon for the visiting team’s crowd to outnumber the Rice crowd, especially if it was Texas or Texas A&M playing Rice. Either of those schools would put 50,000 people into Rice Stadium, and Rice would put 10,000, more or less. Smaller schools like say… University of Houston would outnumber Rice, but not necessarily come up to the crazy numbers that A&M and UT did. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/takeover-of-home-stadiums/665557/16 "2013-08-07T13:40:10Z")
This has a tendency to happen when the visiting team is A) Much better than the home team, and B) Cannot provide a sufficient number of affordable seats to its fans. In the case of the Mariners it isn’t really an indictment of the Mariners (and clearly isn’t because the Jays are any good) - the Mariners have good fans. It’s that Blue Jay fans in BC have essentially no access to seats to see their team, since it’s a five hour flight away. Toronto’s fan base is weird in that to some extent it spans a country, not a region. Similarly, Yankee and Red Sox fans will travel to see the team because tickets to see the Red Sox are hard to come by, and affordable and good seats for the Yankees equally rare. When the Red Sox are in Toronto there are many Red Sox fans; they don’t outnumbers the home fans but they are there in more than sufficient numbers to notice. You didn’t really see that 20 years ago when the Red Sox weren’t a particularly exciting team and there were home tickets available. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/takeover-of-home-stadiums/665557/17 "2013-08-07T13:56:12Z")
This is common at Northwestern University sports events. Northwestern is a small school by Big Ten standards, its alumni are scattered all over the country, its men’s basketball team is chronically awful, and it generates little interest from non-alums since Chicago is filled with professional teams. All of which means that NU doesn’t generate much of a home crowd–even for its football teams, which recently have been quite good. As a road destination, however, it’s a magnet. Most Big Ten schools have lots of alums in the Chicago area, Chicago is easy to get to, and Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Purdue are within easy driving distance. When their teams are good those schools can pack an NU sports event, and the Michigan schools, OSU, and Nebraska also draw well. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/takeover-of-home-stadiums/665557/18 "2013-08-07T14:00:42Z")
Let’s add US Mens National Soccer Team vs. nearly any Latin American team, in matches played in the U.S. I think the spectator mix is gradually becoming more US fans and/or neutral, but still a US-Mexico match in Texas or San Diego is certainly an ‘away’ match for the US, as far as the crowd goes. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/takeover-of-home-stadiums/665557/19 "2013-08-07T14:15:53Z")
I can’t believe nobody has mentioned the Nebraska Cornhuskers football team- EVERY game they play is a home game, because Husker fans travel in huge numbers, and will pay any price to get tickets for road games. Before the Huskers left the Big 12, whenever they played here in Austin, Memorial Stadium was a sea of red! It was the same at South Bend, when they played Notre Dame. As I’ve said several times before, Nebraska fans are every bit as passionate and committed as English soccer hooligans… except that they’re incredibly NICE! I actually miss their visits. If you’re sitting next to a bunch of Husker fans, they’ll chat with you amiably between plays. And even if the Huskers lose, they’ll shake your hand and say (with what sure LOOKED like perfect sincerity), “Boy, that was a great game, wasn’t it?” ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/takeover-of-home-stadiums/665557/20 "2013-08-07T14:40:13Z")
There have been times in their droopy history when the Washington Wizards would advertise games – in Washington – by touting the other team’s stars. Basically: “Come see Allen Iverson wipe the floor with your home team!” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/takeover-of-home-stadiums/665557.md?page=2)