Questions About The Devils Base (Newark, Trenton: transplants, high school, live in)

[bluecountry]

I had a couple of questions about the dynamics of the Devils fanbase in NJ.

1) I’d like to know…how is the Devils base spread out in NJ.
-Once you cross the Hudson river or NY state line is that considered to be immediate Devils territory or is Bergen County/Northern Garden State still Ranger country?

-Is Devils country more in central/Newark area?

2) I’d be curious as to how far the Rangers have a majority if anywhere in the state…how far the Rangers have a strong presence (Does it go into Middlesex/Woodbridge).

3) Is there anywhere in NJ which is solely Devils or do you have an NYR presence overlapped throughout?
-How deep does the Devils base go into becomes PHI?

4) Also…is this changing generational? Years from now can we expect it to be like Queens is with the Mets…strongly pro-Devil….or always mixed?

Thanks!

[JackedInPrinceton]

Mmmm tough calls... The Devils have a really tough time because they are sandwiched in between two huge market teams... NY Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers. I live in Trenton and most of our city is Philly fans. I would say Princeton is the divider between Philly fans and NY fans mostly. The further up North, the more the Ranger base kicks in... and Devils fans are sprinkled in between wherever. I think having the team in Newark will help though... Direct train line to the arena, I think you will start seeing casual fans start to get more into it because of the convienence.

[Calico696]

Since the Devils have only been in NJ since 1982, there are still a lot of Ranger fans in northern NJ. I probably know just as many Rangers fans as Devils fans.

[Badfish740]

Originally Posted by bluecountry

How deep does the Devils base go into becomes PHI?

Hard to say. I grew up in Hamilton where most people's families (mine included) came from Trenton. Trenton was always sort of a big mish-mash of New York/Philadelphia culture as it's a place with a train station that connects New York Penn with 30th Street, you can get Philly news on channel six and New York news on channel seven, and you can get a good cheesesteak or pizza anywhere. I'll talk a little about football rivalries since the teams have been around a little longer. My grandfather grew up in Chambersburg and was a lifelong, diehard Giants fan. However, there were always lots of Eagle fans around as well. Within blocks of each other there were Giants bars and Eagles bars. It's kind of become the same thing with hockey. You see a lot of Flyers fans in Hamilton, but there are a few bastions of Devils fans here and there.

Hamilton is also southern Mercer County and just about the end of the line for the Devils. Once you get into Burlington and below it's all orange and black clear to the Delaware Bay. However, once you go south and east out into Ocean and Atlantic Counties all bets are off because those areas have seen so many New York/North Jersey transplants over the years...

[mike0421]

I don't know how scientific this is, but this could lend some insight:

[Calico696]

Originally Posted by mike0421

I don't know how scientific this is, but this could lend some insight:

Wow, glad I don't live in the Dakotas.

[mike0421]

Originally Posted by Calico696

Wow, glad I don't live in the Dakotas.

Or New Mexico! We don't have a lot of company here, in the way of hockey, or pretty much anything else.

[Calico696]

Originally Posted by mike0421

Or New Mexico! We don't have a lot of company here, in the way of hockey, or pretty much anything else.

At least in NM you have that one big green splotch!

[Badfish740]

Originally Posted by Calico696

At least in NM you have that one big green splotch!

My guess is that most of those odd splotches out West coincide with the locations of Junior hockey teams. A friend of mine from high school went out to Idaho to play juniors in some out of the way town where a Saturday night junior game was the biggest thing going. The people get pretty ravenous for the junior teams so I'm sure they are NHL fans as well.