Five options here.
I was born in Buffalo, NY, as was all of my family. In 1986, we moved out to Arizona, where we’ve been ever since. However both my parents and my uncle (who also moved out here) remained lifelong Buffalo Bills fans. Only in the last two or three years (out of 30 years we’ve been living here) has my mom and uncle finally started cheering for the Cardinals.
I’m talking about American football in this post, but let the question apply to any sports you watch.
I seem to be a fair weather/forever fan, i.e. if the team was good when I lived there, then I retain an interest; if it wasn’t, I forget about it.
I lived in SF starting in 1980, and the team was so bad then that season tickets weren’t hard to get, so I got some, just for something to do. And then a kid named Joe Montana became the starting QB. So yeah, I’ll always have a soft spot for the Niners.
On the other hand, I moved to Houston in 1992, and they were mediocre – the most exciting game they played was the one where they blew a 30-point lead or something (shades of the Duck’s collapse this year!), so I never much cared for them.
Ironically, I moved to Eugene while Mariota was there, so now I’m a Titans fan, and the Titans used to be the Oilers. But that’s a coincidence.
Notch this one up as a major difference between the USA and UK. Changing your allegiance to a football team is simply never done. You may add an additional team as a side-interest but to swap one for another? even if your geographical location changes?..nope, doesn’t happen.
Imagine a Newcastle supporter moving to Manchester. Could they change their allegiance? No. Couldn’t happen.
Another curiosity is major teams changing cities. How can it move a thousand miles away and yet still be the same team? Does not compute.
Look at my username.
I live in Ottawa.
When I lived in Pennsylvania, I was a strong Pirates and Steelers fan. I moved to Tucson in 1981. The only pro team in Arizona at the time was the Phoenix Suns. I kept my allegiances to the Pirates and Steelers and added the University of Arizona Wildcats football and basketball teams to my list of teams to root for. We also had a Class AAA minor league baseball team, the Toros.
I moved to Denver in the 90s. I started rooting for the Broncos and the Nuggets and soon the Colorado Rockies and Avalanche came to town. I moved back to Tucson in 2000 and kept rooting for the Broncos and the Rockies and added the Arizona Cardinals and the Diamondbacks to my teams to cheer for.
By the way, I’m rooting for the Broncos over the Steelers today.
Well, I don’t think of being the #1 fan of anyone, but I do usually watch the Packers having spent my first 18 years living ~30 miles from GB.
I’m in MN, but most of the TV stations are Wisconsin oriented (one is a Wisconsin station located in MN), so Packer coverage is not hard to get.
I don’t really follow baseball (though I’m curious to see how the Brewers and for fun the Cubs are doing) or basketball (Other than UW Madison because I was at Platteville at the same time as Bo Ryan) or hockey.
Brian
It depends on what you mean by “same team.” It’s the same commercial entity. Most of the fans in the abandoned location are not going to consider it “same” enough to stay loyal to it.
It’s like a divorce. If your wife leaves you, she is still the same person, but she’s no longer your wife.
I grew up in a Missouri family, Cardinal fans, but in Wisconsin, and I was 13 when the Braves moved in from Boston. I was the only kid in town who did not suddenly become a Braves fan.
I was never an NHL nor NBA fan until I lived in Montreal and then the San Antonio area, and it is the qualities and the merits of those teams that brought me to follow that sport in the first place, so I am very much a fan of the Canadiens and the Spurs. Similarly, Kansas basketball. I’ve moved around so much, I could have become a Homer anywhere, but I didn’t until I found a home team that I admired and respected enough to enamor myself to, and then I stayed with them. So far, I have not attached myself to any NFL team.
But I’m becoming so-so about Montreal. When I lived there, nearly all their players were French Canadian, and they were genuinely “Montreal’s Team”. That is no longer the case, they are just another yawning NHL franchise.
I’ve moved around a lot…generally I root primarily for the “old” team until their players turn over enough that it doesn’t really seem like the “same” team and gradually shift to the new city’s teams. I retain residual fondness for Pittsburgh, Portland and San Francisco teams, but I now root against them when they play Chicago. College is another matter, my loyalty to the Oregon Ducks never wavers (though I take some interest in Northwestern, having a graduate degree from there).
I don’t “mostly” stay number one fan of the place I came from, always, I always stay number one fan of the place I came from, always.
I will never, ever change my favorite teams.
I moved from Indianapolis to Virginia Beach.
