They support it because for the first time they have a team of their own to follow on a day-to-day basis.
You argument makes as much sense as saying “why date that girl, she’s already dated a bunch of other people?”
It’s even harder for us out-of-towners. Who here hasn’t responded to:
“Hey you see the Baltimore game last night?”
“Oh you mean the Colts?” :smack:
Replace city above with Houston or St. Louis: rinse repeat.
Yes but if allegiance doesn’t really matter then pick a team anywhere.
Just like soccer fans do elsewhere in the world. Manchester United have multitudes more fans from beyond Manchester etc.
If by “support” you mean cheer for - many don’t.
If by “support” you mean spend money to go to the stadium where they’re playing - for the sport I care about, I could go to my local stadium (very close to my home) or I could go to the next nearest stadium, which is approximately 800 miles away. If I want to see a live, professional game (which I do), I’m going to pay the local guys, because 800 miles is a long way to go to watch a game.
Of course, when you keep going to see the local guys play, often times you start supporting them.
But it’s not arbitrary. It is your local big-league team. Maybe it wasn’t there yesterday. Maybe it won’t be there tomorrow. But today it’s the local big-league club and it’s the one that’s going to attract all local attention like an electromagnet, especially in a region with no big-league clubs in the other major sports.
Remember, in the United States, only the top-tier league matters. Allegiances to lower-level clubs are provisionary if you live in an area that has no local big-league club. Once the team comes in, it’s here and it’s yours. For the vast majority of people in the area, who never formed strong loyalties to distant clubs (generally, in the U.S., an out-of-town team is pretty damn far away, so strong loyalties are going to be difficult to maintain) or who formed provisionary loyalties to lower-tier clubs, this is the time to become a serious fan.
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An American sports fan generally wants the pride of his own city earning the designation of “major league,” and so a good number of sports fans in the area are going to be drawn to the club that gives it the “major league city” label.
Some discussion of this issue in posts 36, 44, 51, 52, 60, 61, 75, 93, 236, 384, 389, 396, 462, 465, 466, 475 (and others) of this thread.
My pessimistic prediction is confirmed: Commissioner Stern says if Seattle loses Sonics, the NBA will never come back.
Nice bit of extortion there, Dave.
This makes no sense. I’m explicitly saying that allegiance does matter. Allegiance to your home city, specifically. People cheer for the home team. They can go to their games on a regular basis and all of that teams games are televised on the local station with local commentary. No other teams games will be broadcast more than a handful of times unless the person opts for a premium cable channel package.
What possible rationale is there for assuming that people won’t cheer for the local team?
Will the team have as many fans as a team that’s been in town for decades? Of course not. Will fans who have already formed a strong bond to a team in another city switch over? Some might, but not all. Still, as time goes on the allegiance to this local team will grow. At first the fans will largely be cheering for the name of the city on that jersey, and that’s usually enough if the city has never had a team before, but every game played and televised will build the fanbase exponentially.
What a freaking huge asshole. He’s basically saying that his private, for-profit enterprise is entitled to public funds. Fuck!
What stance would you expect him to take? He basically represents the owners and this sure is their stance.
Or Tater Tots. Or that gooey, yummy thing made of Fritos, chili and cheese.
I’m hungry now.