Not necessarily. I once heard somebody became a Jaguars fan because they liked the uniform as a kid, and little did they know they were signing up for a lifetime of pain.
NFL probably has the most scattered fans of any of the sports since it is easy to follow due to low number of games. So you will find fans of various football teams everywhere. Most other sports are very regional
Basically. The Onion (“America’s Finest News Source “) used to sell T-shirts that said, “The sports team from my area is better than the sports team from your area.” The irony, of course, is that few if any of the athletes are from the area where their team is located. Even at the collegiate level, a school in Iowa, let’s say, might have players from New Jersey, Florida, California, the Philippines and Spain.
It’s definitely an influence, not that I ever cared for sports. But I know my parents would nail me to a cross if I even jokingly said I preferred the Steelers (Or any other team) over the Bengals. I still see plenty of people wearing Steelers clothing even though Pittsburgh is a lot further away than Cincinnati.
Kinda but not always. Some people pick their favorite teams growing up based on team colors or team mascots, and some “fake fans” switch their favorite teams to whoever is winning.
For the most part, but there are exceptions to the rule. Some people pick a team outside of their market based upon a possible childhood experience (watching a team live while on vacation). Others pick a team out of spite (my brother loves X, so I’m going to route for Y) and continue with that team. Then there’s the teams that dominate the national scene (think Dodgers right now) who are probably building a strong out of market fan base. People also pick teams based on players, and in the US there a higher chance of a franchise player staying a long, long time with a single team, then when they retire it’s only natural to continue to root for that team. You also have the teams that, more so in the past than now, have a large broadcast footprint (Chicago Cubs and WGN, Atlanta Braves and TBS, and the Cardinals KMOX radio) And finally there are the kids that grew up in the house of transplants. I’m a St Louis sports fan across the board, and I’m raising my NYC area kids to be the same. There are no Yankees/Mets/Rangers/Red Bulls etc, fans in this house
It’s a big factor, usually because all of your friends and family are. People who move around might root for their hometown team as well as the place they live. And some areas have overlapping teams — I’m in Connecticut and there is divide between people who are fans of New York teams and fans of New England Teams (Yankees vs Red Sox is the big one).
A lot of people are into college sports, as well. So they may be bigger fans of their university’s football or basketball team. My dad still watches the games for the university he went to.
Most of the time, barring the fact there wasn’t a team where you grew up or you didn’t get into a sport until later when you lived somewhere else. But you always root root root for your home team.
Yes and no, I grew up in Northern California and most everyone was either a Oakland fan or a San Francisco fan but there were a few random Green Bay and Dallas fans despite never living in Wisconsin or Texas. Where I live now we have no NFL team but three about equal distance away so most everyone here follow Minnesota, Denver, or Kansas City.
Not me. As a seven year old kid growing up in west Virginia, I saw the Miami Dolphins colors and logo and fell in love. This was the club I wanted to belong to. And 40 years later, here I still am, lifelong diehard.
Kind of but honestly varies. DC is full of transplants. I also didn’t have a baseball team growing up so follow the Red Sox because of my Dad. Redskins/Commanders were not a well run team for about 25 years until recently. There are a lot of away fans that are local.
For example, my mom’s side of the family lives about an hour away from Cleveland, Ohio. Among her four brothers, 2 are Cleveland Browns fans, 1 is a fan of the Dallas Cowboys, and another is a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Neither of them have ever lived in Dallas or Pittsburgh. I don’t know if they’ve even visited these cities. I was/am not into sports, so I never asked how they came to these preferences.
I also lived in Washington DC for a summer. My boss and several of his friends were big time Steelers fans, even though there are closer teams.
It’s not NFL, but if you grew up in East Tennessee, it’s almost heretical if you don’t live and die by the University of Tennessee Volunteers — especially the football team, but also basketball, both men and women. (Baseball is popular now, too, since the team has been good in recent years.)
I like to say there are two things that will get you talked about at the grocery store in Knoxville, one much worse than the other.
“Did you meet the man who bought the house on the corner yet? I asked if he had found a church home yet, and he said he doesn’t go to church!’
“Well, that’s between him and the Good Lord, I suppose. I’ll say a prayer for him tonight.”
“And I asked if he was going to watch the game Saturday, and he said he doesn’t really care about football!”
“Kill the heretic! Burn! Burn!”
(Both immediately abandon their carts in the middle of the bread aisle and rush to Home Depot to buy torches.)
It used to be true when I was a kid, back in the 20th century. Nowadays it’s dependent on other factors. I’m still a fan of the baseball team from my home town, but my hockey team and football team are from a place I’ve never lived.
I started watching football in like 1969. ABC had rights to all AFL games and they were exclusively on Monday Night Football (w. Howard Cosell). I live in Chicago and the weekends were for goofing around. The only time I had to watch football was Monday night. Thus, I became an AFL fan and particularly KC Chiefs fan. Eventually, I became a Bears fan but I still follow the Chiefs, including the nearly 50 years between the 1970 Super Bowl win and the recent dominance, though not as closely as the Bears.
For the most part. I was born a different place from where I live so I mostly root for teams from there, with the exception of hockey where I’m a local fan
Sports fandom pretty much works here the same way it does everywhere else. Lots of people stick to their hometown team, lots of people follow the hugely successful teams regardless of where they’re from or live currently.
I grew up in Orlando and half of my friends are Atlanta Braves fans. Because when we grew up we didn’t have a MLB team in Florida. And Atlanta was the closest and easiest to watch.
For the NFL, in particular MOST people who are fans are fans of their hometown team. But it’s often generational, too – if your grandparents and parents were from Pittsburgh, you could likely be a Steelers fan.
And then there’s people who are just Patriots fans or Chiefs fans or whatever because those are the best teams in a given era.
MLB is a little different, it’s definitely largely based on where you live, but much more generational. Serious baseball fans are often fans of who their parents and grandparents and great grandparents followed.
NBA more than the other big 3 American sports seems more random. Everyone is just a Lakers fan 😂.
College sports in the USA are huge too. Unlike anywhere else in the world. It’s a multi billion dollar industry, especially American football and to a lesser extent basketball. College football is basically the Championship or League One if you want to think about it in UK terms. Not in that teams can be relegated but in that it’s just one level down. It’s where the 18-22 year olds get ready for the NFL basically. College sports is interesting because the primary driver of what team you’re a fan of is often where you went to uni -or- where your parents went to uni. But even people who don’t go to uni at all tend to be big college football fans. Especially in middle America. It’s like a statewide thing / people generally support the college football team in their state if there’s one major program in state – or one of the major programs in their state if there are more than one. And, similar to how there are just lots of random Lakers fans everywhere – there are lots of random Alabama football fans everywhere and random North Carolina/Duke/Kansas/Kentucky basketball fans everywhere.
I think the longer it is before you get into a sport makes it more likely to favor a team farther from you.
I was a Dolphins fan at 7, wife didn’t really start watching til after we were married, she likes the Steelers and the Cowboys. Both from Orlando-ish.
I don’t mind Jax or Tampa, but growing up in the Dan Marino era kinda solidified Miami as my team.
For college, UCF (in Orlando) is always first, followed by U of Miami, Navy, and then in order: whoever is playing Notre Dame and whoever is playing Ohio State. ND vs OSU, I’ll be a Buckeye for a day.
Yes and no. For some people, they just like good / popular teams bc they are good, regardless of where they are. Other times they’ll follow a specific player and be a fan of whatever team they are on.
For the NFL, I’ve noticed that Wisconsin, by and large, worships the Green Bay Packers. The whole state seems obsessed with them. I lived in Western Wisconsin and expected to find a few more Minnesota Vikings fans than I did.
I grew up in central Illinois. We had Chicago Bears fans, Indianapolis Colts fans, and St Louis Rams fans. Those were all large cities about a 2 hour drive away. So it was a melting pot of fans. (The Rams moved to California and a lot of the local Rams fans were angry)
My Dad is a Dallas Cowboys fan despite having never been to Texas. My friend was once a Dallas fan but got annoyed and now follows the Kansas City Chiefs.
In my case, it’s not where I live or grew up but where my mom did and where my dad worked. Dad was a radio announcer who covered the Ohio State Buckeye football team, so even though we were 3 hours’ drive from Columbus, we were/are an Ohio State family. But my mom grew up in South Dakota and went to college at the University of Minnesota. But when Minnesota got an NFL team in ’61, there was no “conflict of interest” like in college ball, so we became a Vikings family even though we’re in Ohio.
It’s should be. If not you are a geographical traitor.
And there’s a certain how of loser who just licks the most successful teams as “their team”. We ah e family friend who “picked” Alabama as their family team even though they live in a buffet state with a football team an hour away”. We all don’t trust them now
The exception is someone who grew up nine area and stuck to those teams even though he moved to a new area.
Usually, it’s your local teams, but other times, it can be the teams your parents cheer for if they’ve moved from the area they grew up.
But obviously people become fans of other teams for various reasons. I know a few people who are New England Patriots fans and Pittsburgh Penguins fans because both teams were doing well in their respective sports at the same time. Those people just happened to start watching those sports, and since they were both strong teams, that’s who they started rooting for even though fans of those teams would normally not the like the other.
