A tentative defense of 'fairweather fans'
by arkanfel on May 28, 2010 9:34 AM CDT
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PrintOkay, here's the thing. It seems there's a virulent hatred for the Hawks this year among my fellow Wings fans, which I understand to an extent. For the record I'm still rooting for Philly but I wanted to play Devil's Advocate for a minute--just a minute--to make a point or two about the Chicago hockey market.
Not too long ago some or other publication offered up a list of the top ten or twenty most stubborn fans in the sports world. A talk radio guy rattled them off, subsequently insisting that excessive loyalty to a team is a weakness and not a strength. He prefaced the countdown by saying "If you're a fan of any of these teams, you're stubborn." Cleveland Browns fans clocked in at #1 and #2 was the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Flames were in there somewhere too but that's not the point.
The point is that the teams that do best tend to come from the markets where ownership is held accountable for the team's performance by the fans and local media. If you're a Yankees manager and you screw up the team, they'll kill you. They just don't put up with that crap out there. But take a club like the Mariners, for example, and you get this wishy-washy "oh we're just glad to be competitive" nonsense, which is no good for the team and is not an attitude one deploys to win championships.
What does this all have to do with the Hawks? Well, as I'm sure we can all remember, they sucked pretty badly and pretty recently to boot. During the opening round, I heard a lot of people mock Phoenix fans for similar reasons, citing some pre-season drive to promote the team that only like 20 people attended. But they make it to the playoffs and lo and behold--the arena sells out.
But isn't that the way it should be? If a team's management consistently produces shoddy product, why reward them by buying their tickets? I don't think it's fair to rag on a fanbase (even if your argument is that there was none) for being utterly disinterested in a crappy, mismanaged team. The 'Yotes franchise was handled poorly for years, but they came around and gave us a good series, and to me that's what matters in the end. I could almost give a hoot about how many 'true' fans they have; I like it when cities get into the game and support their team even if it's one I don't root for.
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You can use the Lions as an example
I love the Lions, but WCF wasn’t getting a dime of my money as long as Millen was in charge. The second he was fired, I was back on that bandwagon.
The Blackhawks have a diehard fanbase and deserve a winner, but I have always had a hatred for all things Chicago so I don’t think I can root for them. Besides, I don’t remember ever meeting a likeable Chicagoan. That city just breeds assholes
In life, a man is either the hammer or the anvil. Ndamukong Suh is both
Right
Once things do turn around with the Lions, guess what they’ll be saying about Lions fans? “Where were you!?”
I disagree with you about Lions fans
Lions fans sold out Ford Field for 6 straight years, and that was with a team that never won more than 7 games in a season. That is being pretty damn loyal to a terrible team and terrible front office. Even in the 0-16 debacle, the attendance was still pretty decent and the Lions still had respectable numbers and sold out some of those games. This is all the more impressive considering Detroit is fairly worse off than almost any (if not every) other city in the United States with a professional sports teams. Call Lions fans foolish or stupid for sticking with a loser, but you cannot count them as disloyal.
hmm
sounds like me with Pittsburgh, although oddly I don’t think I hate the franchise so much as I hate the city. ever notice how all their teams have the same colors? what’s up with that!
No Limits.
I don't have a problem with so-called fairweather fans
After all, everyone has to start somewhere, and what better to get fans involved than a winning team?
the problems I have are with fans who are dishonest about their dedication – they claim to have always believed in a team when they didn’t, or when the team is bad deny ever cheering for them, ever. There’s nothing wrong with being a recent fan of a team or a sport – everyone else was sometime – and there is nothing wrong with not cheering when the team is plagued by bad decisions and poor management and you don’t think it’s worth your time. Just be secure enough in your fandom, however you express it, to not fib about your feelings.
"While there's life, there's hope." --Cicero
Science nerd and proud of it!
by Baroque on May 30, 2010 11:24 AM CDT reply actions 2 recs
so...
do these people have stamps on their foreheads or some or other identifiable sign that they didn’t “always believe?”
I like to think I’m a decent example of this with the Browns. I still (nominally) follow them and hope they win week in and week out, but I ain’t about to drive up there to see a game when chances are they’ll just get humiliated. But if, by some miracle, they were playing some or other key game (let’s not call it the Superbowl, since I doubt I’ll ever attend one of those), I might just take the opportunity to not only attend, but brag it up a little. I imagine a lot of Lions fans can sympathize!
