A buddy and I are in a debate about home teams. He stands by it that one's allegiance should ultimately be to their home team because sports are about the sense of community and belonging that they bring. He says that the emotional connection one has with their home team will always be greater than a team far away because it's a part of your roots and it's all around you. I completely disagree with this because I actively dislike some of my home teams and support teams half way across the country. I think my home teams are extremely annoying (especially when they're winning) and they have the most aggravating fans. How do yall feel about this?
What if you hate your city?
My father deeply regrets settling in Toronto but has just enough connections there that it would be impractical to leave. He is a Canadiens fan out of pure spite.
Why does he hate Toronto? Rent prices pushing $1500 a month for single rooms? The circus that is local politics? The public transit thats needed expansion for like 40 years?
All of the above. His complaints about traffic are actually complaints about transit, he just doesn't realize it.
I'm sorry for your father, both for settling in a city he hates and for being a Habs fan
If teams actually were made up of locals then the argument would have weight
His argument is more "when you go out to a bar to watch the game you want to be rooting for the same team as everybody else and sharing in a sense of community joy/loss based on your team's success"
Definitely have to go home team or family team. I find it weird when people like a team from a city/area they have no connection to. Even worse is people who switch teams depending on the players
But sports is just a game
Since its just a game, it's weird for me to be so invested in it that you decide you're a fan of a team halfway across the country instead of the one in your community
edit: but also on that note, caring about any of this is also weird
I just don't see why anyone would like a team from somewhere halfway across the country
What if you move? Do you keep the old team that's now across the country or do you get to pick a new one closer to your new home? I don't follow sports at all and all my family lives where I grew up and continues to support their same local teams so I have no frame of reference here
It's wild to see that mentality at a university which has one of the worst if not the worst NCAA teams in the entire league. If there's any kind of game, it's lost before it starts and usually a humiliating one. They destroyed our main greenhouse to build a massive stadium for them, at an agriculture college where plant breeding is the main academic revenue, and pay student workers minimum wage while subtracting 15% for grad school fees. All to fund this stupid goddamn gladiator sport where they don't pay the players and the players can't catch a ball to save their life.
Almost every day the team and its cheerleading squad are doing something on campus. Trying to host little celebrity meet-and-greet days with the players, trying to do school spirit things, hyping up the games that are going to happen that night. Some people reactively hop on board and treat them like they're the New England Patriots despite knowing full well that there is no hope of them even getting like half the points of the other team. Our alumni tailgaters go all out in their flagfucking and try to treat it with the same tribalism as actual teams, but they do so for one which will never grant them anything other than shame.
Every time I see the A&M logo I see "ass to mouth"
I'll turn myself in :volcel-judge:
Yup, and you get maybe one switch per lifetime, otherwise you're just a bandwagoner.
If your team sucks, you figure out a way to have fun with it, you follow less, or you watch other teams without stooping so low as to claim they're now yours.
Disclaimer: I know nothing about the sportsball, I'm the sports equivalent of someone who goes to church on Christmas and easter. That being said, it is fun when your city's team makes the playoffs or gets a serious chance at the cup, if only because of the temporary sense of community.
Team sports are introduced to middle schoolers to turn them into nationalists. You have nothing in common with the other people who are on your side except for the cosmic accident of the location of your birth. Most of the players are inevitably going to be from elsewhere and they will inevitably return to elsewhere when they get traded.
Root for whoever you like, it's all arbitrary and ephemeral.
All sports fandom is kayfabe, like who you like and root for them so you can get drunk with people "arguing" about which team is best.
Yeah if its baseball or American football, occasionally your 'home team' will just up and fuck off to Las Vegas. And often the 'local' team will be from the next state over anyway. Better to go off of which colors are best. But its fun to support a national team in the World Cup, for example
He also holds the belief that every community should have a team in one sport or another, and that a team should be a uniting part of the community. It's not so much about the franchise as it is the fact that there's a team to support, but the franchise is ideal.
Absolute bull. I support teams far away from where I live too. Their “home” team is usually the one people support but it’s not a fucking law.
An addendum: The reason I support my team is because it's the first game I went to and the game that introduced me to the sport was a come back victory against their main rival to end a long losing streak. It's the Pittsburgh Penguins so they're still bad but I love them.
Also, what about sports that aren't popular in your home country? Bolivian hockey fans don't have a home team to root for.
I agree with your friend. Aside from the reasons you already listed, it helps from the local sports as small talk angle too
Support the team or teams you like. It's just a game after all and it's about having a good time.
With that being said, although I'm not a sports guy I kind of understand why you would want to support your home team. First and foremost it's going to identify with the place you feel a connection to, if you live in {{city}} then you'll already have something in common with FC {{city}} that you don't have with the other teams. You're also more likely to see their fans and merchandise in your daily life and going to see their matches is a lot easier than with other teams as half of them will be at your local stadium.
A big part of supporting a team is the community around it. It feels good to be part of a group of fans who all support the same team. That is a lot easier to find if you support the local team. The same thing is true for national teams, the sense of having something in common with the people around feels really good, even if it's just a silly game.
This is just the nationalism argument applied to a smaller scale, and my opinion in both cases is the same: I support the team that's better. I refuse to entertain the idea that something as arbitrary as the location of my birth should compel me to support a bunch of assholes or oppose a bunch of swell dudes. Besides, many people do not share your friend's connection with their local communities, often for good reason.
