NFL '13 SEASON THREAD

[NEW.ERA]

Oakland 32? Green Bay 14? That might be the dumbest study ever taken.

[Kramerica Industries]

They're probably dead-on about the Bucs, but I agree in general, that kind of study is going to be dominated by the wealthiest teams. Dallas has never been anywhere near one of the best fanbases in football.

[FiddySicks]

They're probably dead-on about the Bucs, but I agree in general, that kind of study is going to be dominated by the wealthiest teams. Dallas has never been anywhere near one of the best fanbases in football.

It's amazing to me just how far the Bucs have fallen. I remember a time when they had one of the longest waiting lists for season tickets in the NFL.

[Kramerica Industries]

Yeah, well, once upon a time, the Bucs had outspoken superstars like Warren Sapp and Keyshawn Johnson, in addition to having, like, half a roster made up of Florida or Florida State alumni. They were also a really, really good team with a stellar defense.

Super Bowl XXXVII? That's the last time the Bucs won a playoff game. They've only PLAYED two playoffs games in the ten seasons that have followed since then.

[HedleyLamarr]

Well, I've said for years that the fan support for the Falcons here in Metro Atlanta was iffy at best. Now it's been quantified.

Emory: Falcons fan base second worst in the NFL

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Instead of just analyzing attendance, revenue and profitability, Emory looked at team box office revenues relative to team on-field success, market population, stadium capacity, median income and other factors.

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Saints? #4.

The study's webpage with rankings for all NFL teams is here.

BTW, Emory University is right here in Atlanta.

And not to pile on, but when I went to Falcons camp last week I was surprised by Steven Jackson. He looked...lethargic. That's the best word I can think of. Maybe he's just not accustomed to the heat, which is brutal what with the humidity. But he looked pretty ordinary on the few carries he had against the Bengals too. Guess we'll see what he's got left when the regular season tees up*.

* And of course since they play the Saints week 1 he'll probably hang about 225 on them.

The Falcons have sold out all their home games for nearly a decade, if not longer. Kinda hard to add seats inside a domed facility. Kind of a weak assessment, considering San Diego's #11 on this list, and they've been having trouble selling out games for years.

Yeah, the city will always have that fairweather mentality to outsiders, but the city has proven numerous times that the fans will show up when the team and ownership show they're trying to win.

[infrared41]

Falcons - Saints: The little rivalry that...wishes someone gave a flying about it.

[AnythingChicago]

Three turnovers plus one near turnover for San Diego already tonight (the first half isn't even near finished.) This is going to be a long season for the Chargers, especially considering Kansas City and Oakland both improved, meaning that the Chargers can't salvage the consolation prize that is second place AFC West out of a 7-9 season (and I'm doubting they'll even be 7-9.)

[AnythingChicago]

Make that four turnovers with 4:55 still to play in the first half. I know the Bears are the kings of forcing turnovers, and that this is preseason, but four in the first half? Additionally, two or three of their turnovers weren't even forced by the Bears, but rather coughed up fatuously.

[dbadefense1990]

Oakland 32? Green Bay 14? That might be the dumbest study ever taken.

Every story ever told about violent Raider fans should have propelled Oakland to, at least, the top half of teams.

Also, the Chargers ahead of the Packers, Eagles and Vikings? Seriously?

And I'm laughing at how "high" Miami is ranked. Ahead of San Francisco? Detroit? These are cities whose NFL teams pre-date the Super Bowl, and the Dolphins are ahead of them? They're not even the top team in Miami; the Heat are and even they have notorious, fan-support issues.

I'm done with this bogus "study."

[rams80]

Well, I've said for years that the fan support for the Falcons here in Metro Atlanta was iffy at best. Now it's been quantified.

Emory: Falcons fan base second worst in the NFL

===

Instead of just analyzing attendance, revenue and profitability, Emory looked at team box office revenues relative to team on-field success, market population, stadium capacity, median income and other factors.

===

Saints? #4.

The study's webpage with rankings for all NFL teams is here.

BTW, Emory University is right here in Atlanta.

And not to pile on, but when I went to Falcons camp last week I was surprised by Steven Jackson. He looked...lethargic. That's the best word I can think of. Maybe he's just not accustomed to the heat, which is brutal what with the humidity. But he looked pretty ordinary on the few carries he had against the Bengals too. Guess we'll see what he's got left when the regular season tees up*.

* And of course since they play the Saints week 1 he'll probably hang about 225 on them.

It's not the heat and humidity. Rams Park is just as bad. I'd wager it has more to do with the Rams riding him like a donkey for his entire career.

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Edit

St. Louis 22

Seattle 23

San Francisco 26

Arizona 30

[Cosmic]

The BIlls were 24. Part of me is just happy they weren't bottom 3, but if you're really trying to balance team revenue vs. on-field success, the Bills at least deserve a top half spot for having anybody show up. Haven't made the playoffs since the Home Run Throwback game. Haven't won a playoff game since 1995. Two .500 or better seasons this millennium.

[BlueSky]

Love all the emotional responses. Yeah, I'm sure a bunch of guys on a uniform board are way more capable of collecting and analyzing relevant data and ranking the teams based on the results and criteria (did anybody even look at the methodology before spouting off?) than professors at a business school.

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A ranking based on attendance would be skewed toward teams that play in more populated metropolitan areas, and a ranking based on profitability or revenues would be biased in favor of teams that are currently enjoying more on-field success.