There are exceptions, but that’s generally the rule if there’s a professional team near you. Most people root for a team they have some sort of connection to. That can either be the team closest to where you live, the team from where you grew up if you move later in life, or a team from an area you lived for a while.
In my city, we don’t have a football team, so there’s a lot wider range of fan bases. That being said, the Seahawks being the closest team, most people do root for them.
It should also be noted that different cities have different major sports. For example, soccer is a massive deal in Portland and it’s our second most popular sports team (after the Blazers NBA), even more so than NFL. Even if you don’t care about soccer you root for the team. In a lot of cities, soccer is barely given a second thought.
I’m from Central Ohio and my favorite teams are college: Ohio State, NFL: Pittsburgh Steelers, NBA: Cleveland Cavs, MLB: Pittsburgh Pirates, NHL: Columbus Blue Jackets idk why I didn’t pick the Penguins to be my favorite hockey team I guess I just wanted to suffer somewhere as a fan
Usually it’s either where you live, where you grew up, or inherited from a parent. Most people are fans of the city they live in or nearest team. Often this fandom has been since childhood, especially if they still live in the area they grew up. But once one establishes a favorite team, they tend to keep it even if they move elsewhere. So the Atlanta Braves fan remains a Braves fan even if they move to Seattle or Philadelphia.
And often, fandom is passed down from parent to child. Like if your dad grew up a Chicago Bears fan in Chicago area but moved to Dallas, you might follow in Dad’s footsteps and become a Bears fan instead of the local Cowboys.
No. Some people pick their teams this way, maybe even most, I can tell you I don’t live anywhere near any of my favorite sports teams. No two are even in the same city, come to think of it.
I’d say it varies by sport and region. NFL is mostly random but areas local to the team have a much more dense fan base. But the other major sports I think are a lot more localized.
No. I’m a Steelers fan and never lived in the area they are from.
Also a Kraken, Penguins, and Predators fan and live in Nashville (so only one from the home team).
My dad grew up in Long Island NY going to gmen games so I grew up on Giants football even tho we lived in southern VA
I lived in DC for a bit & had season tix to nats so I root for them. Love the wizards too
I live in Carolina now & root for the canes in hockey. Siblings went to Duke so I’ve been in the Raleigh Durham area a ton. Caps never really interested me growing up or living in DC
It’s not a 100% thing. Like I personally have never lived in a state with a pro sports team. So I adopted Pittsburgh pro sports because my mom’s side is from a town near Pittsburgh. But in general it’s a you pick your home team.
Sometimes it’s location. Sometimes it’s family. My dad is a Lions fan because his uncle was.
Sometimes it’s access to games. I’m a Chicago Cubs fan because there were two teams with nationally televised games. The Braves on TBS. The Cubs on WGN. My grandma picked WGN.
I grew up in southeastern Indiana. My favorite baseball team was the Cincinnati Reds. My favorite basketball team was the Indiana Pacers. My favorite football team was the Indianapolis Colts, but my dad liked watching the Cincinnati Bengals. As an adult, I don’t watch any sports, but most people will have an affinity to their local teams because tribalism is huge among the sports fandom.
While I’m not particularly interested in sports, I grew up in New England and will typically pull for the Patriots on the rare occasion I’m watching football. Basically I’ll pull for the Boston team in any sport if I’m watching, as I was born in a southern suburb of Boston. If I had to choose a favorite team it would be the Bruins (love the Dropkick Murphy’s song “Time to Go”) because I have a somewhat sentimental connection to both the Bruins and the Celtics because my father was security at The Gardens in the 70s and knew a lot of the members of the teams.
For me, yes. Except my city doesn’t have an NHL team. So I had to choose a team for that. I tried not to be a band wagon fan so I chose Vegas as soon as it was announced. They didn’t have a team name yet I just figured I would get in on the ground floor.
It is for my US professional sports teams. I’m eastern Massachusetts so Red Sox, Celtics, Bruins, Patriots, and Revolution. I’ve been to lots of each over the years.
College is where I went to college. No football team so basketball if they make the NCAA tournament and I glance at how the hockey team is doing.
The main thing I watch is English football. I watch pretty much every Premier League match my club plays plus any League Cup, FA Cup, and Europe matches. I also watch a second division Championship League club. My grandparents are from that city and I’ve been there a number of times. The Premier League club is owned by my Major League Baseball team so I started glancing at how they were doing at the acquisition, watched a few matches, and discovered that English football is the only sport I like watching.
So I’m a premier league plastic. My penance is a mediocre Championship League club that finds soul crushing ways to lose important matches.
I’m from the New York area where we have the Giants and the Jets that play in the same stadium in New Jersey. Usually what determines your fandom in this case is where you, your parents, or grandparents lived when prior to Giants and Jets playing in the same stadium. The Giants used to play at Yankee Stadium (yes the baseball Yankees) in the Bronx. Dad and his parents are from the Bronx therefore we are Giants fans. The Jets played at Shea Stadium (former home of the Mets) in Queens. My wife’s dad grew up in Queens and she was raised a Jets fans. It’s pretty common for Giants fans to be Yankee fans and Jets fans to also be Mets fans because of this.
Usually, yeah. I’m in DC so the Commanders (formerly a different name that was a slur against Native people) have a huge fan base. I worked with a guy who was a Dallas fan, and the teams have a decent rivalry. He had an enormous attitude about it, because he was the only Dallas fan at that job and a lot of our coworkers were very vocal about football and their support of the DC team. Thing was, the dude wasn’t from Texas or anything, he’s an immigrant and at the time he had never even been to Texas. It’s like he picked it to be contrary and was mad that the contrarian position had consequences.
I’m not into football but I am into baseball. I’m a big Nationals fan, but when I lived in Denver I rooted for the Rockies in every game except when they played the Nats.
It’s more common than not, but of course, there are exceptions.
I don’t keep up with professional sports much anymore, but growing up I pulled for the Denver Broncos in the NFL and the Chicago Bulls in the NBA. I did not live near either area or even ever attend any of their games, but that was the era of John Elway and Michael Jordan at those respective teams.
I pull for Auburn in all things college sports because that’s where my parents met while they were in college and they took us to a lot of games growing up. 3/5of my siblings also graduated from Auburn so we have deep family ties to the school. I would pull for Auburn regardless of geographic location because of how much it means to me.
I have no real interest in professional sports teams, other than the Atlanta Braves. It is the closest MLB team and I’ve always kept up with them. I was fortunate enough to win tickets from work to see them next week and this will be my first MLB game. I’m really excited. I’ve been to many minor league games because they’re much more local and general tickets are cheap, but I’m not terribly invested in being a fan other than it’s cool to catch a game on thirsty Thursdays and hang out with friends.
NFL and MLB: it’s the teams I grew up with and got to go see play. (It was the 80s and our NFL team was dogshit, making tickets very cheap. Our MLB team was good, but with 81 games you could always find cheap tickets against some less popular teams.)
NBA: I went to school in Illinois during Peak Mike so no real option besides getting sucked into the Chicago Bulls.
NHL: never became a huge fan, but went to an occasional Blackhawks game. Still loosely follow them but don’t care that much.
College: my undergrad and grad schools are good at different sports, but if they ever play each other in anything meaningful, undergrad always takes precedence.
Not always. But usually it is a generational thing. Like someone’s dad grew up in that location and moved so they’re still a fan and pass that one to their kid. The Pittsburgh Steelers are a good example. They reached one of their most popular points as the steel industry in Pittsburgh was collapsing. So a lot of people moved away to look for work, but they carried their fandom with them. Now there are official “Steelers bars” all over the world. Usually they’re owned by someone who moved there or the child of someone that moved there. And even in away games you see a ton of people sporting Steelers attire.
Pretty much, I only follow Baseball but I’m from New England and yeah I’m a Red Sox Fan for that reason, cause the Boston Red Sox are the New England Team
Not always. I’ve been New Orleans Saints fan all my life. I was born and raised in Seattle/Tacoma area. Though I became a Seattle Seahawks fan when they came into being.
It is for me. I live near (and have lived in) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the only major professional teams I care about are from the city. Phillies (baseball) Eagles (football) Sixers (basketball) and Flyers (ice hockey). There is a soccer team but no matter how hard they try I just don’t care about soccer. Plus, I follow a number of Philadelphia-based and some nearby college basketball and football teams from the city and Penn State college football, which is from a city not near Philadelphia but it’s where I attended. I have zero interest in any team not from Pennsylvania.
If I were to move out of state I would still follow those teams. I would never “adopt” another city’s professional teams.
My husband is a Green Bay fan and has been since he was a kid. He’s never lived in Wisconsin and no one else in his family is one. He’s also a Red Sox fan. Never lived in Boston. His family aren’t Sox fans.
I’m a Rams and Dodgers fan. I was born in California but didn’t really grow up there. My dad loved both teams so I got a lot of my love for them through him.
Mostly, yes. This mostly happens due to TV audience. MLB and NBA games are broadcast based on the TV market, with the exception of nationally broadcast games. The reason the Yankees and Lakers have more nationwide fans is because their games are more frequently broadcast nationally.
