Common sports fan misconceptions where you live

[HMARK Center]

Here's an easy thing to admit: it's easy to stereotype different groups of sports fans. Many of us like to look at fans of teams we don't like and accuse them of having some kind of attitude problem: some are "front runners", some are "loud and obnoxious", some "aren't real fans of (whatever sport)", etc.

In fairness, a number of stereotypes exist for a reason, albeit often overly-simplified ones. However, given where you live or which fanbases you consider yourself a part of, what sort of misconceptions do you think outsiders have about you and your peers?

Or, maybe more accurately, in this age of sports as a mega-business, with business prices up all over the place, which stereotypes might have applied at one point in your fanbase's history, but might not today?

I have a whole buffet of options here given that I'm a Mets/Devils/Giants fan who lives right outside New York City.

The big one?

"New Yorkers demand a winner. They demand a champion. If you don't win the big one, you're a nobody."

Almost total BS.

Here's a list of the title victories for New York metro area based teams in the "big four" sports:
-New York Yankees - 27, have existed since 1903
-New York Football Giants - 8 (four NFL, four Super Bowl), have existed since 1925
-New York Baseball Giants - 5 (before the move to California) existed 1883-1957
-New York Islanders - 4 (all in a row), have existed since 1972
-New York Rangers - 4 (3 during the Original Six era), have existed since 1926
-New Jersey Devils - 3, have existed since 1982
-New York Mets - 2, have existed since 1962
-New York Knicks - 2, have existed since 1946
-New Jersey Nets - 2 (both ABA titles), have existed since 1967
-New York Jets - 1, have existed since 1960
-Brooklyn Dodgers - 1, existed 1883-1957

Now, there is some serious success here, of course; many Yankees fans are absolutely spoiled by that number of titles, no getting around it, and the Giants now rank among the team with the most title wins in NFL history. Hell, the baseball Giants had a track record that was nothing to scoff at.

That being said, take the Yankees out of the equation, since they're just one team, and we could sit here all day going over the competitive advantages they had in the years before free agency. The rest of the list there? Not bad, but not mind blowing, is it?

Sure, there's a couple dynasties there (most notably the Islanders), but included as well are the Jets having not even been to a Super Bowl since Super Bowl III, the Knicks not winning a title since 1973, the Rangers having one Stanley Cup win in 70+ years, even enormous spans of time between the 1950's and the 1980's where the football Giants were hopeless. Hell, look at the Dodgers! ONE title in what was formally a baseball mad borough.

And yet...

-The Jets sell out every home game, and a number of their post-SB 3 players are beloved by the fanbase.
-The Knicks are the most popular team among the NBA and NHL franchises around here, even though they've been pathetic for eons. Patrick Ewing and the crew from the 90's teams are still beloved.
-The 90's Mets were insanely popular despite coming up short, and still receive great receptions from fans.
-The Brooklyn Dodgers are arguably the most maddeningly beloved franchise ever put on this Earth, despite always playing the role of "Dem Bums" come crunch time. Hell, look up the story behind "Pray for Gil Hodges".

Etc. etc. etc.

If there's an argument to be made here, you could say the Yankee fanbase is spoiled, and that since New Yorkers often have to pay the most for tickets, they often have inflated expectations.

That being said, given the track record of the individual teams in this area, I don't see where it plays in that "you either win a title or you're a bust" in this area. Were that the case, we wouldn't still have tons of NY/NJ fans going crazy for guys like Patrick Ewing, Mike Piazza, Don Mattingly, Joe Klecko, Charles Oakley, Jason Kidd, et. al.

So how 'bout y'all?

[FALLOUT Goldashausen #BLM]

Outside perception of Buffalo sports = "Oh, look. It's Buffalo. Losers! You're never going to win a championship because you're always going to fail at the last moment. Say hello to Scott Norwood!"

When, in reality, we have one of the strongest and most resolute fanbases in all of professional sports, because we still have an inkling of some faith that our enthusiasm could somehow transfer to our perpetually mediocre franchises.

Although, lately, our fans have become just as critical as those outside our borders. You can only take so much of an abusive, one-way relationship before you eventually leave. And that's what's happened to the attendance at Bills games lately. Everyone's tired of getting f***ed over and just stopped going to games. Not worth the investment.

