5 Thoughts On Bandwagon Fans

My two cents, for what it's worth..

1. Why wouldn't you want everyone to like your team? Isn't that sort of the point? You spend all this time and money and effort to support your team. You argue for your team. You make erroneous claims about your team being THE BEST EVER IN THE HISTORY OF EVER. Only to then get upset when someone decides to agree with you?

2. Sports bring people together. They just do and I will stick by that claim for forever and ever. Do I watch a lot of swimming meets or figuring skating outside of the Olympics? No. Honestly, when's the last time you watched a cross country skiing event? Yea, exactly. But every couple of years I get obsessed with the Olympics and I watch a ton of swimming and I DVR figure skating so I don't miss one single skate. And every couple of years, I'm not alone in this. I live in the USA and everyone I know does this exact same thing and we all talk about it and root for the USA in our favorite events and get excited. This applies to more than just the Olympics. World Cup, The Superbowl, The World Series, The Stanley Cup, Wimbledon, and March Madness anyone? Yea.. How many of you filled out a bracket after watching approximately 2 NCAA basketball games all season? But you did it right? To feel included, right? To have something to get excited about with everyone else, right? Why is this a bad thing?

3. Advertising and promotion. Let me explain to you really quickly how life works - Money matters. To make this easier to understand, we're going to use the MLB as examples. The New York Yankees have won 27 World Series titles. That's a lot. The 2nd most World Series titles goes to the St. Louis Cardinals with 11. So like I said, the Yankees have won a lot.
Because the Yankees have won a lot, they also seem to have a lot of fans. It isn't a strictly regional thing either. There are Yankee fans in Indiana, Yankee fans in Florida, Yankees fans in Texas, Yankee fans all over the USA. They have a large fan base. A large fan base that is very vocal and will tell anyone within ear shot how wonderful the New York Yankees are and a large fan base that is very supportive, that is constantly wearing Yankee gear to show support. That's a lot of free advertising and promotion for the New York Yankees which results in a lot of revenue. Revenue they use to pay players more than most MLB teams can afford to pay players. Which means the Yankees can afford to have very good players. Very good players that win them World Series titles. Wins manage to get them more fans, which starts the cycle all over again.
*The exception to this cycle are the Chicago Cubs. They have a huge fan base, but they can't seem to win. It boggles my mind.*

4. Sometimes bandwagon fans become diehard fans. This happens all the time! I've seen it happen! I'm an example of this! I just recently, in the last 2 years, started watched hockey. I have a friend who is a HUGE diehard Detroit Red Wings fan. Hockey is her favorite sport, she knows all there is to know about it, and she'd watch hockey over anything else. She took me to my 1st, my 2nd, and my 3rd hockey game. She's forced me to watch so many (so many!) on tv with her. After so many times, I really started to enjoy it. I actually watched the hockey playoffs this year by choice. But because I've just started watching hockey, I don't have a team. So instead, I've just been watching a little of every team and right now I'm seriously considering hopping on either the New York Rangers bandwagon or the Anaheim Ducks bandwagon. The thing is though, whichever team's bandwagon I do officially decide to jump on, I'll end up being a lifer. So yea, sometimes bandwagon fans become the diehards.

5. There's always room. I know I'm actually in the minority here, but I firmly believe that there is always room on the bandwagon of my teams.

Indiana University Hoosiers.
St. Louis Cardinals.
Chicago Bears.
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Come on over guys, because there is plenty of room! I don't understand why anyone wouldn't want you to hop on their team's bandwagon! Personally, I'm under the belief that everyone in America should love the IU Hoosiers. Because, obviously they're the best in everything, ever. Duh. I love me some STL Cards and I spend a lot of time converting my friends into Cardinals fans. I've gotten a couple to hop on board already and guess what? There's still room for more.

IT BLOWS MY MIND that a person can spend years supporting something like.. I don't know, let's say something like soccer in the United States. That seems like a good example that I totally and obviously pulled out of no where..
Anyway, they spend years supporting soccer. Years promoting soccer. Years trying to get everyone to like soccer. Then something like, I don't know, The World Cup maybe, strolls into town and all of a sudden all of those people you spent years trying to convince to care, actually care. They're excited, they're watching games, they're cheering for the USA, they're buying merchandise, they're getting others to care too, they're signing their kids up for soccer. Oh but now, NOW you don't want anyone to like soccer. Everyone is just a bandwagon fan, you're the only true fan.

*insert picture of myself giving you an extremely shitty look*

Everyone wants to have their cake and eat it too. 

Ps. If anyone needs some Hoosier gear or needs someone to take them to a Cardinals game, I'm available for assistance at all times.