TD_washingtonredskins Posted December 28, 2010 Share Posted December 28, 2010 DC is a sports town when one ofthe teams is winning. DC was absolutely a sports town, the entire DMV area was, in 2005 with the Redskins, and when the Caps made the Cup. DC will get into their teams during good runs, but it's a weaker sports town simply due to the people who live here. With the federal government, people come here from every state in the country and stay loyal to those teams. If they stay here for good, their families are likely to grow up fans of those teams. Especially now with it being so easy to follow teams from any corner of the country...what's the incentive of out-of-town residents becoming local fans? In the 1980s, it made some sense since you'd watch all the games with no other choices. You could only follow your teams via local sports reports and reading box scores in the morning paper. Now, you can buy subscriptions to watch all the games, you can keep up with every article on the team online, etc. Towns like Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago, etc. are far less transient and thus have stronger fan bases because they have generations of families that continue to be die hard fans supporting their teams. DC will always have a strong fan base, it will just be much smaller than that of those cities, in my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elessar78 Posted December 28, 2010 Share Posted December 28, 2010 It's because Pittsburgh is such a ****ty place to live. They can't help but be douches about their sports teams. It's all they have. Actually Forbes Magazine rated Pittsburgh the most livable city in America. I grew up in NOVA, so I'm not going to vehemently defend Pittsburgh it has it's flaws but most of peoples conceptions of it are outdated. Some still ring true, but the other stereotypes are beginning to be phased out. Weather sucks. But you get stuff like lower-housing costs and less traffic than a place like DC. It's still pretty insular though, it'd be hard for an outsider to grow to love it. It really is for "the natives"—in contrast to cities like NYC or SF where people move there and become assimilated. ---------- Post added December-28th-2010 at 10:25 AM ---------- DC will get into their teams during good runs, but it's a weaker sports town simply due to the people who live here. With the federal government, people come here from every state in the country and stay loyal to those teams. If they stay here for good, their families are likely to grow up fans of those teams. Especially now with it being so easy to follow teams from any corner of the country...what's the incentive of out-of-town residents becoming local fans? In the 1980s, it made some sense since you'd watch all the games with no other choices. You could only follow your teams via local sports reports and reading box scores in the morning paper. Now, you can buy subscriptions to watch all the games, you can keep up with every article on the team online, etc. Towns like Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago, etc. are far less transient and thus have stronger fan bases because they have generations of families that continue to be die hard fans supporting their teams. DC will always have a strong fan base, it will just be much smaller than that of those cities, in my opinion. Isn't that the definition of a "fair weather fan"? In the 70s and even early 80s DC was a REDSKINS town. The city would essentially be shut down on Sunday afternoons. So while you're observation is now true, it wasn't always the case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popeman38 Posted December 28, 2010 Share Posted December 28, 2010 The problem is threefold.1. A lot of northerners, for whatever reason, are moving south. I have noticed a ton of fans in the area that, whether true or not, "diehard" fans of northern teams, i.e. Pittsburgh, Philly, NE,and New York teams. Why are they moving south? Depressed economies maybe? Job opportunities? Some claim they want a quieter, simpler way of life but I have noticed many will ***** about how we do things down here, but that is another thread. People go where the jobs are. Business goes where they can make the most money. Right to work states make businesses more money. Henc why right to work states are growing massively and forced union states are contracting at an alarming rate. The South is growing. The North/MidWest is contracting. Follow the money.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TD_washingtonredskins Posted December 28, 2010 Share Posted December 28, 2010 Isn't that the definition of a "fair weather fan"? In the 70s and even early 80s DC was a REDSKINS town. The city would essentially be shut down on Sunday afternoons. So while you're observation is now true, it wasn't always the case. Believe it or not, I would make the argument that the fans of the 70s and 80s might have more closely fit into the "fair weather" category at some point. I think it's EASIER in 2010 to move here from Kansas City and stay a Chiefs fan than it was in 1980. You aren't "stuck" watching the Redskins every Sunday like you were in 1980. You aren't "stuck" listening to Redskins talk on the radio like you were in 1980. And you aren't "stuck" only reading about the Redskins in the local papers every morning like you were in 1980. So, I would guess (though it's just a guess), that a lot of our fans in that era were transplants from all over the country who just found it easier to eventually root for the local team. Factor in the fact that they were witnessing the Redskins' golden age, and that probably made it even easier. Think of how tough it would be to stay a fan of a team that was nothing more than an occasional highlight on TV or a black-and-white box score in the Monday paper. People have ALWAYS been coming to DC from all over the country to work for the government. Now, you can move here as a Chiefs fan (to stick with my original example) and watch every Chiefs game, stream KC sports talk over the Internet, and read every KC article from your local papers over the Internet. There's no reason to adopt the local team in 2010 like there was in 1980. So, I'd definitely argue that people who come to DC and keep the team from their childhood are more prevalent today than 30 years ago when the town was Redskin crazy. Obviously, if we had the sustained success that we did back then, we'd see an uptick, but never to that extent since people now have the option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mooney Posted December 28, 2010 Share Posted December 28, 2010 Pittsburgh fans = Philly fans = New York fans = Baltimore fans = DC-area Dallas fans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elessar78 Posted December 28, 2010 Share Posted December 28, 2010 Ohio State fans, Browns fans?