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Bandwagon fans: What's the deal? Why attach yourself to a good team only when they become good. Doesn't that take half the entertainment value out of the sport? Honestly though, why do people feel the need to jump on the bandwagon of a sports team?
I'm a born and raised New Orleans local Saints fan, and the bandwagon folks I run into nowadays just don't know the pain Saints fans have endured through life. This bothers me. Should it?
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YesOriginally Posted by LATechBanjo
So y'all will have a grudge against the other 10-15K that show up to fill JAS in a few years?
Just enjoy the success guys. You don't own the rights to happiness just because you chose to be gluttons for punishment for most of the last 40+ years.
Franchise was born on Nov 1, 1966...that's All Saints Day for all you heathens out there, and thus the nickname for the team. Started playing in the fall of '67. Very first game vs. the Rams, Herb Gilliam returned the opening kickoff for a TD! Lost that game 36-17.
Nov 8, 1970 vs. the Lions, Dempsey kicks record 63-yd FG for a 19-17 win. Saints finished 2-12 that year. But, hey! there was that magic moment.
In 40+ seasons, Saints have only 8 winning seasons and have won only two playoff games. Funny thing, the Saints had been tied with the Cardinals prior to last year, but now the Cards have 5 wins.
The team's training camp was about a mile from my neighborhood, so as kids, we would ride our bikes to watch the practices and get autographs and all kinds of equipment! Some of it, given to us....ahem.
I have been a Saints fan for as long as there has been the Saints. Held season tix for a loooooong time. Never missed a home game for about a dozen years or so. Then, would catch about half of the games after I had moved away from N.O. but my parents kept our family's season tix year after year.
Gluttons for punishment? Nope. Just a fan. You are either a fan, or you're not. And that's true of any sports' team any of us supports.
I remember watching Archie getting killed every play. Back in those days, there was little assistance given to a new franchise. You struggled with one high draft choice and cast-offs from other teams for lots of years before finally getting enough good players to compete.
Good old Memorial Gym
Yes, but you must come to the realization that I did...... It is inevitable, it has been happening for the past 50 years and it will continue for the next 100. I know the bitterness you are talking about toward them, but dont let it ruin this opportunity to enjoy having a great team. In other words......SCREW EM!
Five years of #1 draft picks should have been enough to make them contenders. It took them what, 20+ years to make the playoffs? Their problem was ownership and management. If I were like some other folks I'd also say there was some bad karma down there too.:icon_wink:
I have always had the opinion that bandwagon fans in college really tick me off b/c most of the time they have no affiliation to the school but like them b/c they are good. These people have a chance to be apart of the school but don't for whatever reason.
Professional really doesn't make me that mad. I have been a fan of the Saints since I was kid (early 90's). But why should a person be a good fan of the Saints when they have been terrible since there inception. I love the Saints and always will but pro bandwagon fan has a little more lieniency with me.
I'll take all the fans we can get, at TECH and the Saints. And I'll love them all the same. But IMHO, that doesn't change their make-up/title/character of being a bandwagon fan. As an example I'm not an LSPOO fan , and in fact very much dislike the place and it's nasty vular fan base (at least 50% of the folks I bet). But where were all of those purple and pi$$ shirts and flags during LSPOO's crappy and sucky years in the 80's and 90's? They were rooting for and wearing whatever teams colors that were winning at the time (example... tons of Univ. of Miami stuff floating around and others) and giving LSU bad lip service for years. Now everyone, says they were "fans of them" all along. No.... I dislike bandwagons fans big time. We all have had friends and friendships like this as well if you get my drift. Yes, I'll take them when I can for Tech and the Saints. But I sure know that they will turn on you and a program in a heartbeat and can become your worst enemy via word of mouth etc....(bandwagon friends as well). Just never depend on them when the chips are down and the cards look like crap.
Last edited by TYLERTECHSAS; 11-04-2009 at 10:11 AM.
A vast majority of sports fans in this country are bandwaggoners or "casual" fans...yes, even at places like LSU, UGA, and USC. Even amongst the die-hard fans of those schools, a large number have no real connection with the school beyond proximity and/or that school or team being shown in their area.
I don't know if it's good, bad, ugly, or otherwise, but it is reality. That means that our task as a team trying to increase its fan base is very simple...win. The more we win, the more press we get in Shreveport and Monroe. The more press we get in Shreveport and Monroe, the more butts will be in stands.
Memo to Derek Dooley: fill the rest of the 2010 schedule with homegames against teams we should beat. Repeat for 2011 and 2012. After a while, all that winning will have the fan base built and the national media giving us the typical winning non-AQ team respect.
Time is your friend. Impulse is your enemy. -John Bogle
Intersting that you would mention USC. They probably define band wagon fans. It wasn't too long ago when their stadium had just a smattering of fans attending. lsu is bad too, but even in the hard times they had a pretty solid base of season ticket holders. Still lsu is no Texas, Tenn., or South Carolina when it comes to a solid fan base. I can't comment on Georgia, but I don't recall them ever struggling to sell tickets.
Exactly!
There's wiggle room when you've been winning for a while. Bandwaggons aren't born instantly and they don't die instantly either. Georgia is as bad as they've been in a little while, but I still go to church with droves of folks who don't miss a game. They still dominate local sports shows and they are still the headliner on the news (even thought GATech is a better team). This is why it is so important to win and win now. This third year slump hurts alot more than it would if it were a sixth year slump.
Time is your friend. Impulse is your enemy. -John Bogle
The Superdome is built over an old grave yard...
''Don't be a bad dagh..."
It takes both. If every team depended on the die-hard fans to fill the stadium I am not sure there would be any packed houses on a Saturday or Sunday. Besides, after a while, some of the fair-weathers may turn into die hards. Just give them time.
And no, I wouldn't be offended by it. Life it to short and there is too much other crap to worry about than the quality of an individuals team support.
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