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Do you support your local team? Does it matter?


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3 minutes ago, Gazz said:

Exactly. And that's what football fandom is about, especially when it's your local club. On that day, it didn't matter that Grimsby has been in decline for decades, that everyone think's it smells of fish and that the M180 is like some weird resonance strip from the Twilight Zone. All that mattered was that the team was back in the football league, to battle it out with twenty three other teams with fuck all money and no facilities. It's also tribalism, even moreso when your talking about clubs from areas that have a strong social identity, like Scousers, Mancunians, Geordies, Brummies etc.

I'm a Newcastle fan and their ups and downs effect me far more than any stupid, fairly meaningless game should but my fandom will never be on the level of someone who was born and grew up in Newcastle, surrounded by the Geordie culture and who sees the club as a part of what their local cultural identity is. Where I'm from, we don't have that, I live in Staffordshire but I'm absolutely miles away and have nothing in common with Stoke, I'm too far away from Birmingham to be a Brummie, too far from Wolverhampton to be a Yam Yam and Walsall is too small to be anything other than Jeremy Kyle guests and Robert Plant, so I'm sort of stuck in the wilderness, coaching ten kids of a weekend, seven of which support Barcelona.

Oh obviously, and like I said, I have no problem with people being fans and supporting clubs like yourself, Baddar and Mad Jack do.  Big fans of these teams for sure, but there is an element of it being your hometown team which you will not feel it in the same deep way.

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Rich is 1000% right. You have to understand it to fully appreciate what that connection is and what it means.

Everyone should support their local team if they have one, that's what it's all about. I grew up 10 minutes away from where Doncaster Rovers played (moved to a new stadium slightly further away in 2007) and couldn't dream of supporting another team instead. I'm also an Everton fan due to family connections, but I'm not a proper supporter of them like I am the Rovers. I just love football and enjoy having a team to be invested in in thd top flight, this has always been the norm for kids growing up supporting a small local team - Rovers were in the Conference when I was a kid so everyone supported big, successful Man Utd instead. There was confusiom for years over why I went to watch a team that only got crowds of 1200 and regularly lost to the likes of Northwich and Southport that none of them had ever heard of.

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Born in Manchester, lived in Salisbury until I was 8, spent most of my youth in Lincolnshire and now live in Newcastle.

Not sure who my 'local' team would even be. Pretty much the only reason I became a United fan is my mum's side of the family are from Manchester and all support United. That was my influence when I was getting into football.

I don't really care if people don't support their local team, especially in this day and age where people move all over and just about everything is televised. He'll, you could support Villareal from the comfort of your armchair and see every game these days.

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1 hour ago, Mad Jack said:

And I disagree with the assertion that because I don't live in the locale I don't get the fandom. On Sunday my team lost 4-0 to Chelsea. Watching that loss hurt. I don't think it'd have hurt any more if I lived in Manchester or had been brought up as a United fan because my Dad was one (he wasn't, he's an Argyle fan and played briefly for them in the mid 50s). The YouTube channel Copa90 sometimes covers big Premier League games. The below is a video they did on the Arsenal - Chelsea game from earlier this season and there's footage of Arsenal and Chelsea fans from as varied places as Singapore and Kuala Lumpur to New York and Rio de Janeiro, from London to Lagos and Montevideo to Mumbai. I wouldn't say the fans in London are any bigger or smaller fans than those in India, in Brazil, in America or anywhere else. You buy the shirt, you watch the games, you support your team. I don't see how geography factors into it.

No one's saying that losses don't hurt or whatever. As pretty much everyone said, you can support whoever you want, but there is an element to the fandom that you'll never understand whether you like it or not. You don't even NEED to understand it to enjoy supporting the club, but it's a thing that exists.

So, for example, you've not experienced what it's like to be on the winning or losing end of a derby and the way the mood in the city, your office, wherever, completely changes. You've never experienced, for example, the sheer elation and buzz around school the day after Liverpool won the Champions League, where everyone was just nice to each other and beaming. As I said, it isn't necessary for you experience these things, but they're aspects of fandom you won't get to experience.