When I was five years old Vince Lombardi moved the Packers training camp residence to a college a half a block from my house. My friends and I used to hang out with the players for years. Vince called us “the boys.” How the boys doing today? Bart Starr gave us a dollar one day in the early sixties and bought our loyalty forever. It’s a great memory.
For the most part yes, but as many have mentioned this isn’t always the case (parents team, like a specific player, etc.)
Haven’t really seen it mentioned but if you don’t root for your home team most die hard sports fans won’t respect you much lol. I don’t personally care, but a lot of the sports community finds it very lame to root for a team that you’ve never lived near.
It is generally frowned upon to support a team other than the one local to your region. As a Philadelphian, I would get a ton of flack if I chose to support any non Philly teams. We have a team for every major sport and they’re all pretty decent so picking another team to support is kind of seen as treason haha.
But people still do it. My boss is from a similar area as me and he’s a patriots fan. Just decided he liked them as a kid and has stuck with them despite getting shit from basically every Philly fan. If your parents are from a different region you can get away with supporting their team, but if it’s a rival (god forbid your dad is a Dallas fan) you’re going to get some constant shit talk from Philly fans.
I grew up in Los Angeles in the 90s. We didn’t get an NFL team until fairly recently, so I grew up an Indianapolis Colts fan because that’s who my older brother liked and it was the Peyton Manning era. Even though I grew up in LA county I’m an Anaheim Ducks fan because their stadium was actually closer to me and I liked going to Ducks games way more than I liked going to Kings games. Still a Dodgers fan though, because that’s who I watched growing up. I’d say it’s more to do with who your parents followed than where you’re actually from. But it’s definitely a mix of both.
Nah, I tried to like my local team, but they were just so … bad!
The team I like had amazing offensive acrobatic plays and a bruising defense. It was truly a pleasure to watch. But once you’re hooked, you deal with the despair when things don’t go your way
90% ish. I grew up in Tampa Bay. So of course I love the Bucs and Rays. But I also have secondary teams. Like NFL was the Packers and Broncos, but shifted to the Chargers and New Orleans.
Baseball it’s the Cubs and Rockies.
Basketball, Tampa doesn’t have a team and I didn’t get like NBA until recently, so it’s been the Timberwolves
My dad was never into sports except for the rodeo, so sports were never a thing for me. Fast forward a few decades, and we have the NHL hockey team the Las Vegss Golden nights. They have huge community support, and when I watch sports, it’s a VGK game usually. Once again, a contender for the cup.
We got the Raiders. I don’t really care for football, but I and many others wanted an expansion team. Something Vegas and not SoCal.
Now, the MLB baseball team, the “A”s are coming to town. They knocked down the Tropicana hotel to build the stadium. The move has been plagued with issues, mainly around financing. Once again , I think we would have done better with a homegrown expansion team.
Now there’s rumors of maybe opening up an NBA franchise. The rumors are that LeBron James has mentioned something about it. I don’t know how far mention it goes for right now, but a few people are working on it.
For me it was pretty organic.. I never really lived in one place as a kid to really develop a fandom. My family has predominantly been either the Seahawks and Mariners, or Athletics and 49ers. I became a Rockies fan in 1993 during their inaugural season despite living south of Seattle because I wanted my own team. Then when my step dad moved us to Colorado, I kind of just followed the crowd in school and embraced the Broncos and Nuggets. The only teams that aren’t Colorado or a minor league affiliate of a Colorado based team I support are the Seattle Sounders, Arsenal, and the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, a minor league affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. Funny enough, because my step dad didn’t have the Rockies, he grew up a Cubs fan, and now is a die hard Mariners fan.
None of the teams are based on where I grew up. But the closest pro team to me was over 4 hours away. And those aren’t the ones I went with. Basically I became fans of who was good at the time as a kid… grew up in 80s and 90s and am a 49ers and bulls fan…
I’m more of a college fan than pro though, for same reason no pro team around.
And def not where I live. I’ve lived in like 5 major cities and didn’t change allegiance.
In most cases, yes, but one of my friends grew up
In New Mexico and then lived most of his adult life in Denver and is a huge Steelers fan. Another friend changes favorite team every time he moves, which is pretty often.
In my case yes, because I was born and raised in Chicago (not a suburb). I’m strictly a fan of Chicago teams (and from the South Side, so I’m a White Sox fan).
It’s not a universal rule, but people who are from smaller towns or who relocate for school/jobs tend to more easily just pick teams from wherever and be fans of that.
This was definitely true of my hometown. Most people were fans of the team in our state, but there was a significant minority of fans for a team from the neighboring state. While my grandfather did follow our home state’s team, he was in that significant minority that favored the team from the neighboring state. In his case, that was because our home state’s team didn’t exist before he started following the NFL, so the other team was the closest one to his hometown at that time.
Now, among college teams, everyone is a fan of the big state school, but everyone is also equally a fan of whatever hometown college is closest.
Generally, yeah. I live in the Florida Panhandle and college football tends to get some of the most attention so there are people who root for any Florida, Alabama or Georgia team.
Not always. For example, lots of Americans are fans of Notre Dame University’s sports teams regardless of where they live. Some NFL teams like the Steelers and Cowboys (less so now) have a national fan base.
I live in New York yet root for the Eagles (yes, I get the side eye but no New York football teams are worth rooting for). But as for baseball I’m definitely a Yankee girl.
Not always. There were no pro sports teams near where I grew up, so I just latched onto the teams my dad liked. Those were just the teams that were good when he was growing up.
For the most part, I mean even if your favorite team is elsewhere, wherever you live you usually become a bit of a fan of the local team either way. Your friends will be supporting them, you’ll see them on at the bar and what not.
Mostly, but sometimes it’s what your family supports, so if your parents are from Boston, you might support the Red Sox even if you live in California.
Not for me. I’m Pennsylvania born and raised and I hate all of states teams. Penn State is my biggest team hatred. Just can’t stand them and it brings my great joy that the only two games I ever went to they lost both. I’m a 49ers fan for NFL and Notre Dame or Michigan for College. Don’t watch any other sports but if I did I wouldn’t be choosing any teams from here.
That’s pretty typical. In a geographic region you can share the camaraderie of supporting a local team. You can physically go to the games. The games are in network for the TV stations.
It certainly happens where you just choose one or maybe you support the team when you moved from or grew up or where your parents were from/cheer for.
Generally yes. I’m one of the exceptions and some people call me a bandwagoner, but it is what it is.
I grew up in an area where we were about the same distance to 3 teams, the Chiefs, Broncos, and Cowboys. There were plenty of people who went for different teams, just depending on who their parents liked or which players they liked. Then there’s me.
I had been to a few superbowl parties in the late 90’s as my dad was a Bronco’s fan. I was too young and used it as an excuse to play with the other young kids. Then, one year I decide I’m going to start watching the superbowl with all the adults and begin to like football. There was a party at my grandma’s and I sat and watched the entire thing. As it was starting, I asked my older sister who the teams were and she said “The team thats going to win is the ‘Curly Q’s.’ I thought that was a stupid name and just wanted to have some rivalry with my sister so I chose the other team, the Patriots. They’ve been my team ever since. I just happened to join right at the beginning of the Brady legacy. Now that the fun times are over, I’m still a Pats fan. So was I a bandwagoner at the beginning? I guess technically, but I feel I’ve been a fan beyond the bandwagon years and will be for the rest of my life.
So to answer your question, it’s not just based on where you live or who your parents like. Sometimes, weird things happen and you end up loving a team halfway across the country
When I was really young, I based who I liked in the NFL on their helmet logo. I was a Miami Dolphin fan living in NY and then DC. Now I tend to root against the dynasty teams (e.g., the Cowboys and Steelers in the 70s/80s, the Patriots the 1990s/2000s and the Chiefs nowadays) more than having a favorite team.
Out of curiosity how do people outside of the US generally pick which sports team to support? I’ve never been a sports person but it just seems normal that most people support their local teams unless given a reason not to.
It absolutely plays a role, what that role is varies from fan to fan.
When I was growing up in North Carolina in the 70’s-80’s, there wasn’t an NFL team in the Carolinas. Back then, NBC showed AFC games and CBS showed NFC games, and if your market didn’t have a team, the closest team geographically was the home team in your market. For us it was the Dolphins on NBC, and Washington on CBS. The format was the same as now, home team first, big games with other teams second, other division rivals third in scheduling for TV. So when Washington were on, we watched their games, same for the dolphins. In my friend group, there’s Commanders fans forged from that period. There’s also Dolphin fans, here in NC. And then there’s Cowboys fans like everywhere else, Giants fans, Bills fans, Patriots, and Eagle fans like me, who got plenty of scheduling against Washington and Miami.
I’m guessing other off markets now operate in a similar way and lot of fans chose teams that way.
Usually yes, but not always. I’d say most fans are (somewhat) local, but you’ll find Kansas City Chiefs fans in Florida and Pittsburgh Steelers fans in Iowa.
Moved around a lot in my younger years and picked up teams where interest was high in that city. St Louis baseball, Detroit hockey, Cleveland football and eventually basketball and baseball too. Didn’t pick up teams in Washington DC or Pittsburgh though.
Sort of – I am a fan of the NFL team where my mom grew up/my parents both went to college/I was born there. I didn’t grow up in the city but we visited frequently.
