Worst sports city (Atlanta, Washington, Ranger: school, price, beach)

[johnatl]

Originally Posted by ATLnSAV

What bugs me is the number Notre Dame fans around the country, and the amount of network TV time they get, considering the size of the school itself. The Savannah College of Art & Design, Emory and Valdosta Staste each have more students enrolled than Notre Dame. It's a small school. That's a fact. Look it up.

But to watch TV on a Saturday, you'd think the Fighting Irish were the biggest, baddest, most winningest team in the land.

I totally blame Regis for this.

[Saintmarks]

Two thing to consider in Atlanta when considering the local sports scene, especially when comparing Braves following to the Falcons following.

Major league baseball plays 162 games a year. That is 81 home games for the 40k or so Turner Field. The NFL season is 16 games, so 8 home games (2 preseason games added as a bonus, yippee!) in the 70k Georgia Dome. The math shows that there are well over 3 million Braves tickets to be had per year vs. just over half a million Falcons tickets to be had per year. For a city to be considered a Major League city, it must have solid attendance in baseball because of the sheer numbers that one must attract to have solid attendance.

Second point: The Braves are still a regional team, the Falcons a local one. Look at how many more southern cities have the NFL vs. MLB. Outside of the two Florida teams (both expansion teams without a long loyal following) there is no team in the southeast. Draw a curved line from Houston to Dallas to St. Louis to Cincinnati to Washington/Baltimore and the Braves are the only team in the entire non-Floridian Southeastern US.

Compare that to the NFL where Jacksonville, Charlotte, Nashville and New Orleans, all within that region I describe above, claim teams. This does erode some of the football support in Atlanta. In my years in Birmingham, almost every Alabamian I knew were big time Braves supporters, but few of them felt any allegience toward the Falcons. People in the Carolinas and Tennessee have their own teams. Falcons fans must come primarily from Georgia. You might even say the northern half as the Jaguars draw from south Georgia to an extent.

For the Falcons to be selling out these days is a good thing when you consider all of this.

[samiwas1]

I, for one, am kind of glad. Whenever I go up north, it's like the local sports team is all anyone can talk about. There's pride, then there's just a lack of any other driving force in your life.

Down here, I rarely hear any of my friends talk about pro football, but college football is almost always talked about at some point. I'm 35, so not right out of college.

I guess it's just a different thing down here.

[Saintmarks]

Originally Posted by samiwas1

I, for one, am kind of glad. Whenever I go up north, it's like the local sports team is all anyone can talk about. There's pride, then there's just a lack of any other driving force in your life.

Down here, I rarely hear any of my friends talk about pro football, but college football is almost always talked about at some point. I'm 35, so not right out of college.

I guess it's just a different thing down here.

There is something to be said for a great fan base, but there is a line that is too often crossed concerning the "rabid" fan. Having gone to some Braves games where there were a number of fans of other teams (dare I say "northern" and leave the Y word alone?) and seeing some of the boorish behavior, foul language, taunting and loud trash talking, I will take our more genteel southern approach. I can't imagine taking my kids to a game up north if this kind of obnoxious attitude is what it takes to make a city a "great" sports town.

[ATLnSAV]

Originally Posted by Saintmarks

Two thing to consider in Atlanta when considering the local sports scene, especially when comparing Braves following to the Falcons following.

Major league baseball plays 162 games a year. That is 81 home games for the 40k or so Turner Field. The NFL season is 16 games, so 8 home games (2 preseason games added as a bonus, yippee!) in the 70k Georgia Dome. The math shows that there are well over 3 million Braves tickets to be had per year vs. just over half a million Falcons tickets to be had per year. For a city to be considered a Major League city, it must have solid attendance in baseball because of the sheer numbers that one must attract to have solid attendance.

Second point: The Braves are still a regional team, the Falcons a local one. Look at how many more southern cities have the NFL vs. MLB. Outside of the two Florida teams (both expansion teams without a long loyal following) there is no team in the southeast. Draw a curved line from Houston to Dallas to St. Louis to Cincinnati to Washington/Baltimore and the Braves are the only team in the entire non-Floridian Southeastern US.

Compare that to the NFL where Jacksonville, Charlotte, Nashville and New Orleans, all within that region I describe above, claim teams. This does erode some of the football support in Atlanta. In my years in Birmingham, almost every Alabamian I knew were big time Braves supporters, but few of them felt any allegience toward the Falcons. People in the Carolinas and Tennessee have their own teams. Falcons fans must come primarily from Georgia. You might even say the northern half as the Jaguars draw from south Georgia to an extent.

For the Falcons to be selling out these days is a good thing when you consider all of this.

Saintmarks I agree with everything you said except for that statement ^^^

When the Jaguars began playing, the NFL and FOX *assumed* that fans down here would be on the side of Jacksonville, since large parts of South Georgia actually fall within the Jacksonville market, but they were wrong. In Savannah, they eventually had to go back to making the Falcons the "home" local game to show on Sunday afternoons because fans didn't have any allegiance to the Jags. If the Falcons and Jags are playing in the same time block, we see the Falcons. YEAH!

