Feb 20 2008
On Scarves and Fan Loyalty
My girlfriend likes to knit. Sometimes when we’re watching a movie, she’ll pull out her giant bag o’ yarn and make a scarf or five, either for herself or for friends. Of course, this only happens when she doesn’t have her hands all over me, but I digress…
A couple of months ago, she asked me if I would like a scarf, too, and I took her up on it. She then asked what color the scarf should be. I told her I wanted one in my alma mater’s colors, the cream and crimson of Indiana University, because I have so few articles of clothing left with those colors. The scarf she made is pictured here, and it served me well for the month or two when it was cold here in North Carolina.
Every time I look at it, though, it doesn’t really remind me of Indiana. It reminds me of a completely different team…
Thankfully, I live in America, where I never run across anyone who would look at this scarf and say, “Ah, you’re a Gooner, eh?” (I once had someone see the scarf around my neck and ask how the quidditch match went. I immediately gave him the finger.) Still, I have to keep reminding myself that this scarf is a symbol of my school, not a symbol of my support for any specific football club — even though scarves clearly have deeper meaning in English football than they do here.
When I first started following the Premier League last season, I chose Reading, because they were getting into the Premier League for the very first time, just like I was, and they seemed like just the sort of plucky underdog worth backing. However, Reading has dropped into the relegation zone this month, and after seeing their dire form lately, I’m starting to wonder if I’m going to have a Premier League club to support next August.
All the while, this red and white scarf seems to be calling out to me. “Come join us, neophyte. Leave your little underdogs behind. Do you really want a life full of relegation battles and Coca-Cola Championship playoffs? Of course, you don’t. Come root for a real winner.”
This is a strange test of faith. Football is a tribal thing, and every tribe has its colors. When those colors overlap, things get weird. I could have asked for a black and gold scarf, but would it have reminded me of my Pittsburgh Steelers, or my alma mater’s archrival, Purdue? I could have asked for royal blue and white, too, since those are Reading’s colors.
Then again, Reading really isn’t my club, is it? Sure, I started following them because I liked their story, but am I really that attached to them? I didn’t exactly grow up with Reading like I grew up with the Steelers, a team I’ve supported for the better part of three decades. I’ve also cheered for the Carolina Panthers ever since they came into existence in 1994, because it’s the closest thing I have to a local NFL team.
Plus, I have a local soccer club now. I go to Carolina Railhawks games and yell my lungs out for them. I can’t really do that for Reading. Madejski Stadium is an ocean away.
Of course, so is Emirates Stadium, and therein lies the problem. Either way, I’d be choosing a club to which I would have no history and no real local ties. This makes it awfully easy for American newbies like me to pick one of the few clubs that actually has an actual chance at winning. After all, if you pick a club that gets relegated and you no longer have a horse in the race, what’s the point of turning on Fox Soccer Channel on Saturday mornings?
The Premier League craves that international audience, but how many fans are they really going to find for clubs outside of the Big Four? Sure, bigger clubs like Everton, Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur will find a few new supporters abroad, but Sunderland? Middlesbrough? Wigan? Bolton? How exactly are those clubs appealing to international fans? Who outside of London will care about Fulham if they go down and Clint Dempsey gets sold?
Fandom is a tricky thing. The most disturbing thing my dad ever told me was that if he had to do it all over again, he would have made sure I stayed a UNC basketball fan after we moved to North Carolina in 1982, because it would have saved him a ton of money on tuition — money he spent sending me to Indiana.
Fandom gets even trickier, though, when the teams you support are merely flickers on your TV screens, or ghosts on the holographic pitches of futures that never arrive. Premier League boss Richard Scudamore might continue to pimp the idea of overseas matches — we all have our windmills to tilt — but perhaps someone should remind him that the worldwide demand isn’t for the whole league. It’s for that handful of rich clubs that have a real shot at winning something, because fans love winners. We’ve no real loyalty to these tribes. We’re just riding the bandwagon until a better one comes along.
I still want to see Reading climb out of the drop zone, of course, but I feel like I have to prepare for the possibility that I won’t have a club to support in the Premier League next season. Perhaps that’s why that scarf is sending such mixed signals. I might not be getting those signals if the club I chose wasn’t in danger of being relegated. We never have to worry about such things in American sports.
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I hear you. I follow the EPL but I don’t have a club I support over there. I don’t feel right supporting a team when I’ve never lived near the community it is supposed to represent.
For example I grew up in the 1970’s in Tampa, so I am now and forever a fan (sorry, “fannie”) of the Tampa Bay Rowdies. It does not matter that the Rowdies ceased to operate in 1993. I’m still a Rowdies supporter and will be until the day I die. Until someone resurrects the Rowdies, I support my local MLS club.
There’s no club in the EPL that can ever come close to the Rowdies in terms of my personal loyalties. Your club choses you; you don’t chose your club.
“Your club choses you; you don’t chose your club.”