My college team is on the opposite side of the country where I’m from because it’s the college I went to. My parents are fans of their university team.
Yes, I think it’s mostly true. But there are plenty of exceptions. For example, if you grow up with a parent who’s a huge fan of a different team, you may become a fan of them instead.
To an extent, but it kind of depends on if there was a team close to where you grew up, which for a lot of people, there isn’t. Where I grew up (central IL), most people were Bears fans for football, and either the Cubs or Cardinals for baseball. Where I am now (Iowa), we are not close to anything, but approximately equidistant to a bunch (Chicago, Minneapolis, KC) so people are kind of all over the place
Most of the time this is true, though people adopt other teams due to marriage or going away to school. Also, some may follow specific players if they were fans in college or have some other connection.
One of the interesting things about living in Hawai’i was getting to experience a place that has zero professional sports teams or proximity to nearby teams. Despite that, football is still very popular, just everyone has their own team they root for for whatever reason they choose. Sometimes its your transplant parents teams from the mainland, sometimes it’s a favorite players team, or sometimes it’s just whoever is dominating.
One of my biggest pet peeves is people who support teams that are outside their local area.
Yes, I understand people move. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about people in Colorado who have never been to south Florida who support the Dolphins or people who have never been to Detroit supporting the Pistons, etc.
Why not support your local team? Their games are easier to attend. The local fans support that team, which means it’s easier to find a local community. When it’s game day, you can see your local team’s colors everywhere. If you’re a Dolphins fan in Colorado, the Dolphins aren’t supporting your local businesses. They’re not volunteering at your local YMCA or Boys and Girls Clubs. You know who is? The Broncos. They’re the ones supporting your local children’s hospitals and eating at your restaurants and paying the taxes you’re paying.
I get if you don’t have a local team in your state. Like say if you’re from Des Moines for example. But if you’re from Des Moines, does it make more sense to support a team from Chicago or one from Phoenix? Obviously Chicago.
It’s pretty common to see someone support like two or three local teams but a random fourth team that’s not even in their community. Like why do people do this lol
I grew up in the LA area during the no NFL era. I know a lot of people who are fans of teams like the Packers, Patriots, and Steelers just because there was no local teams
I do find it odd when say, someone who lives in Los Angeles is a fan of say, the Pittsburgh Steelers, especially if they have no connections to the city of Pittsburgh.
But sports allegiances in America aren’t as cut and dried as they are in England, where the football club you support is VERY much tied to the region you grew up in.
Yeah, most the time, but also a lot of people live in areas that don’t have professional sports teams nearby. Those areas college sports are fairly popular, and after that it tends to be a crapshoot.
Not really, no. My younger brother became a huge fan of the Atlanta Braves just because WTBS out of Atlanta was carried on our local cable system in Oklahoma.
That kid soaked up hundreds of hours of Braves baseball and there’s nothing anyone can do to help him.
Generally it’s about your family and where you were born/grew up. I have lived in Colorado almost twice as long as I did Missouri, but you’ll never catch me dead in Broncos gear; Chiefs red and gold all the way (MIZ?).
I live in Little Rock, Arkansas, but at age 12 moved to Northern California right when the Sacramento Kings acquired Chris Webber, Jason Williams, Vlade Divac, and Peja Stojacovic. I’ve lived in Arkansas now for 20 years and have remained the only Kings fan I know in that entire time, despite my team making the playoffs only one time since 2007.
Yep. I’m from Chicago, so I love the bears, but I live in Colorado, so I also love the broncos. I lived in Seattle for 6 years, so I also like the Seahawks, but they’re in third place lol
Most of the time, yes. But people become fans of teams other than their “home” team for all sorts of reasons. My old boss was a big fan of the Chicago Bears, even though that’s kind of taboo for a lifelong Wisconsinite. But the Bears were on their hot streak when he was coming of age in the 80s, and Green Bay kind of sucked back then, tbh. The rapper Lil Wayne is a huge Packers fan even though he grew up in New Orleans. But the Packers were hot shit in the late 90s when Wayne was a teenager. And I guess his dad went to one of the Superbowls they played in then and brought home memorabilia and souvenirs.
Some people just like a specific player, logo, mascot, or some other aspect of the team. But it seems like most people are either fans of their local team or fans of whichever team was on fire when they were at the age when they started to pay attention and form opinions on such things.
No. It has to so with a bunch of factors that surround you.
I have never liked any of the sports as a spectator. I see 0 value. Everyone around me always wants to talk sports but I can’t engage since I don’t know the players or teams.
I didn’t grow up in a sports watching family. My family did sports, we are active and sitting around watching people play is not appealing.
Local media channels can be a blame for this, as the sports portions update moreso the local teams while possibly only having a quick update or recap of other teams’ games.
I, for instance, live in the Midwest portion of the country, yet follow University of Houston for collegiate sports and San Francisco 49ers for NFL updates.
now i I grew up pretty much equidistant from New York and Philadelphia so it was pretty impossible to pick a team by nearness except in the case of basketball as our local university star, Bill Bradley was drafted by the Knicks. At that time teams had the option to draft players who attended college within 50 miles of the team, and the Knicks were one mile closer than the 76ers. I used to try to pick the team closest to me, or if a game has none of the teams closest to me, or if none were local closest to where i used to live or close to where family lived. I f there were none of those available I try to pick the one with the best name, with preferences to bird names. The exception is hockey, the Jersey Devils are the best name, period. Now I live in MD and I have the Ravens and the Orioles, nearby and bird names.
Honestly I find American sports fans to have less local loyalties than Europeans do for their soccer teams. Europeans will die for their 5th tier team Scrungly Brush United but a guy in NYC will be a die hard Vikings fan.
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Generally, but not universally, yeah. People tend to be a fan of the teams that are nearby. There are plenty of people who this isn’t true for though.
Generally, yes. Though my kid picked up her favorite teacher’s favorite team, which is out of state.
It’s often the case but it’s not like a law or anything.
The phrase “bandwagon fan” exists for a reason.
People often root for their parents’ favorite team, despite never living in that area.
Some people don’t have a local team so they root for whoever is closest or another team for a different reason.
Not necessarily. I once heard somebody became a Jaguars fan because they liked the uniform as a kid, and little did they know they were signing up for a lifetime of pain.
Not always! I’m a massive Cowboys fan despite not having lived in Dallas, or Texas at all since I was 6 months old.
But my parents are Cowboys fans, so here I am.
I’m a fan of the baseball team from where I grew up but also of the NFL, NBA and NHL teams from where I now live.
NFL probably has the most scattered fans of any of the sports since it is easy to follow due to low number of games. So you will find fans of various football teams everywhere. Most other sports are very regional
It starts out that way, more of your a fan of what your parents are which is usually local. Some rebel and go with rival.
Basically. The Onion (“America’s Finest News Source “) used to sell T-shirts that said, “The sports team from my area is better than the sports team from your area.” The irony, of course, is that few if any of the athletes are from the area where their team is located. Even at the collegiate level, a school in Iowa, let’s say, might have players from New Jersey, Florida, California, the Philippines and Spain.
It’s definitely an influence, not that I ever cared for sports. But I know my parents would nail me to a cross if I even jokingly said I preferred the Steelers (Or any other team) over the Bengals. I still see plenty of people wearing Steelers clothing even though Pittsburgh is a lot further away than Cincinnati.
Kinda but not always. Some people pick their favorite teams growing up based on team colors or team mascots, and some “fake fans” switch their favorite teams to whoever is winning.
Usually
It is for me. I would be ostracized from the community and publicly shamed if I rooted for another city’s team.
nope. Live in Metro Detroit and a huge Colts fan.
There’s a saying in Wisconsin, the Packers aren’t just a football team, they’re the state religion.
For the most part, but there are exceptions to the rule. Some people pick a team outside of their market based upon a possible childhood experience (watching a team live while on vacation). Others pick a team out of spite (my brother loves X, so I’m going to route for Y) and continue with that team. Then there’s the teams that dominate the national scene (think Dodgers right now) who are probably building a strong out of market fan base. People also pick teams based on players, and in the US there a higher chance of a franchise player staying a long, long time with a single team, then when they retire it’s only natural to continue to root for that team. You also have the teams that, more so in the past than now, have a large broadcast footprint (Chicago Cubs and WGN, Atlanta Braves and TBS, and the Cardinals KMOX radio) And finally there are the kids that grew up in the house of transplants. I’m a St Louis sports fan across the board, and I’m raising my NYC area kids to be the same. There are no Yankees/Mets/Rangers/Red Bulls etc, fans in this house
It’s a big factor, usually because all of your friends and family are. People who move around might root for their hometown team as well as the place they live. And some areas have overlapping teams — I’m in Connecticut and there is divide between people who are fans of New York teams and fans of New England Teams (Yankees vs Red Sox is the big one).
A lot of people are into college sports, as well. So they may be bigger fans of their university’s football or basketball team. My dad still watches the games for the university he went to.
My dead-beat ex brother in law was born in California, raised in Colorado.
And supports the Dolphins.
Like 95% of people are where u live
Most of the time, barring the fact there wasn’t a team where you grew up or you didn’t get into a sport until later when you lived somewhere else. But you always root root root for your home team.