No Limits.
in some cases
It’s what they told you last week at work. That’s how you know they don’t really follow the sport that closely. :)
And bragging it up a little when a team you follow casually is doing especially well is understandable and fine. If you were pressed, I would guess that you would say that yes, you have followed them for several years, but not extremely closely because they were doing so poorly, but you are now thrilled that they are doing well for a change. Nothing wrong with that – and in fact it’s completely human.
The difference would be if you were asked if you were a fan, and promptly said yes, you were one of the bestest fans EVER, had been a devoted follower for YEARS, have TONS of clothes with the logo and are considering getting a tattoo, and then proceeded to trash talk others who had been fans for many longer years than you had and accuse them of being disloyal and poor fans and not supporting the team as strongly as you are supporting them.
There’s no shame at all in being a casual fan but paying more attention when the team is actually doing something worth paying attention to – just don’t claim that you are “more devoted” than others because you have been louder for the last week. It demeans the feelings of other people and that’s what I hate the most, as there are as many ways of being a fan as there are fans.
"While there's life, there's hope." --Cicero
Science nerd and proud of it!
Rec'd
My beef is with the fans that take their newfound fandom and rub it in my face because the Wings aren’t in the SC finals this year despite what they have done in the last 19 years. My friend did this earlier this week, to which I asked him to name five players that were on the Hawks 5 years ago. That conversation ended quickly.
Disagree completley...
If you’re a fan of the sport, you support your home team. Phoenix fans are not fans of the sport, see the connection? Chicago fans should be, I’m not sure what was up with them.
Plus, I think it’s more fun when you’re team is bad and you’re rebuilding to be honest. I couldn’t see myself rooting for a team because they are winning, I’d feel wrong because I wasn’t with the team when they were acquiring all of those players, it wouldn’t be rewarding to me at all. This is why I love and always will love the Lions.
d'oh
I was snickering so furiously I missed your remark about the Lions at the end.
But I think you might be missing my point. I’m not saying ’don’t support your team,’ I’m just saying it’s only natural for people to be disinterested in a loser. It’s like me with the Browns: I still want them to win, I still cringe when they take key injuries, and I follow their draft picks. But do I go to or watch their games? Sometimes, but I won’t go out of my way to do it.
I’m having a hard time figuring out just how people determine someone else’s history. I think some are quick to assume that braggarts were all at some point deserters, and I’m not sure I understand where that comes from. I would guess most of them are at least a little like me that way, in that they want a team to win but aren’t about to start flinging wads of cash at them for the ‘privilege’ of watching them play.
If the Browns somehow miraculously go like 12-4 next year or some crazy shit, you bet your ass I’ll brag about it. Will I trot out the hackneyed “I never stopped believing” crap? Probably not, but call me a fairweather fan and watch me care. :P
No Limits.
to me
You aren’t a fairweather fan because you realize the team exists. Some people live in an area, don’t even realize really that a team plays there until they are doing well, and then immediately seize on their success and start gloating. That in itself is fine, but realize that there are people who have been fans a lot longer than you have been and don’t start ripping them to shreds for not being as devoted as you think you are.
What bothers me the most is when new fans of a team begin ripping on longer-term fans of the same team. If another team has so-called fairweather fans I don’t care – sometimes they act like jerks, sometimes they don’t, same as long-term followers of the same team. It’s none of my concern.
But it bugs me when someone has just discovered the team I follow a week and a half ago and begins questioning my own loyalty because they don’t see my dying my hair the team colors like they did, and then after the team loses a playoff game or series they immediately throw everyone under the bus as though they have the same awareness as someone who has watched the team for a couple years. These are the people who come up with ideas like “Lidstrom is losing a step” or “Verlander is a lousy pitcher” at a higher rate than people who have followed the team for longer.
Kind of wandering off the topic of fairweather fans in general and in other fanbases, and I apologize for that, but it’s something I’ve run into often enough to have it really annoy me.
"While there's life, there's hope." --Cicero
Science nerd and proud of it!
Chicago fans should be, I’m not sure what was up with them.
Having the owners son take over and demanding a winner is what happened. The old owner just stopped giving a damn and it alienated the fanbase (very similar with Millen-era Lions). Blackhawk games weren’t even locally televised for about 10 or so years. I respect the Blackhawks fans fanhood.