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Yeah, sure. In college football I follow the teams from the two biggest universities in my state. As far as professional sports go, we don't have a local team (no NBA team, no NFL team, etc) so as a kid I wound up following the teams closest to me (Cowboys, Texas Rangers, etc) or what I got to watch most often (the Cubs on WGN America).

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I was born in Nottingham and my father supported Notts County, as did his father before that. In fact, my grandfather was such a regular attendee that he was given a full-page obituary in the official club programme after he died. That's where my allegiances lie, but I actually have a soft spot for Nottingham Forest too, even though a lot of Notts fans don't like them. The way I see it, we might as well all stick together because nobody else will root for the Nottingham clubs. I've been to a few matches at The City Ground and enjoyed watching Stuart Pearce above any of their other players, but, ultimately, by connection with Notts County is both familial and local. I'm also supposed to hate Mansfield Town, but I find it a little hard to because I used to live in the town.

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All of my favorite teams were local teams as I was growing up. The Raiders moved back to Oakland, but it was pretty easy for young me to rationalize staying a fan because they 'went' home.

I also claim the Athletics as a 'second team' in MLB, I think it's fine in a sport that ostensibly is two separate leagues, but that's mostly because my family had a lot of Angels' fans, and they're rivals, if it comes down to it, Dodgers all day, 1988 best year of my life.

I agree that there's an extra emotional value to you're hometown team. You can be a serious, legit, diehard fan of any team, regardless of where you live, but there's a sense of community that you'll lose, particularly if your team is a small market one. Like, Raider Nation spans the globe, but, in my opinion, they 'feel' like the represent a part of California in a way that you might not understand if you aren't from here. I feel that way about NFL teams particularly, in that they take on the culture of the city they're from. Pittsburgh is thought of as a tough city, the Steelers are a hard nosed team. Ditto Chicago, historically. The 49ers have a reputation for a wine and cheese crowd, their greatest success was with a more 'finesse' team. Dallas has that 'everything is bigger in Texas' feel to them, they wouldn't fit anywhere else. I could go on, it's most prominent in the US in the NFL, but I think it's especially true in English soccer, especially with so many teams so close together.

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I've been listening to The Anfield Wrap podcast for about 3 years now and I subscribe to their TAW Player as well. What's interesting about doing that is, even though I'm some bloke in the Irish midlands, it's actually given me more of a connection with the city of Liverpool purely by hearing about it through podcasts. I know loads more about what Liverpool fans in Liverpool are doing, about supporters groups etc than I ever would've before. I'm never going to be part of that community, though. I get a window into it and maybe an outside understanding of the fan culture - it's merely anecdotal but because I'm a nerd who likes to learn it's fun to know all this stuff and in somewhat feel like I at least have an idea of the community closer to the club than I. That said, I'd never claim to be part of that community but I'm certainly more invested in and understanding of that than I am, say, of the local GAA club. 

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Liverpool because they are my local team and they are the team I've grew up with and love to this day. 

I have no issue with people supporting my local team as in a way it's nice that people from other areas can relate to something I follow and support it. Like it's mad when for example we go on tour to America and there's carpools for shitty preseason games but for a lot of people it's their only chance at seeing Liverpool. They are the fans who get up at stupid o'clock in the morning to watch the game. 

For example as well United and Liverpool will always have a strong Irish fan base due to their being a lot of Irish people in both cities, there has been a lot of irish players historically and the proximity... You can get to Ireland by plane in less than 30 minutes from Liverpool  

The only thing people who aren't local won't understand is the impact the club can have on day to day life. Istanbul 2005 was massive for the city and how big it was can be seen by the photos outside St George's Hall from the parade.  Or how the city will stop still when the Derby is on and you've got friends and families with split allegiances hoping their side wins so they can tear into the other friends or family members. 