Yes and no, I grew up in Northern California and most everyone was either a Oakland fan or a San Francisco fan but there were a few random Green Bay and Dallas fans despite never living in Wisconsin or Texas. Where I live now we have no NFL team but three about equal distance away so most everyone here follow Minnesota, Denver, or Kansas City.
If you actually care, yes. Most people don’t care and root for the best team. Notice how all the Patriots fans disappeared all of the sudden.
Not me. As a seven year old kid growing up in west Virginia, I saw the Miami Dolphins colors and logo and fell in love. This was the club I wanted to belong to. And 40 years later, here I still am, lifelong diehard.
For most people yes, your favorite sports team has to do with where you grew up or some other personal connection.
Some more serious fans may like certain players or coaches over specific teams and follow them as they move throughout the athlete’s career.
Then there’s people who moved around a lot growing up or in life so their favorite team has less to do with geography.
Kind of but honestly varies. DC is full of transplants. I also didn’t have a baseball team growing up so follow the Red Sox because of my Dad. Redskins/Commanders were not a well run team for about 25 years until recently. There are a lot of away fans that are local.
Sometimes, but not always.
For example, my mom’s side of the family lives about an hour away from Cleveland, Ohio. Among her four brothers, 2 are Cleveland Browns fans, 1 is a fan of the Dallas Cowboys, and another is a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Neither of them have ever lived in Dallas or Pittsburgh. I don’t know if they’ve even visited these cities. I was/am not into sports, so I never asked how they came to these preferences.
I also lived in Washington DC for a summer. My boss and several of his friends were big time Steelers fans, even though there are closer teams.
For NFL, yes it’s based on geography. For MLB, it’s based on who was good when I was 9 years old.
It isn’t a hard rule, but that’s the general trend, yes.
Just like every other religion.
It’s not NFL, but if you grew up in East Tennessee, it’s almost heretical if you don’t live and die by the University of Tennessee Volunteers — especially the football team, but also basketball, both men and women. (Baseball is popular now, too, since the team has been good in recent years.)
I like to say there are two things that will get you talked about at the grocery store in Knoxville, one much worse than the other.
“Did you meet the man who bought the house on the corner yet? I asked if he had found a church home yet, and he said he doesn’t go to church!’
“Well, that’s between him and the Good Lord, I suppose. I’ll say a prayer for him tonight.”
“And I asked if he was going to watch the game Saturday, and he said he doesn’t really care about football!”
“Kill the heretic! Burn! Burn!”
(Both immediately abandon their carts in the middle of the bread aisle and rush to Home Depot to buy torches.)
It used to be true when I was a kid, back in the 20th century. Nowadays it’s dependent on other factors. I’m still a fan of the baseball team from my home town, but my hockey team and football team are from a place I’ve never lived.
I started watching football in like 1969. ABC had rights to all AFL games and they were exclusively on Monday Night Football (w. Howard Cosell). I live in Chicago and the weekends were for goofing around. The only time I had to watch football was Monday night. Thus, I became an AFL fan and particularly KC Chiefs fan. Eventually, I became a Bears fan but I still follow the Chiefs, including the nearly 50 years between the 1970 Super Bowl win and the recent dominance, though not as closely as the Bears.
For the most part. I was born a different place from where I live so I mostly root for teams from there, with the exception of hockey where I’m a local fan
Sports fandom pretty much works here the same way it does everywhere else. Lots of people stick to their hometown team, lots of people follow the hugely successful teams regardless of where they’re from or live currently.
I grew up in Orlando and half of my friends are Atlanta Braves fans. Because when we grew up we didn’t have a MLB team in Florida. And Atlanta was the closest and easiest to watch.
Generally, yeah; but not universally.
For the NFL, in particular MOST people who are fans are fans of their hometown team. But it’s often generational, too – if your grandparents and parents were from Pittsburgh, you could likely be a Steelers fan.
And then there’s people who are just Patriots fans or Chiefs fans or whatever because those are the best teams in a given era.
MLB is a little different, it’s definitely largely based on where you live, but much more generational. Serious baseball fans are often fans of who their parents and grandparents and great grandparents followed.
NBA more than the other big 3 American sports seems more random. Everyone is just a Lakers fan 😂.
College sports in the USA are huge too. Unlike anywhere else in the world. It’s a multi billion dollar industry, especially American football and to a lesser extent basketball. College football is basically the Championship or League One if you want to think about it in UK terms. Not in that teams can be relegated but in that it’s just one level down. It’s where the 18-22 year olds get ready for the NFL basically. College sports is interesting because the primary driver of what team you’re a fan of is often where you went to uni -or- where your parents went to uni. But even people who don’t go to uni at all tend to be big college football fans. Especially in middle America. It’s like a statewide thing / people generally support the college football team in their state if there’s one major program in state – or one of the major programs in their state if there are more than one. And, similar to how there are just lots of random Lakers fans everywhere – there are lots of random Alabama football fans everywhere and random North Carolina/Duke/Kansas/Kentucky basketball fans everywhere.
For me, absolutely. I love being able to catch a home game.
I think the longer it is before you get into a sport makes it more likely to favor a team farther from you.
I was a Dolphins fan at 7, wife didn’t really start watching til after we were married, she likes the Steelers and the Cowboys. Both from Orlando-ish.
I don’t mind Jax or Tampa, but growing up in the Dan Marino era kinda solidified Miami as my team.
For college, UCF (in Orlando) is always first, followed by U of Miami, Navy, and then in order: whoever is playing Notre Dame and whoever is playing Ohio State. ND vs OSU, I’ll be a Buckeye for a day.
Generally, yes. This is not a thing elsewhere in the world?
Usually. People can be very loyal
In general, I would expect that to be the case.
Generally but not always. I’m a Buffalo Bills fan because that’s where my dad was from and there were no NFL teams where I grew up (Los Angeles).
The nfl definitely seems to be the less provincial sport. I’m a cowboys fan and most of my friends growing up were too.
I like Caps and Nationals because that is where I grew up.
I like the Cavaliers and Packers because guys from my school play for them.
Yes and no. For some people, they just like good / popular teams bc they are good, regardless of where they are. Other times they’ll follow a specific player and be a fan of whatever team they are on.
For the NFL, I’ve noticed that Wisconsin, by and large, worships the Green Bay Packers. The whole state seems obsessed with them. I lived in Western Wisconsin and expected to find a few more Minnesota Vikings fans than I did.
I grew up in central Illinois. We had Chicago Bears fans, Indianapolis Colts fans, and St Louis Rams fans. Those were all large cities about a 2 hour drive away. So it was a melting pot of fans. (The Rams moved to California and a lot of the local Rams fans were angry)
My Dad is a Dallas Cowboys fan despite having never been to Texas. My friend was once a Dallas fan but got annoyed and now follows the Kansas City Chiefs.
Fire Nico!
In my case, it’s not where I live or grew up but where my mom did and where my dad worked. Dad was a radio announcer who covered the Ohio State Buckeye football team, so even though we were 3 hours’ drive from Columbus, we were/are an Ohio State family. But my mom grew up in South Dakota and went to college at the University of Minnesota. But when Minnesota got an NFL team in ’61, there was no “conflict of interest” like in college ball, so we became a Vikings family even though we’re in Ohio.
It’s should be. If not you are a geographical traitor.
And there’s a certain how of loser who just licks the most successful teams as “their team”. We ah e family friend who “picked” Alabama as their family team even though they live in a buffet state with a football team an hour away”. We all don’t trust them now
The exception is someone who grew up nine area and stuck to those teams even though he moved to a new area.
Not all the time but for some people yeah
Mostly, but some of the time, people will root for, or be fans of, the teams their parents or grandparents were fans of.
I grew up in San Diego and was a chargers fan until they moved to LA.
Now I only watch the playoffs and root for whoever I feel like.
Dean Spanos can kick rocks.
For me, yes. And since I’m from the Chicago burbs, it’s always a question of whether you’re a Cubs or White Sox fan.
Usually, it’s your local teams, but other times, it can be the teams your parents cheer for if they’ve moved from the area they grew up.
But obviously people become fans of other teams for various reasons. I know a few people who are New England Patriots fans and Pittsburgh Penguins fans because both teams were doing well in their respective sports at the same time. Those people just happened to start watching those sports, and since they were both strong teams, that’s who they started rooting for even though fans of those teams would normally not the like the other.
There are exceptions, but that’s generally the rule if there’s a professional team near you. Most people root for a team they have some sort of connection to. That can either be the team closest to where you live, the team from where you grew up if you move later in life, or a team from an area you lived for a while.
In my city, we don’t have a football team, so there’s a lot wider range of fan bases. That being said, the Seahawks being the closest team, most people do root for them.
It should also be noted that different cities have different major sports. For example, soccer is a massive deal in Portland and it’s our second most popular sports team (after the Blazers NBA), even more so than NFL. Even if you don’t care about soccer you root for the team. In a lot of cities, soccer is barely given a second thought.