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WSHRedskins3ATLBraves3 Posted December 28, 2010 Share Posted December 28, 2010 Steeler fans are by far the worst. What a bunch of *******s, all of them. Sorry, no exceptions. ... The Steelers are the cowboys of the AFC. So many bandwagon fans and people that have never even been there. I'm not a hockey fan, but I always root for whoever is playing the Penguins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bch89 Posted December 29, 2010 Share Posted December 29, 2010 Baltimore Ravens fans are worse.... I was thinking this the whole time I was reading the thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Predicto Posted December 29, 2010 Share Posted December 29, 2010 If you were at a game in Pittsburgh and saw a bunch of Caps fans celebrating like that after a victory over the Penguins, you would be talking about how well we were represented and what enthusiasm we have for our teams. It works the same way in reverse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedskinsNation Posted December 30, 2010 Share Posted December 30, 2010 Ive lived in DC my whole life (recently moved out to Alexandria) and NEVER recall growing up til say 2005 or so seeing so many Steelers fans in this area....license plates, yinzers w/their HINES WARD jerseys etc....they are everywhere around here. It never was like this growing up. Steelers fans dwarf the Cowboys fans & I honestly believe have converted the fake Cowboy ****roaches to the Black/Gold side. What is funny though is every steelers fan i meet does have a backstory on why they root for them...none grew up there and recently moved here. The problem is losing sports towns (right now DC is the prime example) breed bandwagon fans for other teams.......u know, its just not cool in todays society to root for a losing team...people dont want to be made fun of. HAAHHAHAHA. What I do love though is so many people in this area will root for teams from other cities yet 95% of them MAKE SURE to rep the Caps....hmmmm....I wonder why???? Maybe because they are GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD! I have a backstory for why they are Steelers fans...BECAUSE THEY ARE BANDWAGONERS who absolutley need to root for a winning team. What I TRUELY LOVE is that all these fake "Pittsburgh" people sit and wave their terrible towels and break out the Crosby jerseys but not a soul dares to break out a PITTSBURGH PIRATES hat or shirt or Ryan Doumit jersey to save their lives. They probably "claim" they dont like baseball...how convienent....or they are RedSox or Yankee fans (shocker). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popeman38 Posted December 30, 2010 Share Posted December 30, 2010 If you were at a game in Pittsburgh and saw a bunch of Caps fans celebrating like that after a victory over the Penguins, you would be talking about how well we were represented and what enthusiasm we have for our teams. It works the same way in reverse. It isn't that a group of them show up to DC for 1 game every year. it is the fact that every ****tsburgh fan swears they are from there and have loved them their whole life. It is the fact that the entire city has moved to the DMV. Face it, there were not 10,000 Pens fans in the early 2000's. When they sucked on ice. When the NHL/Gary Bettmen prevented an Ontario businessman from buying them and moving them to Canada and sold the team to Mario for less money than Canada offered. Gary Bettmen loves Pittsburgh. And now that they are good, so do the little ******* that love the Yankees, Cowboys, Patriots and Steelers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pjfootballer Posted December 30, 2010 Share Posted December 30, 2010 If you were at a game in Pittsburgh and saw a bunch of Caps fans celebrating like that after a victory over the Penguins, you would be talking about how well we were represented and what enthusiasm we have for our teams. It works the same way in reverse. It isn't that a group of them show up to DC for 1 game every year. it is the fact that every ****tsburgh fan swears they are from there and have loved them their whole life. It is the fact that the entire city has moved to the DMV. Face it, there were not 10,000 Pens fans in the early 2000's. When they sucked on ice. When the NHL/Gary Bettmen prevented an Ontario businessman from buying them and moving them to Canada and sold the team to Mario for less money than Canada offered. Gary Bettmen loves Pittsburgh. And now that they are good, so do the little ******* that love the Yankees, Cowboys, Patriots and Steelers. I agree with Popeman here Predicto. There were "ZERO" Pens fans in the 70s, 80s and even in the 90s when Mario won a couple of cups for the them, in the DC area. Hockey was not popular, but you could find Ranger, Islander and Oiler fans in the area. Winning breeds bandwagoning. The Pens are the "sexy" choice for the novice hockey fan. Caps might become that "if" they ever decide to win a cup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCranon21 Posted December 30, 2010 Share Posted December 30, 2010 Well I work with a lot of Pittsburg native folks, and they actually follow ALL 3 teams. I think they also have an email alias set up for whoever is a Steeler fan, and if someone is selling tickets to a home game. They don't come off as some Pittsburg fans that you maybe describing. Certain teams have obnoxious fans, but you can't just group a whole fan base because of that. I'm pretty sure we have some obnoxious fans somewhere too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IONTOP Posted December 30, 2010 Share Posted December 30, 2010 I lived in Pittsburgh.... The only team that I ever rooted for is the Pirates.... (Season tickets the final 2 years of 3 Rivers).... If I had chosen either of the other 2 teams instead... I would know what a championship felt like.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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