NFL Worst fanbases

[thechris]

Where is Miami in this list?

 

[Kontradiction]

Funny...Pats fans were hard to find before 2001.

Touche. Jaguars fans were still hard to find last year. Tarps were very easy to find, though.

 

[godef]

Where is Miami in this list?

Yup. Did you read the reader comment from the Miami fan who lives near Gillette who agreed with the column? Made me gag.

 

[Ice Cold Bruschi]

Not that either bs article matters but its funny that espn had us rated 8th best and fox had us 5th worst, the disparity just shows you the kind of hacks that get assigned to these pointless articles

 

[Marko]

All towns are full of frontrunners! Philly thinks they're the best football town in the country but when Hoying was QB the networks bought up tickets to show the games in the area. Who wants to pay out the nose to go sit and watch your team lose, when you can do it for free at home! Show me any 4-12 caliber team and I'll show you a fanbase where people are giving away tickets at the end of the year.

 

[chris_in_sunnyvale]

Pats as 4th worst? That's ridiculous!

With only 8 home games a year and most games played conveniently on Sundays, there are a LOT of teams that have excellent fanbases so the Pats have a ton of competition to crack a top 10 list. I could see an argument for putting them in the lower tier of the top 10 or in the middle 12, but no way the bottom 10, let alone #4 from the bottom.

Apathy should be the #1 factor. Arizona is the worst by far. Jacksonville and Carolina are right there since they don't do well attendance-wise, yet sold themselves as rabid NFL fans when lobbying for expansion franchises. San Diego is bandwagon central, but I don't blame any fans for spending their Sundays at La Jolla Shores once the team hits a downturn. Oakland only gets their sellouts when division rivals or the Pats/Cowboys come to town. There's your bottom 5, FoxSports.com.

Regards,
Chris

 

[PatsDeb]

Ah, screw them! Let's start a poll about the "worst sports websites" and put Foxsports and every other website that has dissed us or the Pats on it. That will be about as valid as their dumb poll.

 

[JAYHAWKS34]

It’s called jealousy it comes with being such a superior team, not like I have to tell people this

 

[Wax Frog]

Sometimes I worry about my "fan cred". Reading a caption like that makes me proud to be an '85/'86er...

 

[SamusAranX]

Touche. Jaguars fans were still hard to find last year. Tarps were very easy to find, though.

Touche back at you.

In all seriousness, the ranking is hard to dispute. We have a solid core fanbase, but its a matter of getting a couple more thousand of those to secure the franchise's ticket situation. Its going to take time and establishment of tradition.

 

[richpats]

Funny...Pats fans were hard to find before 2001.

Obviously winning attracts some bandwagon-jumpers but it also affects how many fans are visible in everyday life. If someone's team wins they might add a bumper sticker or something to their car or wear their team's hat more often. Plus people notice winning team's fans more than others. It seemed like Giants fans were everywhere in VA after they won. Maybe they broke out their gear or maybe I just didn't notice them as much - probably a little bit of both.

My take on "bandwagon" fans is the only true bandwagoners jump off when times get tough. If someone wants to start liking the Pats, fine by me, just don't pick another team if NE goes 8-8.

 

[Seymour93]

Who knew? ESPN, who BB's shunned and Pats fans loathe, ranks us at #8 BEST fanbase, while FoxSports, Jimmy Johnson's network, ranks us as 4th worst. Interesting.

 

[tuckeverlasting]

san diego is easily the worst fanbase IN ANY SPORT. how many sports franchises have moved out of san diego because of poor attendance. how many football teams have to restrict playoff tickets to certain zip codes. i've lived a few blocks from qualcomm since 1980 and most years it's a ghost town.

 

[Lloyd_Christmas]

The New England Patriots are the first fanbase in the history of sports to see an influx in its popularity when it became a more successful team. This disgusting and indefensible phenomenon has never happened before in sports and, god willing, will never happen again.

LOL

That explanation as to why we are the 4th worst fanbase sounds like sour grapes to me.

 

[PatsFan24]

it is true that there are a lot of patriots fans on the wagon. 10 years ago i never saw anyone with patriots caps or tshirts on, now i see them almost every week during the fall. it still seems many more people root against the patriots than for them but 10-15 years ago they were not even talked about for the most part. if anyone brought up the patriots they just laughed at them. now it is a love hate thing, but nobody ignores them

 

[Spiral]

How about San Diego?

Super Bowl-caliber team, and they haven't even sold out their opening game yet. Better fan base than NE?

 

[Leave No Doubt]

Funny...Pats fans were hard to find before 2001.

You know this how? I'm quite sure you didn't attend many (any) Pats games, or do you live in this area? Therefore met and spoke with many NE fans,right? I didn't think so. My bet is-you're another one who doles out fan cred and measures a fan base by how much activity exists on an internet message board. Feel free to correct me if I've jumped to a wrong conclusion.

My dad's had season tix ever since I can remember. I've been to Foxboro Stadium as a little girl-he warned my brother and me that if we had to go to the bathroom to do it before we went in then don't ask to go again until before the 4th quarter LOL. It was cold, our team sucked, people were drunk and yelling obsenities...it was Nastyyy. But one thing was for sure- everybody there was a passionate fan.

My dad still has those season tix and my brothers and I still argue about which games we want once the parents have chosen theirs.

The fanbase definitely has increased since 01 and prices have gone up considerably, but that's not to say fans "were hard to find" before 01. Internet interaction has boomed even since 01. That's not a measure of fanbase; that's simply a measure of lifestyle.

 

[Leave No Doubt]

Who knew? ESPN, who BB's shunned and Pats fans loathe, ranks us at #8 BEST fanbase, while FoxSports, Jimmy Johnson's network, ranks us as 4th worst. Interesting.

Bingo Honestly I think this is a fanbase in flux right now, mainly due to prices and the sort of crowd the NFL as a whole is beginning to attract (intentionally).

But no fanbase has grown so exponentially as Red Sox Nation. Brilliant marketing, absolutely brilliant.

 

[neuronet]

I disagree with the article. Sure, there are bandwagon jumpers, but growing up in New England, everyone was a Patriots fan that I knew. It was agonizing (Squish the Fish year? AAAAGHH!), but hell we were Red Sox fans and could handle some disappointment.

Half the guys in my dorm at UNH would gather for the games on Sunday (this was the Bledsoe years). So, while the author may dis' the people out of the region for jumping on the bandwagon, his assessment of NE is bull.

 

[bigjunk1]

How about San Diego?

Super Bowl-caliber team, and they haven't even sold out their opening game yet. Better fan base than NE?

How true.
This is from today's Globe NFL Notes:

. . The Chargers were granted a 24-hour extension by the NFL to try to sell 600 remaining tickets and lift the local television blackout of their opener vs. the Panthers.