Question for NY/NJ based hockey/baseball fans. I've always assumed that generally someone that cheers for the Rangers would be more likely to be a fan of the Yankees, and someone that cheers for the Islanders is more likely to cheer for the Mets. Is that generally true are rooting interests more sporadic across sports?
I've always been fascinated by how fans choose teams to root for, particularly when there are 2-3 teams in a small area. Being from a city where rooting interests are on a regional level outside of college sports, many of these decisions are made for you.
It's true that historically it's been Yankees/Giants/Knicks/Rangers for a bunch of people, and Mets/Jets/Nets/Islanders for others circa the 60s-80s, but as others have said here times have changed.
Speaking as a lifelong north Jerseyan I think around me baseball interests revolve around whichever team is doing better at the time, and there's no denying the Yankees have had protracted success since the 90s. I'm a Mets fan, though; my family, both sides, have been National League fans since arriving in this area in the early 1900s, so that's what I was basically born into it.
Football's weird, though, ever since the Giants and Jets both wound up in East Rutherford and, importantly, all differences between the NFC and AFC got ironed away. At this stage, what does it matter which team you pull for? They play and train in the same general area, there's no real distinguishing identity differences between them, etc. I mostly cheer the Giants, but I'm perfectly happy cheering the Jets, too, but I'm mostly a casual football fan.
Hockey is what we all figure it is: being in or east of the city makes you more likely to be an Isles fan, the Rangers have their presence in Jersey, but the Devils obviously have their strongholds. I'm one of the many millenials who was around ages 8-12 during the '94 Eastern Conference finals and thus had a choice which team I'd rally behind, but end of the day I had a combo feeling of "hey, I'm FROM New Jersey, why wouldn't I cheer the Devils?" and "Hey, the Devils are winning the Cup, that's awesome!" to rope me in.
As for basketball...Jesus, why even broach that agony? The Nets bolted for Brooklyn and just consistently disappoint, and the Knicks are one of the worst organizations in all of pro sports. I'm personally waiting for Shaq to succeed in bringing another team to Newark before I get back into really caring too much about the NBA.
