Per Merriam-Webster the definition of bandwagon is:
band·wag·on
: a popular activity, effort, cause, etc., that attracts growing support
It is quite the narrative (most popular word in sports talk at the moment) when discussing the loyalties of sports fans. I make no bones about the fact that I am:
Being a high school teacher and teaching a class like sports marketing I get into quite a few discussions about sports and sports teams. This generation is very different than my generation. With the advent of technology fans are no longer created by regions. Again, growing up in Illinois it was all about the local teams. Therefore, I rooted for the Bears, University of Illinois, Cubs (as opposed to the Cardinals since Peoria is close to halfway between St. Louis and Chicago) and the Blackhawks. Nowadays, young people have access to all the major sports teams on cable/satellite television and smart phones. They can root for whoever they choose. And that is where I feel the bandwagon epidemic has evolved.
It is extremely easy to root for teams that are good. And young fans in this day and age take full advantage of that opportunity. Let's take the Pacers for example. After the Malice at the Palace the attendance and fan support for the Pacers declined. Understandably, many fans didn't like the direction of the team. However, if you are a fan of a team, wholeheartedly, you have to stick with them through thick and thin. At that time I began to see many young people become Lakers fans (Kobe), Bulls fans (D Rose) or Cavs/Heat fans (LeBron). Granted, the NBA markets its players as opposed to teams, but staying loyal to your TEAM, as opposed to a player seems more virtuous.
Peyton Manning going to the Broncos is another excellent example. I am continually floored by the number of "fans" who now rock the Manning Broncos jerseys but are still "Colts fans". How is that possible? My answer to them is that they were never truly Colts fans but rather just a Peyton Manning fan. They like to argue with me about their allegiances, but I'm not buying it. As my Dad used to say, crap or get off the pot. :)
Now for me, I get a lot of flack about being a Blackhawks fan. Many sports fans accuse me of being a bandwagon fan because they are now one of the best teams in the NHL. Well, my response to that is usually one statement - my best friend (and roommate) and I went to bars in 1992 to watch the Blackhawks play the Penguins in the Stanley Cup Finals. I can name numerous players from that team and others in the years before they "got good". I also have friends, whom I love, who call the city of Chicago a bandwagon hockey city because fans are now "coming out of the woodwork because they're good". Here's how I would like to refute that statement.
Ownership is vital to the fan support of a team. This city is blessed to have a passionate owner like Jim Irsay. For many years, however, the Blackhawks were owned by one of the worst owners in professional sports, Bill Wirtz. Blackhawks home games were no televised locally because he thought is was "unfair to season ticket holders". At the same time, he would only televise games IF they were picked up nationally, which only happened in the playoffs. He was also extremely frugal, which lead to his nickname "Dollar Bill" Wirtz. He tried PPV for Blackhawks games for $29.95 a month which went over like a lead balloon. Per wikipedia.com "Under the ownership of Wirtz, the Chicago Blackhawks were named by ESPN in 2004 as the worst franchise in sports. In 2002, ESPN ranked Wirtz as the third greediest owner in all of sports."
The Blackhawks fan base, in my opinion, was dormant. The ownership traded the teams best players (Chelios, Roenick, Belfour, and Savard) for financial reasons, they couldn't watch the team on local television, and their beloved play-by-play announcer, Pat Foley was unceremoniously fired by Bill Wirtz as well. It was tough to be a Blackhawks fan. I couldn't watch them at all living in Indianapolis. And then, sadly, Bill Wirtz passed away. His son Rocky Wirt took over and things changed, immediately. He hire John McDonough away from the Cubs and he sought to completely rebuild the organization. He brought back great old timers like Stan Mikita and Bobby Hull. They got Scotty Bowman involved in the organization. Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane were drafted. But most importantly, Rocky put the Blackhawks back on Comcast Sports Net Chicago and rehired Pat Foley. You cannot begin to comprehend how important those decisions were in the grand scheme of the club. The fan base got their sunlight back and came out of dormancy, even before they won the Cup in 2010. I can watch them all the time now and it's fantastic.
