Question About Sports Teams Popularity in the Syracuse Region (New York: attorneys, college)

[Stifled]

I had a couple of questions about the regional identity and sports fanbases for the Syracuse region.


1) Where does your region start?
-Does it include Ithaca/Utica/Binginham?

2) Who is covered on the newspapers and on TV?
-Do they cover just the Buffalo teams or the NY and BOS teams?

3) What about with MSG and the Rangers/Sabres?
-Have you always received MSG or was it just once Empire collapsed you got it?
-Do you get Rangers/Isles/Devils or Sabres games...or both?
-Have the Rangers gotten bumped down in games aired in the last few years...and if so...why?
-Has this or do you think it will have any affect on the popularity/following of the team in this region?


4) What are the sports loyalities like in
MLB: Yanks/Mets....Sox?
NFL: Giants/Jets/Bills....Pats?
NHL: Rangers/Sabres/Isles...Devils..........Bruins
NBA: Celtics/Knicks/Nets




I would think since Syracuse is central, not western New York, and since NYC is the dominant city economically, politically, and culturally....that Syracuse would still go for New York teams with a Buffalo strong minority.
I would not think Boston would have any presence since they are further away and out of state, having nothing to do with the area of Syracuse economically or politically as in state major market like NYC does.

Thanks.

[ckhthankgod]

Originally Posted by Stifled

I had a couple of questions about the regional identity and sports fanbases for the Syracuse region.


1) Where does your region start?
-Does it include Ithaca/Utica/Binginham?

2) Who is covered on the newspapers and on TV?
-Do they cover just the Buffalo teams or the NY and BOS teams?

3) What about with MSG and the Rangers/Sabres?
-Have you always received MSG or was it just once Empire collapsed you got it?
-Do you get Rangers/Isles/Devils or Sabres games...or both?
-Have the Rangers gotten bumped down in games aired in the last few years...and if so...why?
-Has this or do you think it will have any affect on the popularity/following of the team in this region?


4) What are the sports loyalities like in
MLB: Yanks/Mets....Sox?
NFL: Giants/Jets/Bills....Pats?
NHL: Rangers/Sabres/Isles...Devils..........Bruins
NBA: Celtics/Knicks/Nets




I would think since Syracuse is central, not western New York, and since NYC is the dominant city economically, politically, and culturally....that Syracuse would still go for New York teams with a Buffalo strong minority.
I would not think Boston would have any presence since they are further away and out of state, having nothing to do with the area of Syracuse economically or politically as in state major market like NYC does.

Thanks.

1. Utica is considered to be a part of CNY. Ithaca and Bighamton are considered to be the Southern Tier, but for say HS Football they play in the Central regionals.

2. They pretty much cover the NY state pro teams, but there is a good sized following of the Boston area teams, and maybe Philly area teams.

3. We have always gotten MSG, even when Empire was around. We even had/have Sportschannel(now Fox Sports Net) too. We get Devils, Rangers, Sabres and Islanders games on TV here. I noticed that the Sabres are on MSG around here too. I think that happened when Empire folded. We do have MSG and MSG Plus. So, nothing has changed in terms of Rangers games. I'd say the Sabres and Rangers have the biggest following in terms of pro Hockey in the area and in that order.

4. Look at #2. I will say that the Buffalo area teams probably get the most "love" in terms of following here, but the NYC area teams aren't too far behind, especially for the older sports fans due to the Buffalo teams being younger, for the most part. Again, pretty strong following of Boston area teams and to some degree Philly teams and the Pittsburgh Steelers too. Can't forget the Toronto Blue Jays as well, who was the parent team of the AAA Baseball team here for about 30 years.

I think the Boston influence comes from when we used to get quite a few Red Sox and Bruins games when the cable system had WSBK out of Boston. They used to play a lot of games from those teams and some might have followed those teams closer than others. Also, we get some people from Massachusetts that go to college here and even more to the area. So, that might have something to do with it too.