That’s a great line and perhaps more true than I ever realized. I’ve tried choosing EPL and AFL clubs to support, but I’m perhaps too far away from the action to be more than a tourist. In many cases, I actually find myself supporting individual players more than teams — especially in soccer, where I can get behind the national team and just support those players in Europe and MLS.
On this topic of support do Americans and to a lesser extend do Australians still support there team even when it moves 100’s of miles or more away or they merge .Is there a fans backlash like with “Franchise F.C http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Keynes_Dons_F.C. ??
Simon: Oh, yes, there is indeed backlash. Just ask Cleveland Browns fans how they feel about the Baltimore Ravens. Ask Seattle Supersonics fans how they feel about new owner Clay Bennett and NBA commish David Stern right about now. Seattle will be more than happy to welcome MLS after watching Bennett’s brazen plans to move the Sonics.
[...] On scarves and team loyalty (Dave’s Football Blog) [...]
I agree with the ‘club chooses you’ comment.
When I studied abroad in Spain, I arrived at my apartment to find I was living 45 seconds from the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan (Sevilla’s stadium).
From then on I was hooked. I can’t see myself cheering for any other team.
But then again, I’m a Red through and through, but I’ve never stepped foot in Liverpool or in England for that matter. Sometimes you just have to pick a team and go for it.
@Simon: I had a grandfather (long dead) who never watched a baseball game again after the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles, he was that upset. There are some things that are just unforgiveable.
Yeah, the club definitely chooses the fan. I supported Inverness Caley Thistle for a couple of years before I actually got to see them play. It was a family origin thing at first, then that weird unknowable fandom thing took over and I was a fan for life. It just happens that way sometimes. If you don’t feel that strongly about Reading, it probably wasn’t meant to be.
Thanks for putting these thoughts out there. I have thought about team loyalty some, and it’s interesting. I am glad that someone else is thinking about this.
I am from central Indiana. I’m going to throw some thoughts out there as well. If you don’t care about what I have to say, then so be it.
I am an Indiana Pacers fan. I’d say that this is the team that I root for that I have had the fewest second thoughts about.
I am an Indiana Hoosiers fan (in both football and basketball). My dad is from Columbus, Ohio and went to Ohio State, so I grew up rooting for OSU, but I always liked IU basketball for whatever reason. In the relatively recent past, I decided that I wanted my loyalties to lie with a single school, so I chose IU to be that school. It seemed sketchy to be an IU basketball fan and an OSU football fan. I still usually root for OSU in football though, unless they’re playing IU of course.
I am a Buffalo Bills fan. I don’t know why. I’ve liked them since I was in elementary school. I also root for the Colts, and with all the Colts mania the last few years here in Indiana, it has caused me to rethink my loyalty to the Bills. This is because I really like the idea of rooting for the hometown team. I can’t just bail on the Bills though. I do usually root for the Colts though, unless they’re playing the Bills.
I am a Cincinnati Reds fan. I remember the Cubs being my favorite team when I was in elementary school, and the Reds were my second favorite team. Probably a few years ago, when I hadn’t followed baseball in years, I decided to make a decision to make one of them my favorite team, and I decided on the Reds. I didn’t really even follow baseball again until the 2007 season.
I am a Columbus Blue Jackets fan. When I first started following hockey in elementary school, I liked Wayne Gretzky, and that was around the time he went from the Kings to the Blues to the Rangers. Whichever team he was on at the time was my favorite team. Then I didn’t follow the NHL for a long time. I would have said for a while that my favorite team was the Senators. But I think that I’ve settled on the Blue Jackets. I also have somewhat of an affinity for the Capitals. I don’t follow the NHL too closely.
I was out of the country for a few months last year, and soccer was more accessible on TV than American sports, so I started following the EPL. I chose Middlesbrough as my favorite team because it wasn’t one of the big four, and I guess maybe because I sort of liked the name. No local connections or anything, just a somewhat arbitrary choice.
Any interesting stories of how you came to your team current team loyalties?
@ Zick , well about 800 years ago the British came …. long story short . In the GAA you support your club which is based on the Churches parishes and your club is in a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAA_county which are based on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counties_of_Ireland and your county is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provincial_council based on the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provinces_of_Ireland.
Simple really;)
Your story sort of reminds me of when I got into the NFL and the confused process that led to me finding a team to follow. Since all the teams play on the other side of the Atlantic it’s not as easy as simply picking your local clubs. Eventually I settled on Green Bay because I really liked the idea that the team are owned by the fans (as is my club in England), I liked the fact that they were from a town that should be far to small for top level sport in such a business centric league and I liked the epic cold that late season games are played in. The fact that they exist purely because of the fans that support the team is very appealing.
Alex: I actually lean toward Barcelona for many of the same reasons. I didn’t actually know how Barca was set up until I watched “Manchester Disunited,” and I like where they’re coming from.
I still watch the Premier League far more than La Liga, though, so it feels like I ought to have a horse in that race, too.