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I support the University of Tennessee in sports, which literally are my local teams. (And all the people I see wearing Bama gear around town can eat shit and die)

As far as pro teams go, I guess it would be the Nashville Predators for hockey, the Memphis Grizzlies for basketball, and the Tennessee Titans for football. I don't watch or care about hockey, I'm a Los Angeles Lakers fan when it comes to basketball, and while I do like the Titans (and did when they were still the Houston Oilers), my favorite team is the Dallas Cowboys. 

The Atlanta Braves I guess would be my `local' baseball team considering news coverage. But I'm a Cincinnati Reds fan. (Though I also support the Cubs and Red Sox) 

I don't support the local minor league teams, either. The minor league baseball team moved from Knoxville to Sevier County a bit over a decade ago, and I haven't been to a game since. Tried to go to at least 2 or 3 games a year when they were here in town. We only have a hockey team here in town, and since I don't watch hockey.....

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4 hours ago, Nerf said:

No one's saying that losses don't hurt or whatever. As pretty much everyone said, you can support whoever you want, but there is an element to the fandom that you'll never understand whether you like it or not. You don't even NEED to understand it to enjoy supporting the club, but it's a thing that exists.

So, for example, you've not experienced what it's like to be on the winning or losing end of a derby and the way the mood in the city, your office, wherever, completely changes. You've never experienced, for example, the sheer elation and buzz around school the day after Liverpool won the Champions League, where everyone was just nice to each other and beaming. As I said, it isn't necessary for you experience these things, but they're aspects of fandom you won't get to experience.

God, the floodlights shining above the city and hearing the Champions League music from half a mile away and knowing I was really fucking late. I didn't even have a ticket (skint student in those days) but Champions League nights were special. The only one I actually got to was a loss against Barça where Titus Bramble backpassed for an apologetic Kluivert to score a tap in, still worth it.

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Back in middle school and high school I used to get a lot of flak for being a Chelsea fan despite my dad having sat in the Shed End throughout the 1970s and having visited Stamford Bridge myself (thought admittedly barely remembering it) in 1999. The "glory hunter" accusations just felt like sore loser comments from people who lumped me in with the sudden appearance of more Chelsea "fans" in the 04/05 season when the Blues were running away with the league and Norwich were probably heading straight back down to the newly formed Championship, which they did. Since I lost most interest in football I haven't really cared as much since I can barely relate to the players any more, though I still appreciate those sweet victories over Liverpool. I actually cared more about Leicester winning the league last year because of Ranieri and Huth representing the early end of my Chelsea era (02-09) than either of the last two title wins under Ancelotti and Mourinho.

A lot of locals support Norwich and a Premiership team because, despite spending six seasons in the top flight during my lifetime, its really obvious that they aren't good enough to be put in that group. The secondary team thing is actually pretty evenly split between the teams you'd expect, but its only the ones who went with Spurs who are geographically justified. The ones that I really hate conveniently jumped between Man Utd and Arsenal a few times throughout high school. Even the guy who admitted to always supporting whoever was top when he was a kid, before being issued an ultimatum by his dad and sticking with the top team at the time (Liverpool), was better than that. Then there's just this lucky bastard who supported Man City and always had the pissed ripped out of him until the money came in. Not sure why he did but at least it was some variety.

You also get a few people nearby who support Ipswich for various reasons; be it people from just over the Suffolk border, doing it mostly just to annoy Norwich fans, or my mum who was invited to watch Ipswich in the late 80s with her flatmates.

In terms of American sports I go with the Raiders because that who my mum supported when she followed the NFL. Even though the Rams have moved back to LA I think I'll stick with the 1995 black and silver jerseys I have in my wardrobe. MLB-wise I used to go with the Phillies since they were the team I always played as on The Bigz 2 because they were the reigning World Series winners and I ended up becoming familiar with most of the team. Since I studied at UC Irvine, however, they've been replaced by the nearby Angels even though I didn't get a chance to see them, surprisingly because of Mad Cow disease. Since they're in different leagues I can still hope that the two might end up facing each other in the World Series, and basically get to keep the Phillies as my NL backup. :shifty:

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Thinking of American sports, I do actually have a connection with the Chicago Bears because my cousin played for them in a pre-season match in 1986 when they came over to Britain after winning the Super Bowl. They're the team I root for, but I haven't ever been able to latch onto any teams from the other major American sports, even though I enjoy watching them.

