Being a Lakers fan I have been accused of being a fair weather fan. This used to bother me and I would spout off stats and history of times in the Lakers history that they were not a great team. This never worked, people just could never accept my Lakers fandom. I eventually got used to this sports bigotry and have since come to enjoy this term. Here is why?
The big team in the NBA this year that will get all the "true" bandwagon fans will be the Miami Heat. Some people are appalled by this as seemingly die-hard fans abandon their teams for a newer hotter team (sounds like a sports soap-opera, we just need someone to come back from dead). The only issue with being a real "bandwagon" fan is that there is no down side. The Heat and the Lakers will both win. Isn't this the best part of being a fan, being a fan when your team wins. Now lets look a little at why the teams with fans that are often called bandwagon fans win most often.
First of all, these teams are in large cities with multiple sports franchises. They almost always have great weather year round and are in urban areas with a roaring night-life. It is this competition that makes these teams winners. If you are the owner of one of these franchises and hope to make money, you have to put a winner on the court or field. If you don't, people will jump onto whichever team is winning in that city and ignore yours. When teams get ignored, the owners don't make as much money. Don't get me wrong they almost all make millions of dollars even if they own a bad team, but to turn your team into a 800 million dollar asset versus a 300 million dollar asset has to do with winning.
There is little to no downside of being a fair-weather fan if you live in that city. If you live in a state full of other fans it can be more difficult. The only real advantage is that your team, even if they have only been your team for a month, will be a winner.
Am I the only one that notices this? If this is really as common knowledge as I think it is, why are people "die-hard" fans? A great example is Jazz fans. The Jazz have never won an NBA championship. In the existence of the Jazz in SLC, they have sold out over 600 games at home. They are passionate fans and I commend them as such, but if they want a team to really win a championship the fans need to STOP GOING TO GAMES. Is it really hard to see that there are few owners that genuinely care about winning in the NBA and are willing to take a financial loss to win? The Jazz are not one of those teams. They care about money more than winning. Because of the loyalty of Jazz fans, the ownership group takes advantage of them. They cut salary knowing that they are losing good players, sign other players while hyping the team to be something that it isn't and they continue to trick fans that they have a chance to win. Many teams, not just the Jazz do this. The Golden State Warriors functioned the same way for many years. Just this off-season the team was sold after the previous owner could no longer trick the fans. The new owner brought in a new coach, and a high quality free agent. Early projections show that the Warriors are going to make more money this year than last year.
You can call me a "fair weather fan" if you want, but I can say something about my team that a die-hard fan can't always say. We win.
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