News Article: Bandwagon Fans???

[taz346]

No such thing as a bandwagon fan. Fans are fans. Every fan has the right to enjoy this sport and their favorite team in any way they wish, to whatever depth they wish. No one has the right to judge them.

It's amazing to see the snobbish behavior of so many fans (not necessarily here) who thumb their noses at fans who know less about the game than they do and then go on the denigrate or berate them for being a "bandwagoner." Yes, this happens. Talk about stupid and shortsighted.

Hockey is still a niche sport in the United States. For fans here to belittle other fans is stupid. Why make other fans feel unwelcome? Many of them are likely to be newer fans who are just getting into the game. Scaring them off because they aren't "true" fans (as if any of us had the right to judge) is just plain dumb.

Bravo,
It's a real shame that more people don't feel the same as you.
Mark Twain said something that fits here at this time. "We welcome your opinion, as long as it agrees with ours." This also applies to some other sites for teams. Personal attacks at people because someone doesn't agree.

 

[ClassLessCoyote]

Wouldn't every team want a ton of bandwagoners?

Yes and no. Yes, because they're times when bandwagon fans do become hardcore fans of the team and a fan of the game though not every single bandwagon fan becomes a hardcore fan of the team or the sport.

No because, see my response to FrozenRoyalty.

The whiners complaining about bandwagoners are just jealous that their team doesn't have people hopping on the so called bandwagon.

Not exactly.

No such thing as a bandwagon fan. Fans are fans. Every fan has the right to enjoy this sport and their favorite team in any way they wish, to whatever depth they wish. No one has the right to judge them.

What you have here sounds great in theory but in reality isn't going to be.

When it comes to those things said and done by those in a fanbase that makes the fanbase itself and everything associated with that same fanbase look bad, usually it comes more from those who are a bandwagon/fairweather fan than those are a hardcore fan. The truth is most of the bad apples are not hardcore fans to begin with.

All it takes is a little bit of success either from the team or from a business standpoint(i.e. attendance spike/start of a sellout streak) in order to get to the best of others but this happens more among the non-hardcore fans. Win a championship(especially for the 1st ever time), those same fans start thinking the team is the New York Yankees or Manchester United. Get a sellout streak going and those same fans start to think that the market for hockey is just like the market of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Here are some of the things done by these individuals who have let a little bit of success get to the best of him or her and at times these same things are done in a blind fashion.

1. Throwing stones from a glasshouse.

2. Mocking the very unfortunate situation of another franchise beyond the play of the team(i.e. bankruptcy, threat of relocation) they don't understand in a very highly sophisticated detail.

3. Become what they loathe from other fans. For example, those same fans who don't like it when someone(usually a relocationist) in an unprovoked manner wishes for him or her and the rest of the fans in the fanbase to lose their team actually in an unprovoked manner wish for other fanbases to lose their team.

4. Go around shooting their mouths off like their an expert of the teams history and the game when in reality they're not, especially towards those who are an expert of the team history and the game.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Nuked posts that were exactly what I was concerned about.

Last chance to keep thread open.

 

[Buddy The Elf]

Dissecting a fan base: What type of fan are you? Die hard? Fair weather? Bandwagon? Did you become a fan after the Kings first Stanley Cup and proceed to mock the Cryotes financial woes? Are you a relocationist? Pretending to be a Kings history expert on the heels of their first Cup win?

 

[Ron*]

No Kill I

Nuked posts that were exactly what I was concerned about.

Last chance to keep thread open.

 

[Ron*]

Dissecting a fan base: What type of fan are you? Die hard? Fair weather? Bandwagon? Did you become a fan after the Kings first Stanley Cup and proceed to mock the Cryotes financial woes? Are you a relocationist? Pretending to be a Kings history expert on the heels of their first Cup win?

As far as "being an expert on Kings history" I can't claim it at all. I find that I am forgetting a lot about the past, even though I lived through most every moment of it, i.e., listening to the games on the radio as a kid and as a teenager, and of course watching the games on TV as the sport became more popular in the '80s and they started telecasting home games as well as road games.

Just getting forgetful.

 

[Brodeur]

In order, here is the full class population of bandwagon fans:

1. Bandwagon since 1967. (Inception)
2. Bandwagon since 1975. (Best regular season ever)
3. Bandwagon since 1976. (Boston series)
4. Bandwagon since 1982. (Miracle on Manchester)
5. Bandwagon since 1988. (Gretzky)
6. Bandwagon since 1993. (First Stanley Cup appearance)
7. Bandwagon since 2001. (Detroit series)
8. Bandwagon since 2010. (First playoff appearance in eight seasons)
9. Bandwagon since 2012. (First Stanley Cup championship)
10. Bandwagon since 2014. (Second Stanley Cup championship)

I'm class 5 with a bit of class 6 since that bumped hockey above the other sports for me. I always wondered how much of hockey being my favorite sport today was coupled with the baseball strike in 1994 combined with the Rams/Raiders leaving in 1995 combined with the Lakers hitting that mediocre stretch post-Showtime / pre-Shaq.

 

[Reclamation Project]

Dissecting a fan base: What type of fan are you? Die hard? Fair weather? Bandwagon? Did you become a fan after the Kings first Stanley Cup and proceed to mock the Cryotes financial woes? Are you a relocationist? Pretending to be a Kings history expert on the heels of their first Cup win?