I’m from Central Ohio and my favorite teams are college: Ohio State, NFL: Pittsburgh Steelers, NBA: Cleveland Cavs, MLB: Pittsburgh Pirates, NHL: Columbus Blue Jackets idk why I didn’t pick the Penguins to be my favorite hockey team I guess I just wanted to suffer somewhere as a fan
Yes. Like all New Englanders, shortly after birth a chip was implanted in my head that compels me to love the Patriots.
Usually it’s either where you live, where you grew up, or inherited from a parent. Most people are fans of the city they live in or nearest team. Often this fandom has been since childhood, especially if they still live in the area they grew up. But once one establishes a favorite team, they tend to keep it even if they move elsewhere. So the Atlanta Braves fan remains a Braves fan even if they move to Seattle or Philadelphia.
And often, fandom is passed down from parent to child. Like if your dad grew up a Chicago Bears fan in Chicago area but moved to Dallas, you might follow in Dad’s footsteps and become a Bears fan instead of the local Cowboys.
No. Some people pick their teams this way, maybe even most, I can tell you I don’t live anywhere near any of my favorite sports teams. No two are even in the same city, come to think of it.
It depends a bit. I didn’t grow up terribly near any pro sports teams, so picked my favorites somewhat randomly as a kid.
I’d say it varies by sport and region. NFL is mostly random but areas local to the team have a much more dense fan base. But the other major sports I think are a lot more localized.
No. I’m a Steelers fan and never lived in the area they are from.
Also a Kraken, Penguins, and Predators fan and live in Nashville (so only one from the home team).
It’s def not totally true!
My dad grew up in Long Island NY going to gmen games so I grew up on Giants football even tho we lived in southern VA
I lived in DC for a bit & had season tix to nats so I root for them. Love the wizards too
I live in Carolina now & root for the canes in hockey. Siblings went to Duke so I’ve been in the Raleigh Durham area a ton. Caps never really interested me growing up or living in DC
Generally yes
It’s not a 100% thing. Like I personally have never lived in a state with a pro sports team. So I adopted Pittsburgh pro sports because my mom’s side is from a town near Pittsburgh. But in general it’s a you pick your home team.
It’s often a combination of rooting for the home team and whichever team was really good when you were seven.
Sometimes if your parents are fans of a team you sort of root for them or against them depending on what you think of them.
Yes but there is always that one jabroni who picks a random team from a different city they’ve never been to route for, to get under everyone’s skin
It depends.
Sometimes it’s location. Sometimes it’s family. My dad is a Lions fan because his uncle was.
Sometimes it’s access to games. I’m a Chicago Cubs fan because there were two teams with nationally televised games. The Braves on TBS. The Cubs on WGN. My grandma picked WGN.
I grew up in southeastern Indiana. My favorite baseball team was the Cincinnati Reds. My favorite basketball team was the Indiana Pacers. My favorite football team was the Indianapolis Colts, but my dad liked watching the Cincinnati Bengals. As an adult, I don’t watch any sports, but most people will have an affinity to their local teams because tribalism is huge among the sports fandom.
Royals/chiefs/ sporting kc and either okc or Denver for basketball
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While I’m not particularly interested in sports, I grew up in New England and will typically pull for the Patriots on the rare occasion I’m watching football. Basically I’ll pull for the Boston team in any sport if I’m watching, as I was born in a southern suburb of Boston. If I had to choose a favorite team it would be the Bruins (love the Dropkick Murphy’s song “Time to Go”) because I have a somewhat sentimental connection to both the Bruins and the Celtics because my father was security at The Gardens in the 70s and knew a lot of the members of the teams.
For me, yes. Except my city doesn’t have an NHL team. So I had to choose a team for that. I tried not to be a band wagon fan so I chose Vegas as soon as it was announced. They didn’t have a team name yet I just figured I would get in on the ground floor.
Yes.
It is for my US professional sports teams. I’m eastern Massachusetts so Red Sox, Celtics, Bruins, Patriots, and Revolution. I’ve been to lots of each over the years.
College is where I went to college. No football team so basketball if they make the NCAA tournament and I glance at how the hockey team is doing.
The main thing I watch is English football. I watch pretty much every Premier League match my club plays plus any League Cup, FA Cup, and Europe matches. I also watch a second division Championship League club. My grandparents are from that city and I’ve been there a number of times. The Premier League club is owned by my Major League Baseball team so I started glancing at how they were doing at the acquisition, watched a few matches, and discovered that English football is the only sport I like watching.
So I’m a premier league plastic. My penance is a mediocre Championship League club that finds soul crushing ways to lose important matches.
There are plenty of people like me: I would root for whoever was playing my hometown team.
I’m from the New York area where we have the Giants and the Jets that play in the same stadium in New Jersey. Usually what determines your fandom in this case is where you, your parents, or grandparents lived when prior to Giants and Jets playing in the same stadium. The Giants used to play at Yankee Stadium (yes the baseball Yankees) in the Bronx. Dad and his parents are from the Bronx therefore we are Giants fans. The Jets played at Shea Stadium (former home of the Mets) in Queens. My wife’s dad grew up in Queens and she was raised a Jets fans. It’s pretty common for Giants fans to be Yankee fans and Jets fans to also be Mets fans because of this.
Usually, yeah. I’m in DC so the Commanders (formerly a different name that was a slur against Native people) have a huge fan base. I worked with a guy who was a Dallas fan, and the teams have a decent rivalry. He had an enormous attitude about it, because he was the only Dallas fan at that job and a lot of our coworkers were very vocal about football and their support of the DC team. Thing was, the dude wasn’t from Texas or anything, he’s an immigrant and at the time he had never even been to Texas. It’s like he picked it to be contrary and was mad that the contrarian position had consequences.
I’m not into football but I am into baseball. I’m a big Nationals fan, but when I lived in Denver I rooted for the Rockies in every game except when they played the Nats.
It’s more common than not, but of course, there are exceptions.
I don’t keep up with professional sports much anymore, but growing up I pulled for the Denver Broncos in the NFL and the Chicago Bulls in the NBA. I did not live near either area or even ever attend any of their games, but that was the era of John Elway and Michael Jordan at those respective teams.
I pull for Auburn in all things college sports because that’s where my parents met while they were in college and they took us to a lot of games growing up. 3/5of my siblings also graduated from Auburn so we have deep family ties to the school. I would pull for Auburn regardless of geographic location because of how much it means to me.
I have no real interest in professional sports teams, other than the Atlanta Braves. It is the closest MLB team and I’ve always kept up with them. I was fortunate enough to win tickets from work to see them next week and this will be my first MLB game. I’m really excited. I’ve been to many minor league games because they’re much more local and general tickets are cheap, but I’m not terribly invested in being a fan other than it’s cool to catch a game on thirsty Thursdays and hang out with friends.
Grew up in New Jersey/NYC metro:
Hockey team: Yes.
Baseball team: Yes.
Basketball team: No. I defected when the team moved.
Football team: No, because I’ve seen how miserable the fans were.
College team: No, I went to college out of state and still root for them now.
No. Although location is a big factor for most people, not all.
NFL and MLB: it’s the teams I grew up with and got to go see play. (It was the 80s and our NFL team was dogshit, making tickets very cheap. Our MLB team was good, but with 81 games you could always find cheap tickets against some less popular teams.)
NBA: I went to school in Illinois during Peak Mike so no real option besides getting sucked into the Chicago Bulls.
NHL: never became a huge fan, but went to an occasional Blackhawks game. Still loosely follow them but don’t care that much.
College: my undergrad and grad schools are good at different sports, but if they ever play each other in anything meaningful, undergrad always takes precedence.
It’s true for me. Not for everyone.
For me, yes.
What’s the point of having teams based in a city if it’s not for the people living there to be fans of them?
Not really. My father liked Dan Marino so he’s unfortunately been stuck rooting for Miami for 30 years.
Not always. But usually it is a generational thing. Like someone’s dad grew up in that location and moved so they’re still a fan and pass that one to their kid. The Pittsburgh Steelers are a good example. They reached one of their most popular points as the steel industry in Pittsburgh was collapsing. So a lot of people moved away to look for work, but they carried their fandom with them. Now there are official “Steelers bars” all over the world. Usually they’re owned by someone who moved there or the child of someone that moved there. And even in away games you see a ton of people sporting Steelers attire.
https://maps.yinzcam.com/map/NFL_PIT_BARS#270=&level=270
I was a Patriots fan growing up because a) My uncles loved the Pats and b) they were good and I was a bandwagoner.
I grew up, moved to Indianapolis, and adopted the Colts. I don’t cheer for sports teams now unless I’ve at least lived near enough to go to a game.
Pretty much, I only follow Baseball but I’m from New England and yeah I’m a Red Sox Fan for that reason, cause the Boston Red Sox are the New England Team
Not always. I’ve been New Orleans Saints fan all my life. I was born and raised in Seattle/Tacoma area. Though I became a Seattle Seahawks fan when they came into being.
It is for me. I live near (and have lived in) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the only major professional teams I care about are from the city. Phillies (baseball) Eagles (football) Sixers (basketball) and Flyers (ice hockey). There is a soccer team but no matter how hard they try I just don’t care about soccer. Plus, I follow a number of Philadelphia-based and some nearby college basketball and football teams from the city and Penn State college football, which is from a city not near Philadelphia but it’s where I attended. I have zero interest in any team not from Pennsylvania.