There's a little bit more of a Jags fan base closer to the border, say Camden County and Waycross, but not much. And college football? Forget it! You'd think that Thomasville being just 30 minutes from Tallahassee would be a HUGE base for Florida State fans, but that's the most rabid UGA country you could find! In fact, the two high schools in Thomasville are the Thomas County Yellow Jackets and Thomasville Bulldogs (hope I got that right!)

Also, though Statesboro is basically part of the Greater Savannah Metro, people here generally pull for both Georgia Southern and UGA unless they happen to be playing each other. What you do NOT see much of outside of Metro Atlanta is Georgia Tech fans, and that's a shame. But the reason is that Georgia Tech's alumni base is spread all over the country and the world and not so much "in-state."

I have read in the past that part of the problem with building NFL team loyalty across the South (and why the Falcons and Dolphins were for years the only pro teams in the region) was the powerful allegiance that people had for their various college teams. For better or worse, this is why you will never EVER see an NFL franchise in the city of Birmingham. Could you imagine what it would be like to be pro and play second fiddle to the Crimson Tide or Auburn? The Titans have had a tough enough time of it in Nashville, but the Carolina Panthers have had it a little easier simply because, ironically, North Carolina isn't that big a football state to begin with ... it's all basketball.

But back to the Braves: When Ted still owned TBS and the Braves games were broadcast on national TV, they had the largest fan base of any team in baseball, not just in the Southeast. There were rabid Braves fans from one corner of the country to the other and it ate into the loyalty to OTHER teams. I heard that in the good ol' days, you could go to a Braves game in other cities and half the fans there would be in Atlanta gear. So it goes both ways.

[Faketigger]

Originally Posted by johnatl

I totally blame Regis for this.

Don't hate on the Irish. They invented the game.

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by Saintmarks

There is something to be said for a great fan base, but there is a line that is too often crossed concerning the "rabid" fan. Having gone to some Braves games where there were a number of fans of other teams (dare I say "northern" and leave the Y word alone?) and seeing some of the boorish behavior, foul language, taunting and loud trash talking, I will take our more genteel southern approach. I can't imagine taking my kids to a game up north if this kind of obnoxious attitude is what it takes to make a city a "great" sports town.

Yeah, it could get pretty raw in the stands at Yankee Stadium...worse at Fenway Park IMO.

[suprascooby22]

[quote=ATLnSAV;16308016]The reason Atlanta teams have a hard time building and maintaining a local fan base is because well over half the population of the metro area is from somewhere else and they bring their hometown allegiances with them. This is the only city i know of in the country where, on every single Sunday during football season, various sports bars around town are PACKED with fans of other cities decked out in their team garb rooting for their hometown teams. It is very hard to overcome that kind of loyalty, even from people who've lived here 15-20 years. They are always going to pull first for the team where they are from.

That said, the Falcons are having a great season. They beat the reigning Super Bowl Champs on a very hostile home turf, inside the Super Dome, which they have rarely done in history. One blowout to Philadelphia does not ruin a season. And the fact remains that you cannot *legally* purchase a seat at a Falcons games. The Georgia Dome season tickets are sold out, and have been ever since Arthur Blank took over the team.

Will the Falcons win another division title anytime soon? Yes. This year? Maybe. A Super Bowl? Let's hope so.

As for the Braves, the fact they only won 1 World Series in 13 straight division titles was disappointing. But they're still the winningest team in the history of baseball during that time, and that's enough for me.

As for basketball and hockey, I couldn't care less. Basketball is a gangsta sport and hockey is for Russians / Candians.[/quote]

Funny take on those two sports.

[suprascooby22]

Originally Posted by Lagwagon113

I appreciate all of the comments. Now that I've had some time to reflect I suppose Atlanta is not the worst city for sports. At least our teams do make the playoffs sometimes. I still do think we let our teams off the hook too easily and have lower standards than some other cities but at least our teams are not in the cellar every single year. So it could always be worse.

I understand the point about transplants as well. I still think that is no excuse for having half the crowd rooting for the other team though. That doesn't happen at a UGA game does it? In any case, my personal pet peeve is people who were born and raised in Georgia and root for a team that they have no affiliation with like the Steelers. Anyone can pick a successful franchise and make it their team. It takes a little bit of insanity to stick with your home team even if they habitually suck. As someone else pointed out, just ask a Cubs or Browns fan.

I have lived here my whole life and I honestly cant think of one native that likes any North Eastern teams. Meet a few Dolphin & Cowboys fans but a native Georgian pulling for the Steelers, they would have there Southern card pulled in a minute for such!

[suprascooby22]

Originally Posted by ATLnSAV

What bugs me is the number Notre Dame fans around the country, and the amount of network TV time they get, considering the size of the school itself. The Savannah College of Art & Design, Emory and Valdosta Staste each have more students enrolled than Notre Dame. It's a small school. That's a fact. Look it up.

But to watch TV on a Saturday, you'd think the Fighting Irish were the biggest, baddest, most winningest team in the land.

Notre Dame stinks, they are easily the most loathed college football team in the land because of their preferred status. When was the last time Notre Dame did anything. 20 years ago, talk about irrelevant!