I was a fan of the Pacers and Colts from the moment I realized their existence. I didn’t grow up as a sports fan, or really knowing anything about sports. But in my early teenage years, both the Pacers and Colts advanced to their respective league semifinals, and I thus became an eternal fan of both teams, through thick and thin.
I didn’t have a hockey team, and still don’t.
Shortly after I moved to Virginia Beach, I was struck by a spring illness that kept me from work for about a week. There was little else to do but watch Washington Nationals games on MASN2. The Nats were a pretty awful team at the time, but I became a fan, and more or less memorized their batting order. I’ve been a fan of them ever since.
Dad went to Indiana University when I was a kid, so I’m still an IU fan.
And as far as Kent State University goes, I first learned of them when they met, and lost to, IU in the 2002 Elite Eight of basketball. I like their logo, so I started rooting for them too.
So I’m a fan of the Pacers, Colts, Nationals, Hoosiers, and Golden Flashes.
I will never be a fan of the Steelers or Redskins. GAH, especially the Steelers.
I am from Upstate NY… grew up a fan of the Yankees, Giants, Islanders and Syracuse University sports… I have moved several times, most recently (and as the longest stay) to Denver, CO. I am still a rabid Yankees, Giants, Islanders, Syracuse University sports fan. I like to see the Rockies and Avalanche do well. The Broncos are a big meh but I don’t wish them ill will. As far as I have seen, there are no college sports here (Yes, I have seen CU-Boulder. My statement stands.)
Born and raised in Illinois, big fan of all Chicago teams, especially Bears. I went to school in Wisconsin. Everybody there was having fun rooting for the Packers (1st Makowski, then Favre). I couldn’t watch the Bears any longer and it was just so much rooting for the Pack, I just go both ways. Never was a Packer hater growing up, Bears and Pack were equally crappy. Was much easy and fun to root for the Packers. I’m not ashamed.
I only follow MLB. My number one team stayed the Indians through a move to LA and then a move to Maryland. But along the way I started rooting for the Dodgers (mainly because of my husband).
I’m sort of a minor Orioles fan and even more minor Nats fan (I prefer AL teams). But I root for the Indians against any of them. It’s not even close.
Born and raised in Wisconsin, now in L.A and can’t imagine why I’d ever be anything other than a Packer fan.
Actually, this is the perhaps only thing I have ever found strange about British and Irish sports culture and where Americans seem to make more sense. I knew a Liverpool fan who worked for Arsenal, but still supported the Reds (okay, admittedly at the time, M/S Gerrad, Alonso, Mascherano, Kyut and Torres made them easy to love)
International are another thing. I remember sitting at Headingley next to some Scots who would have walked over glass rather than support England in fooball and Rugby, but in cricket? They would happily cheer them.
And of course there was Norman Tebbit.
I was born in Syracuse and both my parents went to SU so we were automatically Orangemen fans. But as far as pro sports, when I was a kid people liked the Cowboys or the Steelers or whoever; there was no “hometown” team. Moved to Atlanta and everyone here likes the Falcons and Braves. It was weird to me- everyone for the same team?
So anyway I’m a Seahawks fan just because I am.
It’s because I’m partial to bird teams, and I like their colors. It’s as good a reason as any!
I grew up in the Cleveland area. I’ve not lived there in over 40 years (almost 50 if you count going away for college), but I’m still an Indians fan. At best I might feel indifferent about the Indians losing a game meaningless to them at the end of the season if it kept the Yankees out of the playoffs.
I didn’t start following hockey until I was in college in the Boston area and I picked up the Bruins (in the Orr Esposito years) The Bruins are still my hockey team though I’ve not lived in Boston for over 40 years).
I don’t really follow football and basketball not at all. Probably if the new Browns became good enough to go to the Super Bowl, I’d be excited. If the Cavaliers won the NBA it would be good simply so people could stop saying no Cleveland team has won it all since 1964.
I grew up a Dodgers and Ninners fan. When I moved to Denver I added the Raider because the broncos fans were so annoying. The closest I’ve come to adding the new home team is with the Avalanche. I don’t really pay attention to hockey so I didn’t have a team when the avs do well I consider getting tickets.
The only opportunity you have to change loyalties is if a team moves to where you live or if your team switches towns. Both are options but if its just you moving, especially if its a national team, then you shouldn’t switch. If the Dodgers left southern California depending where they moved to I might drop them and pick up the Rockies or if I’d been living here in Denver when the rockies were formed would have been a chance to get excited about a new team.
Cardinals fan since the last sixties. Don’t think my fandom will ever change.
Never lived in St. Louis, btw.