If I were to move out of state I would still follow those teams. I would never “adopt” another city’s professional teams.
Go Birds!
Not always.
My husband is a Green Bay fan and has been since he was a kid. He’s never lived in Wisconsin and no one else in his family is one. He’s also a Red Sox fan. Never lived in Boston. His family aren’t Sox fans.
I’m a Rams and Dodgers fan. I was born in California but didn’t really grow up there. My dad loved both teams so I got a lot of my love for them through him.
Mostly, yes. This mostly happens due to TV audience. MLB and NBA games are broadcast based on the TV market, with the exception of nationally broadcast games. The reason the Yankees and Lakers have more nationwide fans is because their games are more frequently broadcast nationally.
When I was five years old Vince Lombardi moved the Packers training camp residence to a college a half a block from my house. My friends and I used to hang out with the players for years. Vince called us “the boys.” How the boys doing today? Bart Starr gave us a dollar one day in the early sixties and bought our loyalty forever. It’s a great memory.
For the most part yes, but as many have mentioned this isn’t always the case (parents team, like a specific player, etc.)
Haven’t really seen it mentioned but if you don’t root for your home team most die hard sports fans won’t respect you much lol. I don’t personally care, but a lot of the sports community finds it very lame to root for a team that you’ve never lived near.
It is generally frowned upon to support a team other than the one local to your region. As a Philadelphian, I would get a ton of flack if I chose to support any non Philly teams. We have a team for every major sport and they’re all pretty decent so picking another team to support is kind of seen as treason haha.
But people still do it. My boss is from a similar area as me and he’s a patriots fan. Just decided he liked them as a kid and has stuck with them despite getting shit from basically every Philly fan. If your parents are from a different region you can get away with supporting their team, but if it’s a rival (god forbid your dad is a Dallas fan) you’re going to get some constant shit talk from Philly fans.
I grew up in Los Angeles in the 90s. We didn’t get an NFL team until fairly recently, so I grew up an Indianapolis Colts fan because that’s who my older brother liked and it was the Peyton Manning era. Even though I grew up in LA county I’m an Anaheim Ducks fan because their stadium was actually closer to me and I liked going to Ducks games way more than I liked going to Kings games. Still a Dodgers fan though, because that’s who I watched growing up. I’d say it’s more to do with who your parents followed than where you’re actually from. But it’s definitely a mix of both.
Was about to be a fan of a team because the girl I was in love with was a big fan. Now I just root for their downfall
Nah, I tried to like my local team, but they were just so … bad!
The team I like had amazing offensive acrobatic plays and a bruising defense. It was truly a pleasure to watch. But once you’re hooked, you deal with the despair when things don’t go your way
My Green Bay Packers stock certificate has my Chicago address on it and I’m rather proud of that.
Indirectly for me. I’m a Raiders fan because a player from Alabama was there in the 70s.
No. For instance, Alabama. A top rated college football program with zero in state pro teams. Most around here are Titans or Saints fans.
90% ish. I grew up in Tampa Bay. So of course I love the Bucs and Rays. But I also have secondary teams. Like NFL was the Packers and Broncos, but shifted to the Chargers and New Orleans.
Baseball it’s the Cubs and Rockies.
Basketball, Tampa doesn’t have a team and I didn’t get like NBA until recently, so it’s been the Timberwolves
My dad was never into sports except for the rodeo, so sports were never a thing for me. Fast forward a few decades, and we have the NHL hockey team the Las Vegss Golden nights. They have huge community support, and when I watch sports, it’s a VGK game usually. Once again, a contender for the cup.
We got the Raiders. I don’t really care for football, but I and many others wanted an expansion team. Something Vegas and not SoCal.
Now, the MLB baseball team, the “A”s are coming to town. They knocked down the Tropicana hotel to build the stadium. The move has been plagued with issues, mainly around financing. Once again , I think we would have done better with a homegrown expansion team.
Now there’s rumors of maybe opening up an NBA franchise. The rumors are that LeBron James has mentioned something about it. I don’t know how far mention it goes for right now, but a few people are working on it.
u/ResidentAlien_ is this not a universal trait?
For me it was pretty organic.. I never really lived in one place as a kid to really develop a fandom. My family has predominantly been either the Seahawks and Mariners, or Athletics and 49ers. I became a Rockies fan in 1993 during their inaugural season despite living south of Seattle because I wanted my own team. Then when my step dad moved us to Colorado, I kind of just followed the crowd in school and embraced the Broncos and Nuggets. The only teams that aren’t Colorado or a minor league affiliate of a Colorado based team I support are the Seattle Sounders, Arsenal, and the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, a minor league affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. Funny enough, because my step dad didn’t have the Rockies, he grew up a Cubs fan, and now is a die hard Mariners fan.
None of the teams are based on where I grew up. But the closest pro team to me was over 4 hours away. And those aren’t the ones I went with. Basically I became fans of who was good at the time as a kid… grew up in 80s and 90s and am a 49ers and bulls fan…
I’m more of a college fan than pro though, for same reason no pro team around.
And def not where I live. I’ve lived in like 5 major cities and didn’t change allegiance.
In most cases, yes, but one of my friends grew up
In New Mexico and then lived most of his adult life in Denver and is a huge Steelers fan. Another friend changes favorite team every time he moves, which is pretty often.
In my case yes, because I was born and raised in Chicago (not a suburb). I’m strictly a fan of Chicago teams (and from the South Side, so I’m a White Sox fan).
It’s not a universal rule, but people who are from smaller towns or who relocate for school/jobs tend to more easily just pick teams from wherever and be fans of that.
This was definitely true of my hometown. Most people were fans of the team in our state, but there was a significant minority of fans for a team from the neighboring state. While my grandfather did follow our home state’s team, he was in that significant minority that favored the team from the neighboring state. In his case, that was because our home state’s team didn’t exist before he started following the NFL, so the other team was the closest one to his hometown at that time.
Now, among college teams, everyone is a fan of the big state school, but everyone is also equally a fan of whatever hometown college is closest.
Generally, yeah. I live in the Florida Panhandle and college football tends to get some of the most attention so there are people who root for any Florida, Alabama or Georgia team.
Not even a little. I’ve been a Denver sports fan since second grade and I’ve never even been to Colorado.
For me personally, yes. I support the Red Sox and Bruins. Not a fan of basketball or football, but I’d root for the Celtics and Patriots if I were.
I mostly watch F1 though, and don’t support Haas even though they’re the American team, so for different sports it depends.
Generally, yeah. How are they ‘chosen’ where you are?
Jerry Seinfeld said you cheer for the team with your favourite uniform.
Not always. For example, lots of Americans are fans of Notre Dame University’s sports teams regardless of where they live. Some NFL teams like the Steelers and Cowboys (less so now) have a national fan base.
I live in New York yet root for the Eagles (yes, I get the side eye but no New York football teams are worth rooting for). But as for baseball I’m definitely a Yankee girl.
Not always. There were no pro sports teams near where I grew up, so I just latched onto the teams my dad liked. Those were just the teams that were good when he was growing up.
For the most part, I mean even if your favorite team is elsewhere, wherever you live you usually become a bit of a fan of the local team either way. Your friends will be supporting them, you’ll see them on at the bar and what not.
Not necessarily. Grew up southern Illinois, lived in Illinois 55 years, have been a Pittsburgh Steeler fan since I was 7.
Mostly true
Mostly, but sometimes it’s what your family supports, so if your parents are from Boston, you might support the Red Sox even if you live in California.
Not for me. I’m Pennsylvania born and raised and I hate all of states teams. Penn State is my biggest team hatred. Just can’t stand them and it brings my great joy that the only two games I ever went to they lost both. I’m a 49ers fan for NFL and Notre Dame or Michigan for College. Don’t watch any other sports but if I did I wouldn’t be choosing any teams from here.
That’s pretty typical. In a geographic region you can share the camaraderie of supporting a local team. You can physically go to the games. The games are in network for the TV stations.
It certainly happens where you just choose one or maybe you support the team when you moved from or grew up or where your parents were from/cheer for.
Generally yes. I’m one of the exceptions and some people call me a bandwagoner, but it is what it is.
I grew up in an area where we were about the same distance to 3 teams, the Chiefs, Broncos, and Cowboys. There were plenty of people who went for different teams, just depending on who their parents liked or which players they liked. Then there’s me.
I had been to a few superbowl parties in the late 90’s as my dad was a Bronco’s fan. I was too young and used it as an excuse to play with the other young kids. Then, one year I decide I’m going to start watching the superbowl with all the adults and begin to like football. There was a party at my grandma’s and I sat and watched the entire thing. As it was starting, I asked my older sister who the teams were and she said “The team thats going to win is the ‘Curly Q’s.’ I thought that was a stupid name and just wanted to have some rivalry with my sister so I chose the other team, the Patriots. They’ve been my team ever since. I just happened to join right at the beginning of the Brady legacy. Now that the fun times are over, I’m still a Pats fan. So was I a bandwagoner at the beginning? I guess technically, but I feel I’ve been a fan beyond the bandwagon years and will be for the rest of my life.
