What do you think the order of popularity for the Detroit sports teams are? (Holland: home, college)

[iranjapanafricaamerica]

From what I gathered from social circle, this is the order.

1.Detroit Red Wings
2.Detroit Tigers
3.Detroit Lions
4.Detroit Pistons

I hear a lot of people Detroit a football town, but I know far more Tigers and Red Wings fans. I personally don't know any Pistons fans.

[Coldjensens]

I would agree with all of your Statements although I know three pistons fans. Lions fans I do not encounter often, but they are pretty rabid fans. Tigers and Wings have a lot more fans when they are doing well than they do die hard fans who support them even when they are terrible. Depends on the circle, but Tigers and Wings may well be tied.

Pistons got a lot of hate because the players were such A holes, just despicable people for a time. I do not know whether they found some players with some class, or it is still the same awful primadonnas.

I am not a big sports fan, but I find basketball intolerable. Why cant they just give each side 90 points, put 15 minutes on the clock and end up in the same situation you get to after an hour or so anyway?

[leroythelion]

Originally Posted by iranjapanafricaamerica

From what I gathered from social circle, this is the order.

1.Detroit Red Wings
2.Detroit Tigers
3.Detroit Lions
4.Detroit Pistons

I hear a lot of people Detroit a football town, but I know far more Tigers and Red Wings fans. I personally don't know any Pistons fans.

I would put the Lions and Tigers ahead of the Red Wings, although as CJ points out the Red Wings fan support can be variable. From what I know, tickets at the new arena will generally be double in price than those of JLA. It will be interesting to see how things go attendance-wise in their current state of rebuilding.

[animatedmartian]

Here's an interesting way to gauge them based on their social media following. These numbers are as of May 2017.

Twitter followers:

Detroit Tigers: 1,267,411
Detroit Lions: 1,124,185
Detroit Red Wings: 1,086,920
Detroit Pistons: 707,154

Facebook likes:

Detroit Tigers: 2,412,493
Detroit Red Wings: 2,095,319
Detroit Lions: 1,917,594
Detroit Pistons: 1,914,148

Compared to other cities with 4 pro sports leagues, Detroit is actually pretty balanced at least just based on social media.

[mttzakr87]

It will be curious to see how many Red Wing fans stick around through the rebuild...at least the ones who claim to be loyal fans. A lot of people don't realize how long their rebuild is going to be, although I'm not really sure if Ken Holland and the Red Wings have fully accepted the fact that they need a complete rebuild.

[craig11152]

An interesting question. I think the Lions are more immune to mediocrity. They will fill or nearly fill the stadium almost no matter what. Of course only having 8 home games, mostly on Sundays doesn't hurt. It also helps that with a 16 game season every game matters.
It can be hard to get excited about a Piston or Red Wing game on a Tuesday night in November, December, January,February.
Same for the Tigers during the early to mid season of that long 162 game schedule.
I think I would separate men from women and go with.....

Men:
1 Lions
2. Wings
3. Tigers
4. Pistons

Women:
1. Tigers
2. Wings
3. Lions
4. Pistons

I rate the Pistons last but I will say in the mid 80's through the 1989 and 1990 back to back championships they were very popular as they were during the 2004 run and a few years after while hoping for a 2nd championship out of that group.
When the Pistons are championship good they are very popular but when they get bad I think they lose way more fans than the other teams.

[KP360]

As a black Detroiter I'd say the rankings are
1. Lions
2. Pistons
3. Tigers
4. Wings

The Pistons have an overall lower popularity due to them being so far away compared to the other teams. (Auburn Hills)
Hopefully the move to Downtown Detroit will help the team.

[DTWflyer]

Its an interesting question that is going to vary a bit by demographic. There is also a bit of the band-wagon effect that tends to follow a team when its done well recently.

At the broadest level, in 2017 it tends to be the following:

1) Tigers
2) Lions
3) Red Wings
4) Pistons

Tigers tend to have the broadest appeal that includes both men and women, young and old, and across the various racial and socio-economic demographics. A lot of this due to the success, increase relevance, and the atmosphere of the downtown park on nice summer evenings.

Lions, well, its the Lions. The NFL is enormously popular and with the limited number of games in comparison to other sports they have a big draw both of fans and of people who claim not to be fans but still pay attention anyways. The Lions are sniffing the door at times of being relevant and are a polarizing team.

Red Wings, hockey is huge in Metro Detroit and the state, especially in comparison to the rest of the country. The Wings have probably the most die-hard fan base at this point out of the 4 teams in town. NHL hockey doesn't have the mass appeal like baseball but those who are into hockey are very passionate. The decades of success helped build the following. It does have men & women interest but not as diverse of a socio-economic and racial demographics. I can't tell if hockey is getting the younger millenial following like it did 10-20 years ago so it will be interesting to see where this fan base goes in the next decade.

Pistons, well I loved watching the Bad Boy era as a kid and that was a fun few years in the mid-2000s but they just aren't relevant to most people right now, and its a bad product. If they come back in the new arena and all, they are ripe for the bandwagon effect to kick in.

[Arthur Digby Sellers]

I would include the college teams in this, mainly because football fans who have become disgusted with the Lions have latched on to UM or MSU football, but also because UM/MSU football is MASSIVE in popularity in Metro Detroit. I would say when either or both teams are in contention that they eclipse all four of the pro teams in popularity.

1. Lions/UM/MSU
2. Tigers
3. Red Wings
4. Pistons

Lions/UM/MSU are far and away number 1 because even when the teams are awful they maintain high presence in the press and high attendance figures. The Lions were still at or near capacity during their 2008 season.

The Tigers and Pistons have large bandwagon fanbases that move between the franchises based on which one is doing better at the time. When the Pistons had championship-caliber teams in the aughts they were the hot ticket and had a sellout streak that spanned multiple seasons. At the same time the Tigers were historically awful and you used to be able to get bleacher seats and a hot dog for $5 from the box office. Now that the Tigers have had a loaded roster for close to a decade, I've noticed that there are many more casual scenester fans at Comerica despite the ticket prices steadily climbing. The Pistons have gimmicky halftime shows and have retired the jerseys of practically every championship team player and still can't give tickets away.

The Red Wings are interesting in that there were a lot of casual fans during the dynasty era, but I don't think their floor is as low as the Pistons/Tigers due to the number of people in the region who play hockey or grew up playing hockey. There will always be a diehard contingent of Wings fans even if they aren't selling out the arena. But as someone said earlier, it is going to be tough times for the Wings for the next 5 years as this team ages and deals with the horrendous contracts Ken Holland has handed out. It's extremely depressing just to think about -- the run is over.

[Arthur Digby Sellers]

Originally Posted by leroythelion

I would put the Lions and Tigers ahead of the Red Wings, although as CJ points out the Red Wings fan support can be variable. From what I know, tickets at the new arena will generally be double in price than those of JLA. It will be interesting to see how things go attendance-wise in their current state of rebuilding.

Where did you hear that? If that's the case, they are going to lose a A LOT of attendance considering how expensive tickets were at last year for a lousy team. You couldn't get a lower bowl ticket in the Joe for less than $100, FFS. When they were in serious contention every year for the Cup and signing Hall of Famers every offseason, the high prices made sense. They make no sense for a basement dwelling team during the salary cap era.