If your favorite team moved, would you still follow it?

[ctorg]

Please speak either from experience or theoretically.

I know this was recently a real issue for Montreal Expos fans, and I've certainly seen a good number of old Dodgers fans in New York. It's hard for me to tell how I would react if, say, the Mets up and left for a new town, especially if they weren't replaced.

[jaxmagicman]

I would like to think that I would continue to follow the team, but I am pretty sure I wouldn't know.

[Melo]

I'm too emotionally tied to the teams I root for to stop rooting for them. I suppose I might feel betrayed by a team that moves but, well, old habits die hard. It's not the same but this example illustrates how I feel. I remember when the Patriots were talking about moving to Hartford. Being a hardcore Jets fan and living with some major scars from past seasons, the thought gave me pause: here's a successful team with a legendary coach (Parcells at the time) possibly moving to the state I live in. I actually gave it serious thought for a few days but decided that I could never give up on the Jets and considered how I would miss out on a glorious moment if they ever won and I had given up on them.

Bottom line: my teams are my teams for life. I've invested a lot emotionally in them. It would take a lot to break those ties.

[ctorg]

Originally Posted by Melo

I'm too emotionally tied to the teams I root for to stop rooting for them. I suppose I might feel betrayed by a team that moves but, well, old habits die hard. It's not the same but this example illustrates how I feel. I remember when the Patriots were talking about moving to Hartford. Being a hardcore Jets fan and living with some major scars from past seasons, the thought gave me pause: here's a successful team with a legendary coach (Parcells at the time) possibly moving to the state I live in. I actually gave it serious thought for a few days but decided that I could never give up on the Jets and considered how I would miss out on a glorious moment if they ever won and I had given up on them.

Bottom line: my teams are my teams for life. I've invested a lot emotionally in them. It would take a lot to break those ties.

That's an interesting flipside sort of question: How do you react when you live in a place without an "official" team, but you've been following a specific team, and a new team moves in? Florida has had to deal with this in baseball. I know in Tampa, there are supposedly as many Yankee fans (or maybe more) as Devil Ray fans.

[Erik W.]

If the Broncos or Cardinals moved, I would still follow them, since I moved from the places they reside myself.

Now, if it were a purely regional interest, like my attention to the Blue Jays and NY Giants, then no. Similar to how I'm not a Nationals fan even though the Expos left after I moved here.

[reds1]

When the Jets left 10 years ago, I completely lost interest in the NHL. If a new NHL franchise were to come in, I would no doubt start following the sport again at the professional level.

[ctorg]

I think the most likely thing for me would be that I would continue following the same team until a replacement came. For instance, if I'd been around when the Dodgers left Brooklyn, I probably would have continued rooting for them until 1962, and then I would have switched to the Mets (which is what my father did).

[molarmite]

When the North Stars moved to Dallas, I still followed them a little bit. But if it was like the Twins, I think I could follow them forever even if a new team came into town.

[Goodsox]

Although the White Sox have brought me plenty of heartaches since I was a child, I would keep my allegiance to them no matter what. I have a sick obsession when it comes to that team thanks to my father I've actually given up good job opportunities out of the state of Illinois because I could not bear not being able to take my own kids to White Sox games. Man, I have a problem

[eriqjaffe]

Originally Posted by Goodsox

Although the White Sox have brought me plenty of heartaches since I was a child, I would keep my allegiance to them no matter what. I have a sick obsession when it comes to that team thanks to my father I've actually given up good job opportunities out of the state of Illinois because I could not bear not being able to take my own kids to White Sox games. Man, I have a problem

Hey, remember when the Sox almost moved to Tampa Bay?

Or Milwaukee?

Or Seattle?

Good times!

I think that now, in the age of streaming media, XM radio and MLB Extra Innings, it would be MUCH easier to continue to follow your favorite team should they relocate.

...the dynamic would be very different in a multi-team town...if the Sox were to move, I know a significant number of people who would stick with them more because they couldn't stand the alternative.

[CONN CHRIS]

It all depends; I would remain a Tigers fan regardless of where they were located. I have been a fan from afar since the age of six so geography has never been a factor.

When my hometown Whalers went south, I stopped caring about them and even lost interest in the NHL. I had been a fan since the early WHA days when I cheered for the Aberhamsen brothers and Cap Rader.