Dormancy and bandwagonism (word?) are two completely different adjectives to describe fan bases. And I'll be more than happy to tell you how I feel about each.
Until next time...
Shawn
: a popular activity, effort, cause, etc., that attracts growing support
It is quite the narrative (most popular word in sports talk at the moment) when discussing the loyalties of sports fans. I make no bones about the fact that I am:
- a Chicago sports fan. I grew up in Illinois so my loyalties lie there
- currently living in Indianapolis
- an advocate of preaching against the bandwagon phenomenon
It is extremely easy to root for teams that are good. And young fans in this day and age take full advantage of that opportunity. Let's take the Pacers for example. After the Malice at the Palace the attendance and fan support for the Pacers declined. Understandably, many fans didn't like the direction of the team. However, if you are a fan of a team, wholeheartedly, you have to stick with them through thick and thin. At that time I began to see many young people become Lakers fans (Kobe), Bulls fans (D Rose) or Cavs/Heat fans (LeBron). Granted, the NBA markets its players as opposed to teams, but staying loyal to your TEAM, as opposed to a player seems more virtuous.
Peyton Manning going to the Broncos is another excellent example. I am continually floored by the number of "fans" who now rock the Manning Broncos jerseys but are still "Colts fans". How is that possible? My answer to them is that they were never truly Colts fans but rather just a Peyton Manning fan. They like to argue with me about their allegiances, but I'm not buying it. As my Dad used to say, crap or get off the pot. :)
Now for me, I get a lot of flack about being a Blackhawks fan. Many sports fans accuse me of being a bandwagon fan because they are now one of the best teams in the NHL. Well, my response to that is usually one statement - my best friend (and roommate) and I went to bars in 1992 to watch the Blackhawks play the Penguins in the Stanley Cup Finals. I can name numerous players from that team and others in the years before they "got good". I also have friends, whom I love, who call the city of Chicago a bandwagon hockey city because fans are now "coming out of the woodwork because they're good". Here's how I would like to refute that statement.
Ownership is vital to the fan support of a team. This city is blessed to have a passionate owner like Jim Irsay. For many years, however, the Blackhawks were owned by one of the worst owners in professional sports, Bill Wirtz. Blackhawks home games were no televised locally because he thought is was "unfair to season ticket holders". At the same time, he would only televise games IF they were picked up nationally, which only happened in the playoffs. He was also extremely frugal, which lead to his nickname "Dollar Bill" Wirtz. He tried PPV for Blackhawks games for $29.95 a month which went over like a lead balloon. Per wikipedia.com "Under the ownership of Wirtz, the Chicago Blackhawks were named by ESPN in 2004 as the worst franchise in sports. In 2002, ESPN ranked Wirtz as the third greediest owner in all of sports."
The Blackhawks fan base, in my opinion, was dormant. The ownership traded the teams best players (Chelios, Roenick, Belfour, and Savard) for financial reasons, they couldn't watch the team on local television, and their beloved play-by-play announcer, Pat Foley was unceremoniously fired by Bill Wirtz as well. It was tough to be a Blackhawks fan. I couldn't watch them at all living in Indianapolis. And then, sadly, Bill Wirtz passed away. His son Rocky Wirt took over and things changed, immediately. He hire John McDonough away from the Cubs and he sought to completely rebuild the organization. He brought back great old timers like Stan Mikita and Bobby Hull. They got Scotty Bowman involved in the organization. Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane were drafted. But most importantly, Rocky put the Blackhawks back on Comcast Sports Net Chicago and rehired Pat Foley. You cannot begin to comprehend how important those decisions were in the grand scheme of the club. The fan base got their sunlight back and came out of dormancy, even before they won the Cup in 2010. I can watch them all the time now and it's fantastic.
Dormancy and bandwagonism (word?) are two completely different adjectives to describe fan bases. And I'll be more than happy to tell you how I feel about each.
Until next time...
Shawn
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