Favorite Pro Sports Team (San Francisco, Sacramento: school, vs., wealthy)

[martialjoe]

Hi everyone! I was just wondering which NFL and MLB team is followed more in Sacramento. San Fran or Oakland teams? I wasn't sure both cities are so close together and the closest teams to Sac. Thanks.

[beolin]

Probably it's a mix of both. The rivercats (A's AAA affiliate) are in Sacramento but you'll see plenty of Giant's bumper stickers as well. As a 49er/A's fan I'm kind of confused though

[NewToCA]

If you look at the Bay Area, typically the Giants and 49ers are the team for San Francisco, Marin, San Mateo and the coastal counties. The A's and Raiders tend to be the teams for Contra Costa, Alameda and other eastern areas.

Many individuals switch their loyalities, but generally speaking I'd say this is the trend out here.

[Phil Minor]

Common Census did several maps regional allegiances to various sports teams.

You might find this map of the NFL insightful.

http://www.commoncensus.org/maps/nfl_1280.gif

and here is the map of MLB allegiances.

http://www.commoncensus.org/maps/mlb_1280.gif

In practice, it seems like allegiance in Sacramento tends to follow the strength of the programs. When the 49ers were stronger in the 80's and early 90's, I would say that there were a lot more fans in Sacramento. Today a lot of the fair weather fans aren't following the 49ers as much.

There is also an ethnic element. The Raiders are much more popular with the less wealthy minority folks. In Oak Park, Del Paso Height, and Meadowview, the Raiders are much more popular than the 49ers no matter how bad the Raiders are playing.

In the 70's and 80's, this was much more of an Oakland A's town. But since PacBell Park was built, the Giants have grown much more popular locally. Part of it has to do with the Giants being covered very well on KNBR which can be heard very well throughout Sacramento vs the A's being covered by a lot of different stations and no one really investing as much in their coverage.

[Think About It!]

Giants, 49ers, Kings / Warriors All of my teams suck...oh well one day we will rise again.

[K-Luv]

Originally Posted by Phil Minor

Common Census did several maps regional allegiances to various sports teams.

You might find this map of the NFL insightful.

http://www.commoncensus.org/maps/nfl_1280.gif

and here is the map of MLB allegiances.

http://www.commoncensus.org/maps/mlb_1280.gif

In practice, it seems like allegiance in Sacramento tends to follow the strength of the programs. When the 49ers were stronger in the 80's and early 90's, I would say that there were a lot more fans in Sacramento. Today a lot of the fair weather fans aren't following the 49ers as much.

There is also an ethnic element. The Raiders are much more popular with the less wealthy minority folks. In Oak Park, Del Paso Height, and Meadowview, the Raiders are much more popular than the 49ers no matter how bad the Raiders are playing.

In the 70's and 80's, this was much more of an Oakland A's town. But since PacBell Park was built, the Giants have grown much more popular locally. Part of it has to do with the Giants being covered very well on KNBR which can be heard very well throughout Sacramento vs the A's being covered by a lot of different stations and no one really investing as much in their coverage.

The 49ers were only 'popular' in Sacto back when they were playing Superbowls in the 80s. Other than that, this is pretty much a Raiders town. How many SF bumper stickers, window decals, etc. do you see around here? That is right, only a small handful. It seems that every other car on the road has Raiders on it somewhere.

Baseball probably leans more heavily towards the Athletics, but there are plenty of Giants fans here, too.

The Sacramento Kings are the basketball team, obviously.

Sacramento is not really a sports town. Well, not like Boston, Green Bay, Chicago, etc. There might be some ribbing if you support 'the wrong team', but your life may not be in danger like in other places The only team that I can think of that is hated with a passion is the Lakers.

[system]

Originally Posted by K-Luv

The 49ers were only 'popular' in Sacto back when they were playing Superbowls in the 80s. Other than that, this is pretty much a Raiders town. How many SF bumper stickers, window decals, etc. do you see around here? That is right, only a small handful. It seems that every other car on the road has Raiders on it somewhere.

I find this very interesting cuz i talk to people at work or at school, most of them are 49ers fans and not as many Raiders fans but when you're driving around the town, you see so many Raiders stickers/Jerseys and barely any niners even though the Raiders have been a horrible team over the last five or six years. I guess its true that Raiders fans truly are just much more passionate. I still don't consider Sacramento a Raider town though, maybe before they moved to LA in the 80's it was. But I think they lost a lot of their fan base (espcially younger people) to the niners during their time in LA because of the whole SoCal vs NorCal rivalry thing. Raiders still have a large fan base though in LA and pretty much everywhere around the country.

[K-Luv]

Originally Posted by system

I find this very interesting cuz i talk to people at work or at school, most of them are 49ers fans and not as many Raiders fans but when you're driving around the town, you see so many Raiders stickers/Jerseys and barely any niners even though the Raiders have been a horrible team over the last five or six years. I guess its true that Raiders fans truly are just much more passionate. I still don't consider Sacramento a Raider town though, maybe before they moved to LA in the 80's it was. But I think they lost a lot of their fan base (espcially younger people) to the niners during their time in LA because of the whole SoCal vs NorCal rivalry thing. Raiders still have a large fan base though in LA and pretty much everywhere around the country.

I am sure that there are a lot of 'Niner fans around Sacto, but they don't seem to 'advertise' themselves as much as the Raider fans do, and I would suspect that most fans of SF are of an older crowd; most of whom remember Joe Montana era 49ers.

Since Sacramento does not have its own pro football team, by default the team to follow is the one that is regionally close. In this case, there are two of them and just like there is a Nor Cal SoCal rivalry, there is also an East Bay vs. West Bay thing going on and by my experience Sacto identifies more with the East Bay, which would place the Raiders as Sacto's team.

The Raiders do have a hardcore cult following of extremely loyal fans that is, more than likely, not found with any other franchise. I remember when the Kings moved to Sacto and at the time they were one of the worst teams in the NBA for ten years straight. But you know what, regardless of how bad the Kings were, they continued to fill Arco Arena game after game, year after year. People tend to loose interest in their team when their team is not playing well, but for some reason Nor Cal seems to be an exception.

As an aside: back in the day, Arco Arena seemed so far away. Looking in its direction from I 5, Arco Arena appeared to be this isolated building out in the middle of nowhere. This was before all of the development when it was literally surrounded by miles of farmland.