Bandwagon fans help prop up baseball, which is, let's face it, a sport fading in popularity. They certainly should outrank football fans. Don't you think?
Also, is a person who lives in Boston or Atlanta whose favorite team is San Diego a bandwagon fan? I mean, one can't really help who their favorite team is, can they? I live in the midwest and my favorite teams are not from my state. But they have always been my favorite teams.
It just seems to me, though, that bandwagon fans are better than no fans. Am I wrong? Am I right?
2007-10-23 05:56:19 · 22 answers · asked by Sarrafzedehkhoee 7 in Sports ➔ Baseball
Frizzer -- those totals are artificially high. How you do account for the low post season ratings? Heck, a lot of fans couldn't even watch the division series this year at all. Football during that time put an average of 9 games on non-cable stations with hour-long pre-game shows. The average ALCS (NLCS was also blocked to a lot of fans) pre game show was about 15 minutes. Game one's pre-game show was 6 minutes long. This is not a healthy, popular sport.
2007-10-23 07:21:48 · update #1
Nacnud -- spot on!! Fan is good enough. What in the heck is a 'real' or 'true' fan anyway? Snobs might like those labels, but a fan by any other name. . .perhaps I could accept 'diehard' or 'long-time' or 'loyal', but the rest is 'Mr. Thuhston Howell the thuhd" talk.
2007-10-23 10:57:41 · update #2
Nan -- that is just what happened with me. We should talk!!!
2007-10-23 10:59:26 · update #3
kmcpmgoodson -- I do that!! I pulled all year for Cleveland and now for the AL, so I'll be rooting for the Red Sox in the World Series. Not a bandwagon fan, just a fan of the last one standing each year!!!
2007-10-23 11:00:58 · update #4
I think what some people consider bandwagon fans are just plain fans. For instance I am a Red Sox fan, but if they had lost I would have been pulling for the Indians. Some people would call me a bandwagon fan, but in reality I would just prefer that an AL team win it over an NL team. I am a baseball fan, so if my team isn't in it I still pull for someone because I love the game.
2007-10-23 05:59:17 · answer #1 · answered by kmcpmgoodson 5 · 3⤊ 0⤋
The word "fan" means – noun an enthusiastic devotee, follower, or admirer of a sport, pastime, celebrity, etc.: a baseball fan; a great fan of Charlie Chaplin.
A bandwagon fan means you pretend to be a fan for whatever team happens to be popular at a certain point, you show the same joy and enthusiasm as a true fan of that team, but then as soon as next team is popular you do the same for them, that's not a devoted follower, that's not a "fan". But, just because you are rooting for a team doesnt mean you are bandwagon fan. I'm rooting for the Rockies in the world series, but I'm not a fan of thiers, I just rather see the Rockies win than the Red Sox, for two reasons: 1) I'm a Yankees fan, so I never root for the Red Sox, but I do think they have a good team. 2) They are a young team, they have never been to the World Series, they had a great post season so far, but I'm not a Rockies fan nor do I pretend to be one, I just rather see them win.
Do I think bandwagon fan prop up baseball? Sure it does, people will buy merchandise, with a team's logo, which is added revenue for the MLB and the team, it gets people talking about baseball, which are all good things. Maybe by starting out a bandwagon fan you might actualy become a true fan, which is even a better thing.
I disagree with you when you say baseball is a "sport fading in popularity", more and more fans are buying tickets then ever before, many teams are selling tickets at record numbers. Look at attendance levels of each team, on whole its been going up. Baseball is still the #1 sport in the USA, and there are far more fans of baseball then either Football, Hockey or Basketball.
No! you are not a bandwagon fan if you live in one city and the team you root for is in another city. The fact you don't have an oppertunity to go to many, if any, games doesn't mean you are a bandwagon fan. I live in NYC, I've been a Yankees fan forever, but I only go to one or two games a year, but I watch on TV or listen on the radio to every one of their games. I'm always going to their website, reading their stats, listening to sports stations, the YES Network (thats the Yankees TV station) is one of my favorite channels, I love watching the old Yankees Classic games, Yankeeography (a biography type show on past Yankees players).
Are bandwagon fans are better than no fans? Maybe, in a way its like saying "is having an aquaintance better then not having any friends." Having friends is better then having aquaintances, but I guess an aquaintance is better then being a hermit.
2007-10-23 06:55:01 · answer #2 · answered by pedrooch 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
First of all baseball is not a sport fading in popularity. For the sixth consecutive season MLB has set new attendance records and baseball is doing very well. Bandwagon fans jump on a winning team at the end of each season so the can be part of all the action. They are fans of excitement and not necessarily a fan of baseball. These people will fade away after the world series and find another winning team next year when the action picks up at the end of the season. I have no problem with them having some fun each year, it's just that they are not really fans of the game.