So to answer your question, it’s not just based on where you live or who your parents like. Sometimes, weird things happen and you end up loving a team halfway across the country
When I was really young, I based who I liked in the NFL on their helmet logo. I was a Miami Dolphin fan living in NY and then DC. Now I tend to root against the dynasty teams (e.g., the Cowboys and Steelers in the 70s/80s, the Patriots the 1990s/2000s and the Chiefs nowadays) more than having a favorite team.
For me it definitely is.
Go birds.
Not necessarily. Born and raised in Dallas, and I’m a lifelong fan of most Dallas teams, but my NFL team has always been the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
See flair… am cowboys and volunteers fan
Generally, but I’m a fan of the Packers who are an out of town team for me.
The reason is that Brett Favre was the face of the NFL when I was little so I was a big fan of his and my fandom stuck with the Packers
I’m sure there’s a lot of 20 year olds who are Patriots or Colts fans because of Brady and Manning
And I’m sure there’s a lot of 10 year olds who are Chiefs fans because of Mahomes
In general.
Out of curiosity how do people outside of the US generally pick which sports team to support? I’ve never been a sports person but it just seems normal that most people support their local teams unless given a reason not to.
It absolutely plays a role, what that role is varies from fan to fan.
When I was growing up in North Carolina in the 70’s-80’s, there wasn’t an NFL team in the Carolinas. Back then, NBC showed AFC games and CBS showed NFC games, and if your market didn’t have a team, the closest team geographically was the home team in your market. For us it was the Dolphins on NBC, and Washington on CBS. The format was the same as now, home team first, big games with other teams second, other division rivals third in scheduling for TV. So when Washington were on, we watched their games, same for the dolphins. In my friend group, there’s Commanders fans forged from that period. There’s also Dolphin fans, here in NC. And then there’s Cowboys fans like everywhere else, Giants fans, Bills fans, Patriots, and Eagle fans like me, who got plenty of scheduling against Washington and Miami.
I’m guessing other off markets now operate in a similar way and lot of fans chose teams that way.
For pro sports teams and secondary college teams, yes this holds true for me
Usually, yes.
No.
Usually yes, but not always. I’d say most fans are (somewhat) local, but you’ll find Kansas City Chiefs fans in Florida and Pittsburgh Steelers fans in Iowa.
Moved around a lot in my younger years and picked up teams where interest was high in that city. St Louis baseball, Detroit hockey, Cleveland football and eventually basketball and baseball too. Didn’t pick up teams in Washington DC or Pittsburgh though.
I was supposed to be, but I picked a bunch of smaller market teams who needed more fans instead
For the NFL unless you follow a regionally local team you are not going to be able to watch your weekly games
The factors that generally determine your favorite sports team in approximate order of how common that factor is
Sort of – I am a fan of the NFL team where my mom grew up/my parents both went to college/I was born there. I didn’t grow up in the city but we visited frequently.
My college team is on the opposite side of the country where I’m from because it’s the college I went to. My parents are fans of their university team.
Yes, I think it’s mostly true. But there are plenty of exceptions. For example, if you grow up with a parent who’s a huge fan of a different team, you may become a fan of them instead.
To an extent, but it kind of depends on if there was a team close to where you grew up, which for a lot of people, there isn’t. Where I grew up (central IL), most people were Bears fans for football, and either the Cubs or Cardinals for baseball. Where I am now (Iowa), we are not close to anything, but approximately equidistant to a bunch (Chicago, Minneapolis, KC) so people are kind of all over the place
Most of the time this is true, though people adopt other teams due to marriage or going away to school. Also, some may follow specific players if they were fans in college or have some other connection.
One of the interesting things about living in Hawai’i was getting to experience a place that has zero professional sports teams or proximity to nearby teams. Despite that, football is still very popular, just everyone has their own team they root for for whatever reason they choose. Sometimes its your transplant parents teams from the mainland, sometimes it’s a favorite players team, or sometimes it’s just whoever is dominating.
One of my biggest pet peeves is people who support teams that are outside their local area.
Yes, I understand people move. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about people in Colorado who have never been to south Florida who support the Dolphins or people who have never been to Detroit supporting the Pistons, etc.
Why not support your local team? Their games are easier to attend. The local fans support that team, which means it’s easier to find a local community. When it’s game day, you can see your local team’s colors everywhere. If you’re a Dolphins fan in Colorado, the Dolphins aren’t supporting your local businesses. They’re not volunteering at your local YMCA or Boys and Girls Clubs. You know who is? The Broncos. They’re the ones supporting your local children’s hospitals and eating at your restaurants and paying the taxes you’re paying.
I get if you don’t have a local team in your state. Like say if you’re from Des Moines for example. But if you’re from Des Moines, does it make more sense to support a team from Chicago or one from Phoenix? Obviously Chicago.
It’s pretty common to see someone support like two or three local teams but a random fourth team that’s not even in their community. Like why do people do this lol
“Root, root, root for the home team” is a line we sing at every baseball game.
I love baseball and watch as much as I can with the kids. I cheer HARD for the Padres. I do not follow any other San Diego team (past or present)
It’s like that everywhere
I grew up in the LA area during the no NFL era. I know a lot of people who are fans of teams like the Packers, Patriots, and Steelers just because there was no local teams
Generally speaking, yes.
I do find it odd when say, someone who lives in Los Angeles is a fan of say, the Pittsburgh Steelers, especially if they have no connections to the city of Pittsburgh.
But sports allegiances in America aren’t as cut and dried as they are in England, where the football club you support is VERY much tied to the region you grew up in.
Yeah, most the time, but also a lot of people live in areas that don’t have professional sports teams nearby. Those areas college sports are fairly popular, and after that it tends to be a crapshoot.
Not really, no. My younger brother became a huge fan of the Atlanta Braves just because WTBS out of Atlanta was carried on our local cable system in Oklahoma.
That kid soaked up hundreds of hours of Braves baseball and there’s nothing anyone can do to help him.
Allegiances are primarily regional but they can be based on family traditions, players you follow or things like that.
For the most part. There are always bandwagon fans who just want to root for the best team or players.
Is this not how it works in other parts of the world?
They SHOULD be. Law of life.
Generally it’s about your family and where you were born/grew up. I have lived in Colorado almost twice as long as I did Missouri, but you’ll never catch me dead in Broncos gear; Chiefs red and gold all the way (MIZ?).
Not only where, but when I grew up – i.e. the Cleveland INDIANS.
I live in Little Rock, Arkansas, but at age 12 moved to Northern California right when the Sacramento Kings acquired Chris Webber, Jason Williams, Vlade Divac, and Peja Stojacovic. I’ve lived in Arkansas now for 20 years and have remained the only Kings fan I know in that entire time, despite my team making the playoffs only one time since 2007.
Yep. I’m from Chicago, so I love the bears, but I live in Colorado, so I also love the broncos. I lived in Seattle for 6 years, so I also like the Seahawks, but they’re in third place lol
Most of the time, yes. But people become fans of teams other than their “home” team for all sorts of reasons. My old boss was a big fan of the Chicago Bears, even though that’s kind of taboo for a lifelong Wisconsinite. But the Bears were on their hot streak when he was coming of age in the 80s, and Green Bay kind of sucked back then, tbh. The rapper Lil Wayne is a huge Packers fan even though he grew up in New Orleans. But the Packers were hot shit in the late 90s when Wayne was a teenager. And I guess his dad went to one of the Superbowls they played in then and brought home memorabilia and souvenirs.
Some people just like a specific player, logo, mascot, or some other aspect of the team. But it seems like most people are either fans of their local team or fans of whichever team was on fire when they were at the age when they started to pay attention and form opinions on such things.
No. It has to so with a bunch of factors that surround you.
I have never liked any of the sports as a spectator. I see 0 value. Everyone around me always wants to talk sports but I can’t engage since I don’t know the players or teams.
I didn’t grow up in a sports watching family. My family did sports, we are active and sitting around watching people play is not appealing.
Local media channels can be a blame for this, as the sports portions update moreso the local teams while possibly only having a quick update or recap of other teams’ games.
I, for instance, live in the Midwest portion of the country, yet follow University of Houston for collegiate sports and San Francisco 49ers for NFL updates.
Usually, but not always.
now i I grew up pretty much equidistant from New York and Philadelphia so it was pretty impossible to pick a team by nearness except in the case of basketball as our local university star, Bill Bradley was drafted by the Knicks. At that time teams had the option to draft players who attended college within 50 miles of the team, and the Knicks were one mile closer than the 76ers. I used to try to pick the team closest to me, or if a game has none of the teams closest to me, or if none were local closest to where i used to live or close to where family lived. I f there were none of those available I try to pick the one with the best name, with preferences to bird names. The exception is hockey, the Jersey Devils are the best name, period. Now I live in MD and I have the Ravens and the Orioles, nearby and bird names.
Mostly. I have one son who is a Dolphins fan. We’ve never lived in Miami.
One thing about the US is tv rights made it very hard to watch other markets teams(except the NFL) until very recently
Honestly I find American sports fans to have less local loyalties than Europeans do for their soccer teams. Europeans will die for their 5th tier team Scrungly Brush United but a guy in NYC will be a die hard Vikings fan.