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american sports

should amercian sports be banned??

  • yes buddy

    Votes: 57 64.0%

  • no bozo

    Votes: 32 36.0%
  • Total voters
    89
Status
Not open for further replies.
TheBigIguana said:
This whole line of argument is bogus, quite frankly. It's just as bogus as saying English supporters can't really love their clubs because they could at any moment go bankrupt and be liquidated like Bury.

Yes American teams move. But in between those moves they more often than not build massive support in the towns they occupy. The roots are planted just the same as in any other place. When teams move it sucks as all that is torn up, but it doesn't mean it doesn't happen at all.

As for the no local team part you have to understand the US geography is a bit different. A team in a city 90 minutes away is very local here. To that end the biggest media market without a major professional team is Hartford, and that city happens to split NY and Boston. The biggest market that doesn't have a team within a couple of hours is like Albuquerque. For the most part people can find a local team in some sport, if they want to.
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How is that comparable at all? Bury as it once was is a dead club but a new one will rise up for the people of Bury to support again and it'll rise up in Bury not Mumbai.

Do you think Oakland Raiders fans will now want to travel nearly 600 miles to support their team every Monday night? Change their colours? Start saying they support LA Raiders instead?
 
TheBigIguana said:
This whole line of argument is bogus, quite frankly. It's just as bogus as saying English supporters can't really love their clubs because they could at any moment go bankrupt and be liquidated like Bury.

Yes American teams move. But in between those moves they more often than not build massive support in the towns they occupy. The roots are planted just the same as in any other place. When teams move it sucks as all that is torn up, but it doesn't mean it doesn't happen at all.

As for the no local team part you have to understand the US geography is a bit different. A team in a city 90 minutes away is very local here. To that end the biggest media market without a major professional team is Hartford, and that city happens to split NY and Boston. The biggest market that doesn't have a team within a couple of hours is like Albuquerque. For the most part people can find a local team in some sport, if they want to.
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The Whalers will return and it will be glorious
 

Nymzee said:
How is that comparable at all? Bury as it once was is a dead club but a new one will rise up for the people of Bury to support again and it'll rise up in Bury not Mumbai.

Do you think Oakland Raiders fans will now want to travel nearly 600 miles to support their team every Monday night? Change their colours? Start saying they support LA Raiders instead?
Click to expand...
None of what you're saying changes the fact that Americans support their teams strongly while they are around.

When they move it sucks, but you all are acting like the possibility of a move effects how passionate people are and that just simply isn't true. Nor is it true that people receiving a moving team care that it existed somewhere else previously.
 
TheBigIguana said:
None of what you're saying changes the fact that Americans support their teams strongly while they are around.

When they move it sucks, but you all are acting like the possibility of a move effects how passionate people are and that just simply isn't true. Nor is it true that people receiving a moving team care that it existed somewhere else previously.
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They should care - that's the point. Loyalty is just different in American sports because the country is in itself so new. Everton is, has and will always be a sports team based in Liverpool and the fans will always have them or a phoenix club of the same nature (see: Wimbledon).

Older residents of Philly for example will have grown up supporting the Warriors to then see them move the entire other side of the country to be replaced by the new 76ers that themselves have moved from Syracuse. Does an older resident of San Fran celebrate the history of Wilt Chamberlain who technically played for their team at one point?

Sports teams are just businesses and brands to America they're not rooted in local pride. If they did they would never, ever move. Look how much problems MK Dons caused and they moved about 80 miles away.
 
Nymzee said:
They should care - that's the point. Loyalty is just different in American sports because the country is in itself so new. Everton is, has and will always be a sports team based in Liverpool and the fans will always have them or a phoenix club of the same nature (see: Wimbledon).

Older residents of Philly for example will have grown up supporting the Warriors to then see them move the entire other side of the country to be replaced by the new 76ers that themselves have moved from Syracuse.

Sports teams are just businesses and brands to America they're not rooted in local pride. If they did they would never, ever move. Look how much problems MK Dons caused and they moved about 80 miles away.
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You're too caught up on the nicknames. In Baltimore, we support the team from Baltimore. When it was the Colts, they supported the Colts. Now we support the Ravens. Your brands being tied to the location make it seem like it's different but reality is fans by and large support the team from their city. The nickname changes, but really the allegiance doesn't and never did.
 
TheBigIguana said:
You're too caught up on the nicknames. In Baltimore, we support the team from Baltimore. When it was the Colts, they supported the Colts. Now we support the Ravens. Your brands being tied to the location make it seem like it's different but reality is fans by and large support the team from their city. The nickname changes, but really the allegiance doesn't and never did.
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I'm not getting caught up on the nicknames at all. Your example of Baltimore is two different clubs. Ravens moved over their staff and entire playing squad from Cleveland to then, after one year, play in a brand new stadium. You're supporting two different teams even if they both were in Baltimore at different times. It's not like Baltimore Colts just did a name change and that was the only difference. They don't even play in the same colours.
 
Nymzee said:
They should care - that's the point. Loyalty is just different in American sports because the country is in itself so new. Everton is, has and will always be a sports team based in Liverpool and the fans will always have them or a phoenix club of the same nature (see: Wimbledon).

Older residents of Philly for example will have grown up supporting the Warriors to then see them move the entire other side of the country to be replaced by the new 76ers that themselves have moved from Syracuse. Does an older resident of San Fran celebrate the history of Wilt Chamberlain who technically played for their team at one point?

Sports teams are just businesses and brands to America they're not rooted in local pride. If they did they would never, ever move. Look how much problems MK Dons caused and they moved about 80 miles away.
Click to expand...

The New Orleans Saints say hello. As do the Green Bay Packers.
 

Nymzee said:
I'm not getting caught up on the nicknames at all. Your example of Baltimore is two different clubs. Ravens moved over their staff and entire playing squad from Cleveland to then, after one year, play in a brand new stadium. You're supporting two different teams even if they both were in Baltimore at different times. It's not like Baltimore Colts just did a name change and that was the only difference. They don't even play in the same colours.
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But the allegiance is to Baltimore. The loyalty is to the football team in our city regardless of what they're called. In between we also had a USFL team and a CFL team (won titles in both too, only place to do it in 3 leagues) and they were supported just the same. Because no one is really paying attention to what they're called just where they are from.

It really is no different than Wimbledon FC and AFC Wimbledon in support, just that Americans brand their teams different so the new team often can't keep the old name and colors.

I talk about Baltimore because it is what I know, but I'm sure it's the same for the Texans in Houston or the Wild in Minnesota and it will be the same for whatever basketball team ends up in Seattle. The names change, the support and passion doesn't.
 
Nymzee said:
Yeh I was generalising as there are some rare teams that haven't moved thankfully.
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I'd say it was a generalization as there have been far more teams that haven't moved than have. And for those that do, there's a geographical component to it in terms of the size of North America vis a vis England as well as a factor in terms of quantity. For example, there are 92 teams in the top four divisions of English football. A move like Wimbledon's is rare because there aren't many suitable destinations that don't already have a team. There are only between 30 and 32 teams in each of the big four sports in an area (the contiguous 48 states plus the lower border regions of Canada) that's about 70 times the size of England with plenty of suitable relocation sites.
 

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