Switching allegiances?

[Jer15]

I've recently moved from Brampton, Ontario to Hamilton (Ontario). Mostly due to work but I won't lie, I have a few friends making this move so it was nice to move with them.

 

As you can probably guess, that means that I've grown up a fan of most Toronto sports teams (besides the Leafs..but that's another thing). 

Now that I'm no longer living in Toronto and more specifically, now that I'm living within walking distance to Tim Horton's Field. I'm finding myself wanting to learn more about the Ti-cats (CFL Football). I've always been an Argos fan so it feels weird almost like I'm considering switching allegiances but I just can't get myself to do so. 

 

I was wondering if anyone has experienced something like this in their sports fandom? How did it turn out? did you end up making the switch to the new hometown team? Curious to hear peoples stories.

[stumpygremlin]

I grew up in Miami, FL and spent the first 20 years of my life there rooting for the Miami teams. Before I moved, I closely followed the Dolphins and casually followed the other teams. When I did move, I held on to my Dolphins allegiance for a year or two. Then, I thought about it and realized that having hated living in Miami, why would I root for the teams? As a result, I decided to flip most of my allegiances to the Boston-area teams.

 

The only Miami team I still follow is FIU athletics, since I spent the first two years of my collegiate days there. I graduated from UMass Lowell. I follow both teams and root for both. Since UMass Lowell's jump to D-1, they haven't played against FIU in almost anything, so I haven't had to reconcile those allegiances. (They did play a softball game once, and I think that's all. No basketball, baseball, or soccer.)

 

It was weird at first. After a little bit, I got used to it. My favorite athlete is still Mike Lowell. He was born to Cuban parents, went to FIU, played for the Marlins, and then the Red Sox. I related to that life arc (Cuban parents-to-FIU-to-Boston), and of course I liked the way he played.

[tigerslionspistonshabs]

No, except when I was a kid, I didn't know any better so I rooted for teams that either had cool nicknames or nice uniforms. The NBA was Charlotte Hornets, NHL was Florida Panthers, NFL was the L.A. Raiders. Then I turned about 11 or 12 and actually started caring about sports, and my hometown allegiances kicked in. Not the same thing I know. 

[Jer15]

8 minutes ago, tigerslionspistonshabs said:

No, except when I was a kid, I didn't know any better so I rooted for teams that either had cool nicknames or nice uniforms. The NBA was Charlotte Hornets, NHL was Florida Panthers, NFL was the L.A. Raiders. Then I turned about 11 or 12 and actually started caring about sports, and my hometown allegiances kicked in. Not the same thing I know. 

Curious as to how you became a fan of the Habs instead of the Red Wings?

[Sec19Row53]

I was a lifelong Cubs fan - born and raised in Green Bay. Cubs games were carried on local over the air TV in the late 60s and early 70s.

 

Fast forward to 2010 - I'm sick of the Cubs not spending money on players and trumpeting the addition of a run-of-the-mill pitcher as a great deal. I took a year off of rooting for any one team, then became a fan of the Brewers.  It's been easy, especially living in the Brewers market.

 

Go for it!

[tigerslionspistonshabs]

41 minutes ago, mr.negative15 said:

Curious as to how you became a fan of the Habs instead of the Red Wings?

 

My dad passed his fandom down to me, which he got from his dad. 

 

My grandpa came over from England, originally settling in the London, ON area, and got into hockey. At the time, Rocket Richard and John Beliveau-era Habs ruled the NHL, so I guess that's why. Had he come right to Detroit, instead of 10 years later, I'm sure he'd have become a Wings fan, with Gordie and what not.

 

 

[OnWis97]

I tend to think it will come to you more than you'll tangibly make it happen.  Maybe living there you'll remain an Argos fan or maybe you'll get caught up in the local team.  I dunno.

 

I grew up in Minnesota and when I went to the University of Wisconsin, I became a Wisconsin fan for college sports...grew up a casual Gopher fan. It was pretty easy since I was finally in that college sports atmosphere and Badger sports is something I had in common with many people there. But I remained a fan of the Minnesota pro teams.  Of course, the Wisconsin pro teams do not play in Madison, so maybe if UW was located in Milwaukee, I'd have become a Brewers and Bucks fan...who knows.  Anyway, I don't think I planned any of this.  It's just how I felt.  