Is this some kind of dastardly way to move the team out? I hope not. Whatever it is, it ain't working. If they somehow let Stevie Johnson walk, I'm pretty much done with the team.

[Bone Daddy]

I'm from Boston. People think that we're the enemy of the world, and that we take more joy in other teams losing that our own teams winning.

That doesn't even make sense. Sure our teams are having success these days, but for 100(well, close)s of years all we wanted was a single world series title. Winning makes us happy, not other teams losing

["Playboy" Don Douglas]

Living close to Knoxville, I saw so many University of Tennessee fans demanding yet another coaching change when the Vols lost to Kentucky. As if yet another shakeup in the coaching staff would make things better.

[Zombie Mod is not a ghoul.]

75% of the old trafford crowd comes from london (someone had to say it.)

[Cyno]

I'd say because Yankee fans are also Giants, Jets, Knicks, Nets, Devils, Rangers, and Islanders fans, it hurts the way the rest of the NY sports fans look. There's no denying that Yankees fans are spoiled, and I say that as a proud Yankees fan since I was born (when your dad's from the Bronx, you have no real choice in the matter, heh). That sort of entitled behavior is going to form when you have a young fanbase growing up with 4 World Series wins in five years.

And the kind of schmucks who call into NY sports radio every day don't exactly help this image. New York City really is a "What have you done for me lately?" city. The media plays on it. The fans glorify it. The NBA and NHL teams somehow manage to evade it, probably because they've been mediocre for so long (except for the Devils) and thus smaller fanbases. But it gets really bad for the baseball and football teams here. Even the Mets have been hemorrhaging fans and attendance the past couple of years because of bad seasons and worse management. If the Yankees ever became that consistently bad, they'd do the same.

[Citizen Snips Has Left]

We here in Philadelphia often get a deserved bad rap for some of our more churlish antics, but we're also incredibly loyal and knowledgeable. Since we don't have many World Titles to our fair city's name, we have latched onto effort as our mark of success. A guy who busts his ass for a Philadelphia team will be honored forever, even if he leaves us.

[Sajoa Moe]

Cleveland fans are jealous and miserable.


That's not a stereotype.

[Mr. Medium Shot]

Tampa sports fan perception: We don't care. That is absolutely, unequivocally 100% false.

The Lightning sold out the entire season after the NHL lockout in support of the Stanley Cup Champions. They still have some of the better attendance figures in the league. By all accounts, very few teams can match the fan experience at a Lightning game. Too bad ESPN conveniently overlooks this.

The Bucs' crowds suck now only because Tampa's economy is worse than average and ownership is terribly cheap. During the Tony Dungy era, there were tens of thousands of people on the season ticket waiting list. It jumped to 120,000 after the Super Bowl victory. There has always been a sizeable group of fans that reveres this team.

Of course, everyone and their mother jumps on the "Rays have no fan support" bandwagon. Yes, I do agree the team's attendance is often underwhelming. But it's not necessarily due to lack of interest (though many baseball fans in the area cheer for rival teams). The stadium's location is atrocious and nobody in Tampa or farther east with a job can get to a 7:00 game before the first pitch. Add to that the fact that very few people like Tropicana Field and most wish it were gone. A new stadium is already working for the Marlins, and it can yield similar returns for the Rays.

[End sales pitch]

[MGH]

Anyone who casually follows college basketball has heard it all about UK fans by now. Impossible standards (thanks Mike Wilbon), racism (again ... thanks Mike Wilbon), never satisfied with anything (hey Dick Vitale), sold our souls to the devil (I really don't feel like typing out my giant John Calipari defense again), blah blah.

Honestly, we're no different than any other fan base other than we travel better than any by a mile and care more than most. Enough to where if an injustice is perpetrated like with Enes Kanter, people will literally go to Indianapolis to go speak with the NCAA over it. Like, go to the headquarters and talk to someone in the building.

The problem we run in to as a group is that we have a vocal minority like everyone else does, but when you have a larger following, that group is also larger. There are legendary stories about that minority. During Tubby Smith's first season when he won a National Championship, a caller on his radio show called in and said (I forget the exact record) almost word for word, "this is the worst 26-3 team of all time". Idiots like that are the ones who make us as a group look like lunatics.