[Goodsox]

Originally Posted by eriqjaffe

Hey, remember when the Sox almost moved to Tampa Bay?

When the Sox almost moved to Florida, my father and I were really freaking out I can't imagine what would have happened in Chicago following that. I wonder if we would have eventually gotten the Expos or an expansion team down the road. Would have been interesting, but I am sure glad it did not happen.

[LivnLegend]

I've been a Raiders fans since I was 8 and I'd continue to be a Raiders fan no matter where they played their home games.

[Tribe Fan 24]

I am a Cleveland sports fan (insert "do they have professional sports in Cleveland" joke here.) I was absolutely CRUSHED when Modell moved the Browns to Baltimore. I know that the Baltimore fans were happy to have a team back after the Colts left and all, but I was VERY bitter. I would not even watch any NFL game for a few weeks. I definately was rooting AGAINST the Ravens because they are a different "new" franchise. I felt awful when Dilfer and the Ravens won the SB. It still to this day makes me very happy to see the Ravens lose any game.

I guess that the Browns are a tradition that my family has had since I was too little to know what football was. I still wish that they were better now. They have REALLY sucked since their return to Cleveland, but at least they are still in existance and not just packed up and gone.

I doubt that I would have felt differently if the Ravens were the Baltimore Browns. My family is from Cleveland and I just don't think that I could have stomached rooting for a Baltimore Browns team. It just isn't the same. Thank God the NFL was smart enough to keep the rich tradition and colors of the Browns in Cleveland and not transferred to Baltimore.

Kevin

[1998 Yankees]

I have often thought of this in reverse. If I moved to Guam, would I still follow the Yankees. Of course! Satellite dish on the roof before the furniture is delivered. But to answer the topic question, I think it depends on the amount of tradition and success over the years that the team has had. Expos moving to DC, well, I guess a few folks in Montreal cared. Yankees moving to St Petersburg to rival the Devil Rays in Steinbrenner's back yard? Yes, I would still follow them. It would be a long time before I accepted a replacement team in Yankee Stadium. Then it would depend on how good a job they did in picking up on the traditions and memories of the team that they replaced, as one poster talked about the new Cleveland Browns. After a while, would the new team seem like the old Yankees? They would if they had retained the old team name and colors, as opposed to the St Petersburg Sting Rays in aquamarine uniforms.

[GForce]

I don't think I'd stay with the team if they left. Been a Mets fan...a NEW YORK Mets fan all my life. If they left and moved to Idaho, they wouldn't be the New York Mets anymore. I'd still follow, probably, but me allegiance would be severely less.

GH

[drprestwood]

Originally Posted by molarmite

When the North Stars moved to Dallas, I still followed them a little bit. But if it was like the Twins, I think I could follow them forever even if a new team came into town.

"

I haven't cared at all about pro hockey post-North Stars.

[andymac]

Originally Posted by ctorg

That's an interesting flipside sort of question: How do you react when you live in a place without an "official" team, but you've been following a specific team, and a new team moves in? Florida has had to deal with this in baseball. I know in Tampa, there are supposedly as many Yankee fans (or maybe more) as Devil Ray fans.

I have actually been through this one. I am in central Illinois which is much closer to St. Louis than Chicago. For most of my childhood there wasn't an NFL team in St. Louis (where my rooting interests in the other sports are), so I was a Bears fan. When the Rams moved to St. Louis many people in my area became Rams fans but I couldn't make the switch.

[thehatfield]

It's not quite the same level but I stopped following the Trenton Titans when they switched affiliations from the Red Sox to the Yankees. I used to see a lot of AA baseball since we live about 20 minutes away but now I only go see them when the Portland Sea Dogs are in town.

I consider myself a very, very casual New Jersey Nets fan even though I haven't seem them live since Michael Jordan still played. If/when they move to Brooklyn I'll still do the minimum I do now... check out their results & stats every so often.

But if the Red Sox ever moved out of Boston? I don't know. I think I would be lost for quite a while before being able to watch them or any baseball at all.

[CONN CHRIS]

Originally Posted by molarmite

When the North Stars moved to Dallas, I still followed them a little bit. But if it was like the Twins, I think I could follow them forever even if a new team came into town.

I had hoped that they would call the new team the 'Lone Stars' so we could have had endless debates about whether or not the name was grammatically correct.