I started following the EPL at the start of the 07/08 season. I’ve been aware of soccer in the world to an extent but never followed any certain league or team.
The only team I’ve ever really followed is Kansas City in the NFL because I’ve lived in and around Kansas City, Missouri 10+ odd years. When the MLS season starts up again in a month’s time I plan on following the Wizards although unfortunately it’s going to be harder to do than an EPL team I think.
At any rate, in doing research online to find an English team to follow and support and learn more about I decided upon Aston Villa. Seemed like a good starting point with a new logo, new owner, new manager, renewed team, and a lot of up-and-coming young players to follow during their Villa careers and after they move on to other clubs.
So far I’ve not been disappointed.
Keith: Aston Villa is owned by the same man who owns the Cleveland Browns. As a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, I can not in good faith support Aston Villa.
Zick: I grew up 90 miles south of Pittsburgh, and we got all the Pittsburgh cable channels, so that’s how I came to be a Steelers fan. All my other pro team loyalties are local — Carolina Panthers, Carolina Railhawks, Carolina Hurricanes, etc. Durham Bulls games can be fun, too, but that’s my only real tie to baseball anymore, because the Pittsburgh Pirates have been bottom feeders since blowing the 1992 NLCS.
As for college basketball, my whole family ended up choosing Duke because my dad worked as a pharma rep at Duke Hospital and knew several doctors who gave us extra tickets every so often. One of those doctors still has a hole in his wall that he never fixed. When I asked him about it, he said, “Jason Kidd, 1993.” I understood immediately.
This post really got me thinking, Dave. I went ahead and started my own little blog with a post on similar subject matter, which will hopefully amount to something.
There are any number of issues caught up in fandom when you’re from a city (Lakers/Clippers, Rangers/Celtic, Liverpool/Everton, White Sox/Cubs) and these are even magnified all the more so when you’re picking a club at a distance. Ultimately though, I think the concept of fandom raises even deeper issues of loyalty and appreciation. I started the post linked below after watching Man City beat United in the Derby - I picked City when I started following the Premiereship toward the start of the season, but I began to look at why I cared and why I watched.
http://neonhustle.blogspot.com/2008/02/self-other-home-team.html
Reading these other comments, it’s clear you’ve really struck a chord. Good job.
I was lucky enough to have a Brit for a best friend growing up. He was born in Birmingham, so he indoctrinated me into rooting for Villa. His family was rich and had a satellite hookup to watch the games way before things like that were common in the States. We also played a bunch of video games and we always played as Villa, back in the days of McGrath, Southgate, and Yorke.
Once I started getting FSC in 2003/04 I turned into a full-fledged EPL fan, but I think it is nice to have a team that I at least have some history rooting for. It’s even nicer that Villa are a genuinely feel-good story this year–young players who play with passion and a charismatic manager.
The funny thing is that even if I didn’t have the history with Villa, I’d probably be choosing them anyway. They have the best kit, hands down, and they have a long history similar to that of my favorite baseball team, the Cincinnati Reds.
[...] On Scarves and Fan Loyalty Here’s a nice article from an American’s point of view on this topic. My early days: While I was watching the 98 World Cup, i saw this player names Michael Owen. He was just about the same age as me and was great. I took interest and found he played for Liverpool. I though, kool, i’ll follow them so i can watch this kid develop. Before that my favorite players were Baggio and Maldini. I was more of an AC Milan fan. So come 2005’s Champions League Final i was in a bit of a dilemma. I took it as one of the best, if not THE best match i had ever seen and left it at that. Before all this i was just a fan of Italy. The attraction of Manchester United: I don’t remember when it was but all i know is that it grew and grew. All i can, say is it must be their reach. Much like the "39th" game would do for many smaller clubs, Man U is a market. It stretches to all corners of the world. Smaller clubs stay small because they don’t. When i look in the summer for soccer tickets i would see teams like Man U vs Bayern Munich, Bayern vs Milan, Real Madrid, Chelsea. Hell, i almost drove 2 states away to see Aston Villa. I don’t see teams from lower divisions coming here. I don’t see teams like Pompy or even Newcastle. So when you see or hear of someone who has no business, no rhyme or reason to like a team like Man U just understand that those teams are the first we hear about. So we could have a debate on weather a "bandwagon" is about winning or about money. One comes with the other. [...]
Club De Rechter Stratumseind…
Today I had a glorious morning. Out our windows the clouds were low and touching the mountains, making our colonial town even more magic in the early hours of today. For breakfast I made a smoothie of fresh mangos, a fat type of banana whose name I don…
This post is morally reprehensible. As somebody who supports a club outside of the top six (Manchester City), this is truly disgraceful. A real fan will stand by their team regardless of the degree of difficulty involved. “I moved from ___ to ___ and it’s easier to get behind ___ because I’m near them.” You weren’t really a fan if your loyalties can just switch.