[RollsRoyce]

Fan loyalty to various teams can vary based on the type of community fans reside and its geographic location. Syracuse's Eastern Suburbs contain a large portion of CNY's household wealth and a sizable amount of residents in places like Fayetteville, Manlius, DeWitt, Cazenovia, and Jamesville are not originally from Central or Upstate New York. There is more of a New York City/East Coast influence in the Eastern Suburbs due in part to a large presence of SU faculty, physicians and attorneys that either relocated from major east coast areas like Philadelphia, Boston, and New York or have some ties to those metropolitan regions. As a general rule, I would say the fan base for Buffalo teams like the Sabres and Bills is probably strongest in the Northern and Western Suburbs and Madison, Oswego, and Cayuga counties.

It's safe to say that with the new Jet's training camp in Cortland County, there will be many new fans of younger ages that will gravitate to that team.

[Cleveland Park]

Yep, what those guys said, though I'll add that much of the Boston love has materialized since 2003 or 2004; before the Red Sox had a near-pennant in 2003, local Boston fans were either very quiet or just didn't exist. This seems to be a national phenomenal; their bandwagon has gotten a bit larger during the course of the decade.

Yankees dominate the baseball scene; I don't see a ton of fellow Met fans in CNY. Definitely still a good handful or Pirate and Blue Jay fans, too.

NBA is a huge afterthought; safe to say that college basketball dominates the local sports scene. It's not even that the NBA is underexposed locally; I'd imagine that you could poll a quarter-million Central New Yorkers and find that half of them don't follow an NBA team or consider the NBA inferior to college ball.

A ton of footballers still support the Bills; I'd say the Giants, Jets, and Steelers follow (in that order).

[CUPlanner]

Good analysis RollsRoyce, I would have to agree with you about the class divisions in terms of loyalty, but I dont think it is as geographically defined as you put it. From my observations, I would say that the wealthier people and professionals in the area in general tend to be fans of the Giants and Yankees, and sometimes the Red Sox and Patriots, though I dont know about hockey or basketball allegiances. I would say this is also true of the Italian population here, as most Italians I know in Syracuse are hardcore Giants and Yankee fans.

Working class, blue collar people around here tend to be big into the Buffalo teams, and a lot more into hockey with the Sabres.

The Jets and Mets do not have a very strong following here, and it is fairly rare to see people wearing a lot of Jets and/or Mets clothing.

[Cleveland Park]

Ah, forgot about those Eagles -- they're probably more popular than the Jets or Steelers up in Onondaga County (mostly because of Donovan).

[ckhthankgod]

Originally Posted by Cleveland Park

Ah, forgot about those Eagles -- they're probably more popular than the Jets or Steelers up in Onondaga County (mostly because of Donovan).

True and Philly is only about 4 hours from Syracuse.

[phaelon56]

As a true non sports fan I can offer the following observations:

1) Syracuse is Yankees country - the Syracuse Chiefs AAA team was once the Yankees farm team and they've long had a large and strong fan base here

2) Buffalo Bills have strong local support because they're closer than the major city markets and local folks seem to like rooting for them - but Philly eagles and the Patriots also seem to have plenty of local support.

3) I rarely hear anyone talking up major pro basketball support but SU basketball remains popular (despite the lack of support for the football program although that could change this year).

[jrice]

Originally Posted by phaelon56

As a true non sports fan I can offer the following observations:

1) Syracuse is Yankees country - the Syracuse Chiefs AAA team was once the Yankees farm team and they've long had a large and strong fan base here

2) Buffalo Bills have strong local support because they're closer than the major city markets and local folks seem to like rooting for them - but Philly eagles and the Patriots also seem to have plenty of local support.

3) I rarely hear anyone talking up major pro basketball support but SU basketball remains popular (despite the lack of support for the football program although that could change this year).

agree except I think Syracuse is a mixed when it comes to MLB, being a SOx fan I see almost as many BoSox fans as I do Yankees fans

[Stifled]

1) I do not see why the Red Sox would have any sizeable base since Boston is not in state, not close by, and you do not get their games on the air.

2) Could you rank in order and percent the splits for
-MLB/NFL/NHL/NBA?