I do laugh when we're accused of never being satisfied and Tubby Smith AND Billy Gillispie are used as examples. People who don't follow college hoops closely just think from the outside looking in that a new coach came in, had a rough second year, and got canned because OMG UK FANS ARE IMPOSSIBLE. They have no idea of how he was abusing players and destroying the program from within. It was literally to the point where if he had stayed on as head coach that Patrick Patterson, Jodie Meeks, Darius Miller, DeAndre Liggins, Josh Harrelson, and literally every other scholarship player on the team was going to either go to the NBA or transfer. Our drunk coach almost gave us a death penalty with no assistance from the NCAA. But we get labeled as irrational for wanting him gone. That cracks me up. Tubby Smith quit two years before he actually left. He stopped giving a damn about trying to recruit and kept on three assistant coaches who ranked among the worst active in the country, despite pressure from within the university to let them go. He wouldn't adapt and he wouldn't change back to the guy who got us three straight top finishes from 03-05, so he had to go. Again though, somehow UK fans are off base for wanting a change to be made?

Finally as for that count of racism, I'll just say without getting long winded that so many people have no idea how close we came to Duke being the school labeled in that way and not Kentucky, and I'll leave it at that.

Bottom line, by outside fan bases we're considered insane and impossible to deal with, which it's really just unwarranted. You have a vocal minority of idiots in every fan base in America. Some are just easier to ignore because they aren't following a juggernaut like UK is.

[Codebreaker]

I'm not really big into sports, but my local NRL team is generally hated by everyone, to my knowledge. And honestly, I don't know why. It's quite specific to this particular team.

[Deleted]

I live in DC, everyone thinks that all of the teams here suck. There is no misconception.

[HMARK Center]

Feb 14, 2012 18:23:13 GMT -5 Cyno said:

I'd say because Yankee fans are also Giants, Jets, Knicks, Nets, Devils, Rangers, and Islanders fans, it hurts the way the rest of the NY sports fans look. There's no denying that Yankees fans are spoiled, and I say that as a proud Yankees fan since I was born (when your dad's from the Bronx, you have no real choice in the matter, heh). That sort of entitled behavior is going to form when you have a young fanbase growing up with 4 World Series wins in five years.

And the kind of schmucks who call into NY sports radio every day don't exactly help this image. New York City really is a "What have you done for me lately?" city. The media plays on it. The fans glorify it. The NBA and NHL teams somehow manage to evade it, probably because they've been mediocre for so long (except for the Devils) and thus smaller fanbases. But it gets really bad for the baseball and football teams here. Even the Mets have been hemorrhaging fans and attendance the past couple of years because of bad seasons and worse management. If the Yankees ever became that consistently bad, they'd do the same.

Yeah, there's no denying that NYC does get that "what have you done for me lately" vibe, but I think what I'm getting at more is that fans WILL accept a team that competes but comes up short. Again, looking at the Mets of 1997-2001, the Knicks of the 90's, etc. etc., fans still look back fondly on those teams and players despite the fact that none of them actually brought home the big titles. But they were competitive, they gave some great memories, and that's all most of us are really looking for; winning the big ones just obviously takes it one step further, but it isn't the sole reason fans will have fond memories of Players X, Y, and Z.

That said, given how expensive most tickets are around here for any sport, it's also true that there isn't a lot of patience for mismanagement, and yes, the current Mets are proof of that...slightly ironic, since they finally have a competent front office in place, but now the ineptness of the ownership has crippled them.

Same thing applied to the 1980's Yankees; fans couldn't tolerate Steinbrenner's power grabs, his trading away of great young talent, the "Bronx Zoo" atmosphere, and thus even in the years of semi-competitive Yankees teams Yankee Stadium often resembled a ghost town.

I hate to say it this way, but if NY fans were only concerned about winning titles then my favorite hockey team, the Devils, would still be selling out every game. We do alright, but not the way you'd figure a consistent playoff team in this area would.

[The Line]

Feb 14, 2012 17:15:52 GMT -5 FALLOUT Goldashausen #BLM said:

Outside perception of Buffalo sports = "Oh, look. It's Buffalo. Losers! You're never going to win a championship because you're always going to fail at the last moment. Say hello to Scott Norwood!"

When, in reality, we have one of the strongest and most resolute fanbases in all of professional sports, because we still have an inkling of some faith that our enthusiasm could somehow transfer to our perpetually mediocre franchises.

It seems as though Seattle has a similar reputation, outside of The Seahawks' "Twelfth Man".

