South Pender wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2019 9:47 am
Terrific analysis, Robbie. And one that obviously took a lot of effort on your part. As you note, geographical closeness to the home city does seem to be the overriding factor. And I guess that's not surprising, but it is interesting.
Sure, anytime South Pender.
When it comes to Canada supporting American teams, it may not be as clear cut as there are notable examples. And it could also be different depending on the sports leagues in question in that it's possible to like a team from a particular city, but dislike another team from the same city without any home team biases and I'll provide some good examples.
South Pender wrote:For example, with B.C. fans and so many west-coast NFL teams, are the Seahawks the dominant favorite?
I think in Greater Vancouver, it's geographical closeness closely followed by the dominance of the team which can override the closeness in certain cases. In the 1980's and early 1990's, the most popular NFL team in Vancouver was the second closest geographical team, the San Francisco 49ers as that team was a dominant powerhouse during that era, while the Seahawks had many pitiful seasons. But with the emergence of the Seahawks around 2005, it looks like they have reclaimed the #1 spot in terms of popularity in Vancouver.
South Pender wrote:Feel free to pass on this analysis, though, as it might be hard to carry out with NFL jersey sales probably pretty sparse in Canada.
One time, I created a thread about whether wearing sports team apparel is a fan or fashion statement (
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=12699). And one notable case of the latter would be the wearing of the then-Los Angeles Raiders jackets in the 1980's and 1990's including in Vancouver. Despite winning Super Bowl XVIII, the Raiders were not nearly as dominant as several other NFL teams but their jackets appeared to be the most popular in Vancouver. Obviously in this case, it was not because they were true fans of the team but rather, it was a macho thing because for the longest time, Raiders team apparel was associated with street gang associations.
South Pender wrote:After all that work on your part, I hesitate to suggest any more for you, but I wonder whether the geographical closeness to the home city also applies to the distribution of NFL fans by Canadian province. I'm guessing it does, although things might be more complicated. And with the geographical size of our provinces compared with that of the US states, there is probably quite a range of favored NFL teams within each province.
Okay, I'll take you up on that offer and challenge, South Pender. These are just my general thoughts and others are welcome to disagree. For those who have friends and family living in other parts of Canada, perhaps you can ask them which NFL team they root for. Let's see about Canadian provinces and if there's any association with bordering U.S. states in that:
1. If the province borders a U.S. state with an NFL team, do they support that team?
2. If the province borders a U.S. state that does not have an NFL team, then do they share the same preferences on supporting the NFL team that the non-NFL state roots for?
Let's go through the provinces:
1. I've already said that Vancouver and likely Canada supports the Seahawks the most since Washington State borders them in south.
2. Alberta borders Montana which does not have an NFL team. I cannot answer this - are those in Alberta split three ways like those in Montana in that they support either the Seahawks, Broncos, or Vikings?
3. Saskatchewan borders North Dakota and likely have their same preferences, and Manitoba and Western Ontario border Minnesota, so all three areas support Vikings. There are likely a lot of similarities culturally in that they all have extremely cold winters and European ancestry.
4. Both Toronto and Hamilton are just a few hours drive from Buffalo. So are most of them fans of the Bills? Somehow, I don't have that feeling and if they attend Bills games, it's just to see an NFL game and not necessarily to root for the Bills or instead, root for their favourite NFL team who are visiting Buffalo, or perhaps to see an particular individual such as Doug Flutie when he joined the Bills.
5. I cannot answer on the other cities in Ontario so I can only speculate. Those in Sault Ste. Marie may root for nearby Green Bay Packers. And I wonder if it's fair to say that those in Windsor support for all the sports teams in Detroit given the very close proximity separated only by the Detroit River.
6. I believe the Maritimes and Atlantic Canada have the same preferences as neighbouring Maine in that they support the New England Patriots.
7. I'm not sure if I can say the same thing about Montreal and Quebec with regards to the Patriots. One possible team they may root for are the New Orleans Saints given the city's French heritage. One thing I can say for certain is that they don't immediately support the Baltimore Ravens even though their Alouettes franchise has origins from Baltimore - similar to how Montreal didn't seem to be too ecstatic over the Expos legacy when the Nationals won the World Series.
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Just a few more thoughts:
1. For Vancouver and NBA teams, I can say for sure that Vancouver supports the Toronto Raptors much more than the closest team Portland Trail Blazers and their legacy Memphis Grizzlies.
2. While Portland and northern Oregon support the Seattle Seahawks according to the map and may support the Seattle Mariners as well, it is certainly not reciprocal as I don't see Seattle supporting the Portland Trail Blazers. Perhaps only the nearby Vancouver, Washington supports the Trail Blazers. I don't see any support the legacy of the Sonics as I don't see fans of Oklahoma City Thunder in Seattle.
3. With all this talk about relocation, can you think of cases in which after a team has relocated to another city the residents of the original city still have a lot of fan support for the team after the move?
Looking at the map, it looks like San Diego still love and support the Chargers after they moved to Los Angeles. But of course, is alleviated over the fact the relocation wasn't too far geographically as San Diego is still relatively close to Los Angeles and fans there can still easily travel there to attend Chargers games. And maybe to a lesser extent San Diego still really like the Clippers after their move Los Angeles in 1984 because that team has always played second fiddle to the Lakers.