In our series of fan base analyses across leagues, we adjust for these complicating factors using a revenue premium model of fan equity. The key idea is that we look at team box office revenues relative to team on-field success, market population, stadium capacity, median income and other factors. The first step in our procedure involves the creation of a statistical model that predicts box office revenue as a function of the aforementioned variables. We then compare actual revenues to the revenues predicted by the model. Teams with relatively stronger fan support will have revenues that exceed the predicted values, and teams that under perform have relatively less supportive fan bases.

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I'm not saying the study is perfect but there's some basis to the findings. They didn't just pull team names out of a hat.

@ Hedley, you're either completely out of touch with what goes on at Falcons games or being deliberately misleading. They may sell all the tickets but not all end up with Falcons fans. This is from after the Saints' 2009 win in the "sold out" Georgia Dome:

Unusually high turnouts by road fans are routine at the Georgia Dome though in fairness, it's at least gotten better with the team's recent success. But would that ever happen after a Bears' win at Lambeau? Ravens' win at Heinz? Redskins' win at Jerryworld? Just sayin'.

@ Infrared, you doing okay, man? You're not usually that snarky. Needin' a hug or something?

[HedleyLamarr]

Yeah, a video from four years ago is a true reflection of how the fan population of Falcons games has been for the 2012 season.

As long as a study trashes the Falcons, it's completely 100% true and honest, right? Explain how the Chargers (again, a team that's had and still having trouble selling out games) have a 'better' fan base than the Packers. That's Exhibit A on how this study is garbage. Green Bay's selling out their games with a smaller population (and most likely, a lower median income), yet supposedly has worse fans than the Chargers.

Unless you're the Nashville Predators, teams don't control who they're selling tickets to....and that includes the Falcons. Teams with (using your words) "iffy, at best" fan bases don't routinely sell out games.

[HedleyLamarr]

By the way, all these Katrina refugees Saints fans now call Atlanta home, and they sell off their Greyhound tickets and food stamps to be able to go to the annual Saints-Falcons game here.

Thanks Katrina!

[CS85]

By the way, all these Katrina refugees Saints fans now call Atlanta home, and they sell off their Greyhound tickets and food stamps to be able to go to the annual Saints-Falcons game here.

Thanks Katrina!

[BlueSky]

Hey guys, I'm not saying there aren't some counter-intuitive rankings in the list or that it's 100% accurate but again, it seems most of you are going by what you see in the stadium while the researchers considered a wide range of factors.

@ Hedley...well, nothing I can say will make your true colors any more apparent than that post. As counterpoints, you're the one who said the Falcons have sold out the dome for the last decade so yeah, a video from 4 years ago is relevant. And I've told the story before of my first Saints game here in 2001 when I was astonished to hear the Falcons being booed during introductions in their own stadium. That right there told me all I need to know about Atlanta fandom. Another surprise was when tickets were readily available on the day of a Braves game.

In the NLCS.

And look, sure, I hate the Falcons and downtown Atlanta doesn't do much for me either. But the surrounding area is beautiful (I'm in Cherokee Co.) and has so much going for it that I really enjoy living here. But the fan thing is what it is. Just callin' it like I see it.

With that, I'm done with this. I apologize because I didn't intend for this to turn into what it did and I should have known better.

[The_Admiral]

Any study that has Bears fans ahead of Packers fans is a bunch of hooey. Bears fans like the idea of liking the Bears more than they like the Bears.

[OnWis97]

Any study that has Bears fans ahead of Packers fans is a bunch of hooey. Bears fans like the idea of liking the Bears more than they like the Bears.

It's all very unimportant anyway.

(But yeah...the Packers 4 ahead of the Vikings? By my count, they should be 31 ahead of the Vikings)

[Kramerica Industries]

You're a bit of a Vikings masochist, aren't you?

I've never known Minnesota sports fans, in general, to be the non-supportive types. In addition, the Vikings are a team that has been around for over 50 years and has some nice lore associated with their brand. Their only historical problem is that they were really really good at the wrong time.

I'm a bit jaded myself, but with the way I know Floridian fan bases with professional teams, I would probably have the Jags, Bucs, and Dolphins all towards the very bottom of this kind of ranking. San Diego wouldn''t be far behind.

[NEW.ERA]

Using attendance figures I agree is really misleading. Not every team can have a 100,000 seat stadium, average pricing of an NFL ticket is just straight up bonkers. The Packers are always thought of Number 1 or in the vicinity, because of their years of history, the season ticket wait, the fact the fans 'own' the team, and that the only reason people around the world know about Green Bay is because of the Packers, Cowboys simple, NFL Films title after they won the Super Bowl, and the media just ran with it, Steelers are also always considered the best fan base, the terrible towel, the six super bowls, that stereotypical fact that a city built on the Steel industry, should have a hard working, non flashy team.

Today, when you see fitted hats in Baseball, even if these kids could give two about baseball, it's those Yankee, Dodger, Sawks off colour fashion hats you see, because they see that in music videos, with NFL it was the Raiders in the late 80's - early 90's because of N.W.A. and gangster rap. With the NHL and MLB it's a regional thing, NFL it just seems like 'oh I'm a Cowboy fan living in Moscow, Idaho' the NFL has fans of all it's teams, all around the States. It's really hard to gauge who's got the best fans, because when all the stadiums are filled near to capacity, obviously the franchises regional fan base does care about their teams, just because ESPN and the media don't care about them, doesn't mean they have bad fans.

I will say Florida's teams and San Diego have probably the "worse fans" not all of you. Because who wants to watch Baseball or Football or any sport (minus the Heat) when you have 365 days of heat, sun and water around you. Rather do that!