I was reading a book for my Inequality in Sports class written by C. Vivian Stringer the head coach for the Women’s Basketball team at Rutgers and she brought up an interesting question. Should fans come out to support a team before it is successful or should the team have to be successful for the fans? I thought it’d be a good idea to try to answer this and when I thought about it, I found that it really doesn’t have an answer because there are different scenarios surrounding different teams. The best examples of both of these scenarios just happen to come from the teams in the city of Chicago, and specifically with both baseball teams.
The Chicago Cubs are a team that has not had success when it comes to winning a championship (101 years so to say not having success is putting it nicely), yet their “fans” will come out to Wrigley Field day in and day out to watch the lovable losers. I think a large part of why they sell out every game despite having ultimate success is because they play in Wrigley Field, which has an aura to it (For more details on the attraction of Wrigley Field read this). While some of the true fans of the Cubs will refuse to spend their money at the ballpark while the team suffers in mediocrity, the majority of Cub fans will continue to go to Wrigley because it’s the cool place to go. That type of attitude isn’t found on the South Side of Chicago.
When it comes to the White Sox, they experienced a surge in attendance towards the end of 2005 and into 2006 and 2007, and if you remember correctly, that can be attributed to the World Series title in 2005. Some people will say those are all the bandwagon fans who just want to support a winner. I would argue it’s the true fans of the White Sox spending their hard earned money on the White Sox as a way to support the team so that they can continue to experience success for many years in the future. If the team stinks or won’t win a championship that year why should fans go out and spend a ridiculous amount of money to watch a baseball game that they can just as easily turn on their television and see the same game?
For me personally I hold the belief that I’ll attend games in person whether or not the team was a winner (I even sat through the debacle that was the 20-1 White Sox loss to the Minnesota Twins this past summer). However, if the team was winning consistently and I could afford it, I would purchase season tickets and make that investment into my team to show them that I support them and I appreciate the way they’re playing.
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