Americans and Sports


Some of our American based posters might be best placed to shed a bit more light on this, @burchmackem, @NYMackem, @njmackem etc...

With your various sports, franchises, conferences, teams moving across country etc - Do Americans actually get it? Are they just sports fans, or do they have supporters?

Take for instance when the Dodgers left Brooklyn - what the frig happened to their fans? Did they even have any? Were people upset?

More recently the Raiders have bounced from Oakland, to LA, back to Oakland, and now reside in a swanky new stadium in Las Vegas. This is a team with 3 Superbowls to it's name. Have all their fans bounced along with them? The ever faithful cross the Sierra Nevada every other week to cheer them on?

Do season ticket holders exist? Would Phase 3 ever be a thing?

Do grown men cry when success/abject failure rears it's head in the post-season?

Do fathers pass their loyalties onto their sons?

Are weekends completely ruined when their team loses?

Do they care?
 
Round here it’s just entertainment.

When the oilers moved from Houston there was a bit of an uproar but it didn’t last long.

They changed their name and became a new franchise
No promotion or relegation so nothing to fret about
 
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I’ll try to answer as best I can. Teams do have fans and there are season tickets that are sold. Fans are spread all over the place in this country. I was born is Virginia far away from Washington DC. From birth I essentially inherited my parents loyalties to the teams in Pittsburgh since there were no local teams where I was born. With no fear of relegation or the excitement of promotion, my weekends aren’t even dented in the slightest if any of them lose. Teams that lose consistently over here are rewarded with a high draft pick in of itself has a high value attached to it.

In comparison My weekends take a huge hit when the lads let me down.
 
There's definitely discontent when teams up sticks and move, but I think geography plays a big part. For a lot of Americans the closest professional sports teams can be over 100-200 miles away if they don't live right in one of the big cities. Pennsylvania is nearly half the size of the UK but only has 1 NBA team for example. Difficult for people to get the same attachment in those circumstances, many teams are only 25-50 years old too so there's not the same generational attachment passed down for over 100 years like there is here.

It's a much more 'level' playing field too I'd say, no relegation means a season is never a complete disaster. With the drafts and salary caps, team's fortunes can change very quickly in a short space of time too. There's just not the same level of jeopardy that you get over here so I don't think it is as emotional. Brilliant for the owners there though, no need to overspend to be competitive and no risk if the team is crap for a year or two.
 
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Round here it’s just entertainment.

When the oilers moved from Houston there was a bit of an uproar but it didn’t last long.

They changed their name and became a new franchise
No promotion or relegation so nothing to fret about
Bloody hell that makes me sad. To think Sunderland could be moved and rebranded.
 
Some of our American based posters might be best placed to shed a bit more light on this, @burchmackem, @NYMackem, @njmackem etc...

With your various sports, franchises, conferences, teams moving across country etc - Do Americans actually get it? Are they just sports fans, or do they have supporters?

Take for instance when the Dodgers left Brooklyn - what the frig happened to their fans? Did they even have any? Were people upset?

More recently the Raiders have bounced from Oakland, to LA, back to Oakland, and now reside in a swanky new stadium in Las Vegas. This is a team with 3 Superbowls to it's name. Have all their fans bounced along with them? The ever faithful cross the Sierra Nevada every other week to cheer them on?

Do season ticket holders exist? Would Phase 3 ever be a thing?

Do grown men cry when success/abject failure rears it's head in the post-season?

Do fathers pass their loyalties onto their sons?

Are weekends completely ruined when their team loses?

Do they care?
This article is quite interesting. It seems (in the NFL at least) to happen when teams need new stadiums and other city's promise to build one for them! Don't know much about baseball or basketball but I know in Hockey teams used to move when they were struggling financially. Interestingly a few cities who's teams left have ended up with new teams.

 
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Teams are referred to by their franchise name not their 'home', Yankees, Red Sox, Lakers, Maple Leafs etc etc. It doesn't matter too much where they are based, unless the franchise name makes no sense in a new location as was the case with the Quebec Nordiques for example - now Colorado Avalanche or the Montreal Expos - now Washington Nationals.
 
They are big into their college sports. The crowds at those games can be much bigger than the NFL/NBA etc.
But even then, isn't that something that's fostered through their education in their late teens/early twenties? Do they stick with that varsity team? Surely you're not born into it?
 
It's perverse, as teams at the bottom are rewarded with the highest draft picks. Supporters actually get upset when a team at 0-14 go on a 2 match win streak to end at 2-14 and miss out on the top draft pick (the next super QB coming out of college).
 
It seems the American owners don't understand players representing their country but the club don't get paid anything for that. In addition the concept of relegation is beyond their comprehension. Of course they have drafts etc from colleges so do the teams get a fair share of that? It does not exist here in the UK - most clubs have scouting systems around the world.
 
There's definitely discontent when teams up sticks and move, but I think geography plays a big part. For a lot of Americans the closest professional sports teams can be over 100-200 miles away if they don't live right in one of the big cities. Pennsylvania is nearly half the size of the UK but only has 1 NBA team for example. Difficult for people to get the same attachment in those circumstances, many teams are only 25-50 years old too so there's not the same generational attachment passed down for over 100 years like there is here.

It's a much more 'level' playing field too I'd say, no relegation means a season is never a complete disaster. With the drafts and salary caps, team's fortunes can change very quickly in a short space of time too. There's just not the same level of jeopardy that you get over here so I don't think it is as emotional. Brilliant for the owners there though, no need to overspend to be competitive and no risk if the team is crap for a year or two.
Perfect.

This is the model isn't it.
 
But even then, isn't that something that's fostered through their education in their late teens/early twenties? Do they stick with that varsity team? Surely you're not born into it?

The legacy system is a thing in colleges. And the alumni system that nurtures post college involvement.

The US Collegiate is basically a pyramid scheme crosses with the masons.
 
Some owners over here as well barely put any money into their teams playing staff knowing full well that there is no repercussions to fielding a crap product that perennially loses. For example the owner of the MLB Pittsburgh Pirates constantly sells their best players once developed for veteran players and “cash considerations”, fields a team with one of the lowest budgets in the league. No fans go to the game. How is he punished? By making a profit due to revenue sharing throughout the league land no relegation due to the closed system.
 

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