As a journalist, it is not my place to determine who is and is not a bandwagon or fair-weather fan. The mentality of those fans are to only show support for their favorite team during good times and vanish during times of trouble. They are usually the first to leave a team and the last to support a successful team.
I located a Huffington Post MLB fan map that shows which team is most rooted for in each county across the U.S. The New York Yankees dominate all counties of New York State and many different states around the U.S. Why would people in counties in Maryland, Washington D.C. and Virginia root for the Yankees if the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals play in or near those states? Why don’t any counties in New York state favor the New York Mets? Even in Queens, where the Mets play, the Yankees are favored.
Junior communication major Kinane Palamittam lives in Dubai. He is a fan of Manchester United soccer, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Green Bay Packers. When hearing this, one might assume that he just likes winning teams. However, after getting the chance to talk to him, I found out that he is as loyal as can be.
“Back in Dubai, the National TV networks only show the top teams [because those networks know that they will receive high viewership], but I would stay up until 3 a.m. to watch my favorite teams play because of the big time difference between the U.S. and Dubai. For me, I am all about loyalty when it comes to my sports teams, and media coverage really has a lot to do with why I root for the teams that I root for,” Palamittam said.
Many fans gravitate towards a certain team because they have an affinity for a player on said team. When a player leaves one team for another, those fans switch their loyalties to the new team. I always wondered what percentage of the current Miami Heat fans were Heat fans before LeBron James and Chris Bosh signed with the team.
Sophomore sports management major Cody Citro likes teams from different regions of the country. He is a fan of the Phoenix Suns, Colorado Avalanche, Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“Growing up, as I grew an interest in each sport, I followed whoever was the best at the time or whoever had players that I really enjoyed watching and looked up to.. The Suns I started following when Steve Nash was in his prime. There is no player that I look up to more and since he played the majority of his career there, I grew an interest in the [whole] team instead of just Nash,” Citro said.
Citro is a fan who remained loyal to his favorite teams in spite of the key players moving elsewhere.
Whenever I encounter people wearing team apparel, I see mainly the Yankees, Dodgers, Heat, Seahawks, Patriots and Blackhawks represented. This leads me to believe that many people base their loyalties on whether or not a team is winning. In reality, it will be hard to find someone who will admit to being a bandwagon fan. But shirts don’t lie, do they?
Greg Praver can be reached at gregory.praver@spartans.ut.edu.