People seem to be under the misconception that Seattle fans didn't care enough about the Sonics to keep them around(when in reality, it was the City of Seattle not wanting to spend money on 3 state-of-the-art sports complexes[Safeco, C-Link, and a new Bball arena] in 8 years) or that the city of Seattle really doesn't care about the Mariners which could not be farther from the truth.

I think part of it is what Seattle is stereotypically known for(Music, Technology, and Coffee) give people the impression that people from Seattle dislike sports for some reason.

[EoE: Well There's Your Problem]

Feb 14, 2012 18:39:53 GMT -5 Codebreaker said:

I'm not really big into sports, but my local NRL team is generally hated by everyone, to my knowledge. And honestly, I don't know why. It's quite specific to this particular team.

Manly Sea Eagles, by any chance?

The team I follow is the one everyone either feels sorry for or wants kicked out of the league/moved to a new location.

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

This isn't a rampant stereotype among more knowledgable sports fans, more so among the uneducated, but I've run into some people that assumed Cardinal fans were arrogant, hate filled bullies towards Cubs fans- basically the NL equivalant of Yankee fans.

Actually, it's a pretty respectful rivalry that doesn't have anywhere near the amount of bile you see with Dodgers vs. Giants and Yanks vs. Red Sox. Most Cards fans just like to poke light hearted fun at the Cubs' failures, but we all know when to stop (note both fanbases' collective reaction to Darryl Kile's death). And part of the reason we toot our horn so much is a reaction towards the Cubs' giant WGN-boosted national platform and the media advantage they get from playing in Chicago, despite their compared lack of success as opposed to St. Louis.

[VenomFang]

Feb 14, 2012 20:02:31 GMT -5 Clash, Never a Meter Maid said:

This isn't a rampant stereotype among more knowledgable sports fans, more so among the uneducated, but I've run into some people that assumed Cardinal fans were arrogant, hate filled bullies towards Cubs fans- basically the NL equivalant of Yankee fans.

Actually, it's a pretty respectful rivalry that doesn't have anywhere near the amount of bile you see with Dodgers vs. Giants and Yanks vs. Red Sox. Most Cards fans just like to poke light hearted fun at the Cubs' failures, but we all know when to stop (note both fanbases' collective reaction to Darryl Kile's death). And part of the reason we toot our horn so much is a reaction towards the Cubs' giant WGN-boosted national platform and the media advantage they get from playing in Chicago, despite their compared lack of success as opposed to St. Louis.

St. Lous is one of the few cities where baseball is the #1 and most popular sport. No misconceptions about that. The misconception would be that the Cubs are the #1 team in Chicago and they arent its the Bears.

[MolotovMocktail]

Myth: Oakland A's fans are apathetic and the team will never grow out of the Giants' shadow.

Fact: Right now, many A's fans are (rightfully) pissed at Lewis Wolff for dismantling budding, up and coming teams to make it look like he can't afford to not move the team to San Jose. But as far as apathy, when we do put good, competitive, playoff-caliber teams on the field, we will regularly draw 2 million per season, even to the outdated, crumbling Mount Davis Coliseum. The Moneyball era was proof of this. And in the 80's and early 90's when we won 3 straight AL pennants, we regularly outdrew the Giants.

[Koda, Master Crunchyroller]

Myth: Oklahomans only care about college football.

Fact: Damn near the entire state has embraced the Oklahoma City Thunder, as a result, the Thunder have one of the best attendance records in the league the last few years, and we bring our college sports fan attitude into the arena, making it one of the loudest, and hardest to play in buildings in the NBA. I guaran-damn-tee you that we would loyally support any major league teams brought into the state, so NHL, MLB, NFL.....get the f***ing move on already. We're kind of getting tired of having to cheer for the teams in Texas, Colorado, and Missouri in the other leagues because those are the closest options to us.

[darthalexander]

Living in Montreal I can say that there are two sets of fans who get a bad rap: Boston and Toronto.

Leaf fans are often accused of being delusional nitwits who think they're so great and don't realise how crappy their team is since they haven't won anything since 67. They "plan parades" the moment they have a winning streak.

Bruins fans are accused of being meathead cretins who know nothing about hockey and only believe goonery is the way to go. They're also bandwagon fans.

Edit: I can't wait to hear what people say about us. I know arrogance is probably there somewhere.