[Gothamite]

Fandom is an emotional thing, not logical.  Its like falling in love - the spark is there or it isn't.  You can't force it.

 

If you fall out of love with your long-distance childhood sweetheart, there's no shame in starting a relationship in your new town.  Sometimes it's okay to get a divorce and move on. 

[2001mark]

I quit the Buffalo Bills when I was kid because their city & fans were annoying.  Toronto US tv feed goes through Buffalo for us, local stuff.

I saw a lot of Canadian (Maritimers?) fans at Patriots games on tv, Bill Parcells was fun, signed up with the Patriots, & then they drafted video game QB Drew Bledsoe.  

That choice was easy.  The Bills lost another couple SBs, this time I didn't care.

[ChicagoOakland]

I completely understand what @Gothamite means by saying fandom is emotional, not logical.

 

If it were logical, I would have jumped ship from my lifetime of rooting for the Raiders the minute they said they were moving to Vegas. Granted, I'm not supporting them right now, and I'm trying like hell to become a fan of the team where I am now (the Carolina Panthers, who to be fair I actually do like) but hot damn is it hard to make that switch.

 

I've moved around a lot since I graduated high school (from Oakland to Chicago, Minnesota, and now North Carolina) but I've kept all of my hometown teams with me. I did pick up an Aussie Rules team (Hawthorn) when I studied abroad in Melbourne though, but that's another story.

[MDGP]

The only thing it's happened for me in is college college hockey. I grew up a devoted UMaine hockey fan and stayed that way through my first two years of undergrad. Then Penn State got a division 1 team. Initially I still considered myself a Maine fan and would root for a tie if they ever played each other. Eventually though, after attending games for four years, PSU Hockey has naturally eclipsed Maine. I still like and root for them, but they're not my favorite anymore. Like Gothamite said, it's just kind of natural.

 

Interestingly enough, my allegiance to Boston teams has actually strengthened since I've lived in PA, and I hate PA teams even more than I used to. 

[smzimbabwe]

I chose my favorite teams originally without having a "local" team to follow. When I later moved just north of Seattle, I kept my allegiances, and it took some time before I started paying attention to NW teams. They are now my #2 team in pretty much every sport, but I have kept my original fandoms and favorites.

[stumpygremlin]

8 hours ago, Lafarge said:

The only thing it's happened for me in is college college hockey. I grew up a devoted UMaine hockey fan and stayed that way through my first two years of undergrad. Then Penn State got a division 1 team. Initially I still considered myself a Maine fan and would root for a tie if they ever played each other. Eventually though, after attending games for four years, PSU Hockey has naturally eclipsed Maine. I still like and root for them, but they're not my favorite anymore. Like Gothamite said, it's just kind of natural.

 

Interestingly enough, my allegiance to Boston teams has actually strengthened since I've lived in PA, and I hate PA teams even more than I used to. 

I'm sure it doesn't hurt that PSU hockey has suddenly turned into a good team, while UMaine has sort of languished in mid-pack or worse the last few years.

[Jer15]

14 hours ago, Gothamite said:

Fandom is an emotional thing, not logical.  Its like falling in love - the spark is there or it isn't.  You can't force it.

 

If you fall out of love with your long-distance childhood sweetheart, there's no shame in starting a relationship in your new town.  Sometimes it's okay to get a divorce and move on. 

This is so true. 

I know it wasn't meant to be funny (and it was actually a very good comparison) but the divorce comparison made me laugh  

[kroywen]

I'm not much of an NBA fan, but I was for a couple of years when I was a kid, at the peak of Jordan's run with the Bulls. As you can imagine, as a 7-8 year old kid who was pretty much interested in the NBA solely because of Jordan and the Bulls, they became my favorite team. Years later, long after I had mostly lost interest in the NBA (and with the Bulls teams of my youth being a distant memory), I found myself rooting for the Knicks (as my hometown team) on rare occasions that I'd watch the NBA. At this point, I'd say I'm a Knicks fan, though not passionately (that's more a reflection of my lack of interest in the NBA than anything else, though).

 

It's not quite allegiance switching, but growing up as a Jets fan, I used to hate the Giants. It made sense at the time - the Jets were seen as the little brother in NYC (still are, granted), I was surrounded by plenty of Giants fans in school who ridiculed the Jets at every turn, and the Jets literally played in a stadium named for the Giants. It's no wonder that every Jets fan I knew loathed the Giants back then.