In life, a man is either the hammer or the anvil. Ndamukong Suh is both
oh my goodness
There are a lot of long-term fans in Chicago who were waiting for Bill Wirtz to sell the team or keel over and hoping that the team would be worth watching, and available on television, after that happened.
Some of the new fans have just jumped on with the presence of Kane and Toews, but there are a few still left from many years ago who were in hibernation for years until things got better. Chicago is a good hockey town, actually, when the team was worth paying attention to because the owner didn’t regard it as a way to sell beer and nothing else.
"While there's life, there's hope." --Cicero
Science nerd and proud of it!
lol I've said I hated the 'Hawks...
but after awhile I was missing them being good. I’m glad that the franchise was able to turn it around. The rivalry has meaning again.
In life, a man is either the hammer or the anvil. Ndamukong Suh is both
Truth,
I am truly glad that my Hawks are no longer the “red headed step child.” I am a fan, but not a fanatic. I have always followed the Hawks, but after they were out, I rooted for the team from the division.
Also, next year the Hawks/wings series should be interesting.
/Note unceasing sarcastic laughter in background.
by burpchelischili on Jun 5, 2010 1:12 PM CDT up reply actions
I have a soft spot for Chicago
My mom grew up in the northern suburbs, and she was in high school when they last won the Cup. Thus they are my secondary team in the West. :)
"While there's life, there's hope." --Cicero
Science nerd and proud of it!
Wow,
and I thought my family was split with my dad as a Cubby and mom a White-Socks fan.
/Note unceasing sarcastic laughter in background.
by burpchelischili on Jun 6, 2010 8:18 AM CDT up reply actions
hee hee
She’s a Red Wings fan now, as she’s spent most of her life in Michigan raising a family and Wirtz killed the Hawks for her. But both of us cheer for Chicago once Detroit is out.
She and her brothers are split Cubs – White Sox, though. :)
Heck, when I was in college I had friends who were atheists and friends who were fundamentalist Christians – as long as they didn’t try to convert me or bad-mouth any of my other friends, I had no trouble with their beliefs. I may often fail, but I try to take each person as an individual – and I choose the teams I cheer for based on my own feelings, not what other fans think I should choose.
"While there's life, there's hope." --Cicero
Science nerd and proud of it!
Yup,
I even found myself rooting for the wings after the Hawks were out, which in past years was somewhere around November… I have grown up a Hawks fan, and I became an Islanders fan just because they were in a city with the devils and the rangers. I root for the Hawks, then the Isles, and then the Western Conference.
It was fairly easy for me to root for the wings in the past, because my favorite player was there. But the gracelessness of some of the wing fans have made it harder for me.
/Note unceasing sarcastic laughter in background.
Fan of the 2010 Stanley Cup Champion Blackhawks!
by burpchelischili on Jun 12, 2010 10:32 AM CDT up reply actions
HA! No.
Plus, I think it’s more fun when you’re team is bad and you’re rebuilding to be honest.
You’re entitled to your opinion, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t wrong.
If you prefer bad teams to good teams, I think you may have some deep seeded issues you need to work out.
by Big Z in Orlando on Jun 17, 2010 4:27 PM CDT up reply actions
Agree with HandsomeRob
Ive gone through this with many bandwagon fans the past few years especially Pburgh fans who dont know any players beside Jagr,Lemieux,Crosby,Malkin and Fleury. I know I’m only 25 years old but in the brief time Ive followed sports its been all Detroit every year. I remember Coffey scoring in my own goal against Colorado. I remember losing to SJ in 94…and when the Leafs were in our division and it wasnt east vs west it was Prince of Wales vs Campbell conference (aka how it should be). Whenever any other fans (beside Montreal and Toronto) try and badmouth us I just remind them…11 Cups to 3…just sayin.
Big Difference
There’s a big difference between supporting $$$$ your team, and following your team.
I totally agree that if you don’t appreciate the direction your team is heading stop buying merchandise and going to games. Otherwise, what incentive is there for ownership to change. I’d put more Lion’s fans who consider themselves “hardcore” in the “idiot” category than they would probably prefer.
However, not buying tickets and merchandise doesn’t mean not keeping track of your team. If you don’t know who is sucking for your team, you’re not really a fan. You don’t even have to watch the games, but keep up with what is going on. Who are your prospects? Are there imminent coaching or management changes? The internet and sites like this makes it so easy to do this that, that if you don’t, you really don’t have any excuse.
by Big Z in Orlando on Jun 17, 2010 4:33 PM CDT reply actions
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