2007-10-23 06:21:02 · answer #3 · answered by Frizzer 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It has both its good and its bad points, like anything else. Good points: when the Indians were winning, all of a sudden people who never attended a game are there waving It's Tribe Time Now towels which bolsters attendance, revenue and the volume levels against the opposition. Bad points: People who have no clue who the team is and want to play armchair GM or skipper before, during and after the games. I am an Indians fan, I was an Indians fan before the 2007 ALCS, I am still an Indians fan and I will probably die an Indians fan. There is no bandwagon in this house. Therefore, I find it increbibly annoying to see the wagoneers now talking it up about what the Indians did or did not do, yadda yadda yadda. If you were not there prior to them winning the AL Central, before beating the Yankees and before they headed into the ALCS then keep your mouth shut. You are not an Indians fan. If you were not sitting in 30 degree weather while it was snowing at Jacobs Field on opening day, then shut up. If you had no idea who Travis Hafner, Grady Sizemore or Asdrubal Cabrera, Josh Barfield, Casey Blake or Ryan Garko were, then go walk your dog or something and quit dissing on them now. The real fans know their teams, they feel the exuberance of a great victory and feel the pain of a devastating loss. The wagoneers just pull up stakes and move on to another team. Go jump on the BoSox wagon. In this house, it will always be Tribe Time Now.
2007-10-23 06:13:43 · answer #4 · answered by alomew_rocks 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
If a person lives in one area but is a fan of a team in another area, that doesn't necessarily make them a bandwagon fan. A bandwagon fan is someone who starts to like a team only once they become good. Then maybe when some other team becomes a little better, they'll ditch the first team and become a "fan" of the other team.
I don't really mind bandwagon fans, but I have to think to myself, "What's the point?"
I've been a Red Sox fan since 1981. When they won the World Series it was fantastic, because it was the team I backed all those years, through thick and thin. (And there was a lot more thin than thick.)
A person could be a "fan" of the team that wins the World Series the next ten years in a row, but what's the point? Sure, you could walk around with the "World Series Champion" t-shirt, but you wouldn't have the same feeling that you would if you're true to a team.
Bandwagon fans are only trying to fool themselves. To me, it's like cheating at solitaire. Maybe you'll win, but you'll know that you didn't really win.
2007-10-23 06:10:52 · answer #5 · answered by bencas9900 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I like the Red Sox and I live in Florida. That's not what makes someone a "bandwagon" fan. I just recently (like last week) became a Red Sox supporter after watching Game 4. For some reason I just decided that I liked the Red Sox. I wouldn't exactly consider myself a fan, I just like them as a team and how they play. If I did cheer for them on a regular basis, some people would consider me a bandwagon fan. That's saying that I jumped on the bandwagon and only started cheering for them because they were doing so well.
Another example could be a professed gator fan who didn't watch any of the 2006 gator football season, but as sooon as they heard that the gators were going to the NCAA championship game, they all of a sudden were interested in how the gators were doing and just had to watch the game and knew everything that was going on.
In truth, just about everybody could be consisdered a bandwagon fan in some way or another. The main reason I became a gator fan was because my parents are gator fans.
2007-10-23 06:19:03 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
You're right, at least in my opinion. While bandwagon fans can sometimes be annoying, I think we'd be crazy not to welcome new and/or casual fans to the sport. If jumping on the bandwagon makes them pay attention and help prop up the sport, then it can only be a good thing.
I've always been a Jays fan, but it's obvious from the attendance through the years that we have a serious group of bandwagon jumpers. When we were winning in the early 1990s, we became the first team to pass 4 million in attendance for a single season, only to see that number crash as the team faded. That's actually symptomatic of Toronto fans, who will support the Jays, Raptors and Argos only when they're doing well, but will stick with the Leafs through twenty years of failure.
I think any sport should welcome fans of any stripe, and I think existing fans of that sport should do the same. There's no reason to be elitist - the more the merrier, as far as I'm concerned.
2007-10-23 06:03:39 · answer #7 · answered by Craig S 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
A person can like whoever they want no matter if it is a home team or not. I'm from PA and no PA team is a favorite of mine. Go Bears!
I don't feel that bandwagon fans are real at all. I really can't stand someone who just likes a team cause that team is winning especially if their team is not. For example, I can't believe all the Eagles turned Cowboys fans. (Nothing against the Boys)
If I was a player I would not want a bandwagon fan or acknowledge that fan.
2007-10-23 08:29:25 · answer #8 · answered by Tina 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't think you can be a bandwagon fan, you can be on the bandwagon or your a fan. If you are just pulling for a team, when your team is out, you are just pulling for a team. If you are like yeah I love the Red Sox, all the while at the beginning of the season you were pulling for the Angels (and you love them,) then you are a fair weather fan.
2007-10-23 06:06:39 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
No band wagon fans arn't real fans you should be loyal to your team its not bad to like another team for maybe a certain player or players or if you have lived in more than one place and end up becoming apart of that team as well i used to live in Boston as a child and love going to Fenway so i am a Red Sox fan but when i was 9 we moved to Chicago and now i am also a White Sox fan so i dont think im a band wagon fan its hard not to become a fan when you live around them so i tell people ima Sox fan........Oh yea cubs suck 100 years oh SHAME.........
2007-10-23 06:16:25 · answer #10 · answered by n3w_guy1 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