 

Then Super Bowl XLII happened, and it was perfect timing to evaporate whatever antipathy I had toward the Giants. I was in college and long past the old "Giants vs. Jets" schoolyard debates, the Jets and Giants were about to move into a 50/50 joint venture at MetLife Stadium, and the Giants had done what we could never do - they vanquished our long-hated rivals, the Patriots, in incredible fashion. And then a few years later, they did it again. So at this point, I'm obviously still a Jets fan first and foremost, but the Giants are honestly my "NFC team" - if the Jets aren't involved, I'll root for the Giants. That might be sacrilege to some Jets fans, but I honestly don't care.

 

But that's put me in a strange situation. I have a true love-hate relationship with the Jets - definitely more hate than love - while there's another team in the same city (the same stadium, even!) that I honestly, truly like and respect. I hate the entire culture and ethos surrounding the Jets, and the hapless, bumbling way in which the team and its management conduct themselves. They're the opposite of "lovable losers" - they're loathsome losers, frustrating and painful to watch (granted, not quite sure "lovable losers" really exist in football). I've gone from frustration to antipathy to near apathy regarding the Jets organization. And while the Giants aren't a perfect 'model' organization, they're fun to watch, and I actually have respect for their organization, neither of which I can say for my Jets.

 

I haven't switched allegiances from the Jets to the Giants, and certainly never intend to, but I have to confess - if I could do it all over again, I wouldn't have picked the Jets over the Giants at such a young age. But I did, and whether out of a sense of loyalty, avoiding being seen as a frontrunner, or some misplaced hope for future Jets success, I've stuck with the Jets. Though as you can tell, my passion as a Jets fan has been a bit beat down and diminished over the years.

[OnWis97]

10 hours ago, Lafarge said:

The only thing it's happened for me in is college college hockey. I grew up a devoted UMaine hockey fan and stayed that way through my first two years of undergrad. Then Penn State got a division 1 team. Initially I still considered myself a Maine fan and would root for a tie if they ever played each other. Eventually though, after attending games for four years, PSU Hockey has naturally eclipsed Maine. I still like and root for them, but they're not my favorite anymore. Like Gothamite said, it's just kind of natural.

 

Interestingly enough, my allegiance to Boston teams has actually strengthened since I've lived in PA, and I hate PA teams even more than I used to. 

That's happened to me, too.  My Wisconsin ties have me hating the Packers more than I probably otherwise would.

 

And while going to school at Wisconsin made me a Badger fan, I was actually happy to see Minnesota make the 1997 Final Four and break the college hockey National Title drought in the early 2000s...it was only when I moved back to Minnesota that I started to actually hate the Gophers...I guess it's being surrounded by their fans.

[Gothamite]

 

26 minutes ago, mr.negative15 said:

This is so true. 

I know it wasn't meant to be funny (and it was actually a very good comparison) but the divorce comparison made me laugh  

 

Well, it was meant to be a little funny.   

[BeerGuyJordan]

The only time I ever changed teams, was in college. I'd been a Yankees fan for years. When I moved in with my girlfriend (a diehard BoSox fan), we agreed to follow the D-Backs, together. Baseball was literally the only thing we ever fought about. The fandom stuck, for both of us, even after the relationship ended. I'm not all that into baseball, these days, but I'm still an Arizona fan.

[osctheg]

My NBA fandom is all over the place. I will always be a Sonics fan but other than that I have been a fan of the Cavs, Heat, Thunder, Warriors, and Rockets. Hoping for an expansion to Seattle so I can finally have one favorite team

[PrimalCookie]

The only leagues that I've switched allegiances was in the NFL and MLB. So, I was a huge Oilers fan, but when they left, I picked up the Bucs. Didn't stick. Went to Dolphins. Stuck. I was a Dolphins fan for a couple years while I watched, hopelessly, as the Bucs won the SB and looked at what would've been the only championship of my major league teams to date in vain. When the Texans were announced, I took a year of transition (watched both Miami and Houston), and then made the full switch in 2003. I still follow the Dolphins to an extent, but not nearly as much as I did. 

Also, I was originally a Reds fan due to my dad's allegiance. Then, when the Marlins happened, I went to them. When the Rays happened, I went to them (2 years before the Marlins won the WS. So I have 2 changes where the team would go on to win the title only a couple years later. My luck).