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So my hometown has an NFL and MLB team, both of which I actively support. Washington is about an hour away so I support the NBA team there. In the NHL I support Buffalo however, because my dad is from there and brought me into their fanbase. My girlfriend is a native of Montreal so she's been kind of luring me into cheering for the Canadiens as well. With both NBA and NHL it's a lot easier to not be a diehard since the financial investments of tickets aren't there. It makes these sports slightly more enjoyable since I can just unwind and root for players I like. Whereas with baseball and the NFL I have a lot more inherent biases in who I cheer for. You'll never see me going "I hope the Red Sox win!" in the baseball thread or "Go Steelers!" in the NFL thread. I don't get into that level of fan support in other sports because I don't spend a ton of money/time on the teams. With MLS I support DC United and have since the league started up, but it's down my list too far to really affect me until the playoffs start and DC United are in it. Navy is the only college football team I care about, despite cheering for University of Maryland in basketball I can't stand the football program. But Navy never having a shot at the national title makes it a lot easier to just let the games unfold on Saturday. College football is genuinely my favorite sport to watch because of this.

Years ago I got into a Premier League team called Newcastle United, a team consistently battling for the Premier League crown and led by a legendary striker named Alan Shearer. It was all the things I looked for in a team. I've never been to Newcastle despite seeing many other parts of England when I was there. I forever regret making them my team, but I'm in too deep now. I don't feel the connection with the city however, so it's a lot easier for me to just enjoy whatever is on TV here which is never Newcastle (especially now that they aren't even in the top flight).

One thing I'll add is that even though you might be from a city, especially one of with an NFL team, it's so easy to turn against the team. Their fans are going to be obnoxious. Plenty of people I know from Maryland, Philadelphia, and New Jersey are huge Cowboys fans because their the biggest rival of the local teams. Here in Baltimore we have a lot of Pittsburgh fans largely for the same reason. I feel a certain connection with home that makes me really love supporting the home teams, but if you don't feel that it's so easy to root against the teams. I find football is the ultimate sport for this because of the types of fans that you run into, they just tend to not exist in large numbers with any other major sport in the US.

 

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1 hour ago, damshow said:

Years ago I got into a Premier League team called Newcastle United, a team consistently battling for the Premier League crown and led by a legendary striker named Alan Shearer. It was all the things I looked for in a team. I've never been to Newcastle despite seeing many other parts of England when I was there. I forever regret making them my team, but I'm in too deep now. I don't feel the connection with the city however, so it's a lot easier for me to just enjoy whatever is on TV here which is never Newcastle (especially now that they aren't even in the top flight).

Newcastle are the closest I have to another team. I always considered them my Premiership team just because of players like Barry Venison, Faustino Asprilla, Alan Shearer, David Ginola, Philippe "Would you like some chips with that, Peter" Albert, Sir Les Ferdinand, Andy Cole, Pavel Srnicek (rip), Rob Lee, and then later on some of my England faves like Stuart Pearce and John Barnes. And Jonas. Oh, and Shola. Probably a whole load of other players as well. Plus the various 4-3 games against Liverpool and that and, of course, against Barca where I swear down that Asprilla hung in the air for minutes leading to a headed goal but that might just be my imagination. 

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I support both Cork City and Newcastle.

Newcastle came about through coming into football at a young age when Alan Shearer made his record move, made the decision and never looked back. I also didn't like that everyone in the country supported Man United or Liverpool with a sprinkling of Arsenal. It was boring and I didn't want to just pick a team that won everything like Man United. It was tough to avoid United then because Dennis Irwin and in particular Roy Keane were idolised. Especially considering I went to the same school as Irwin. No regrets about Newcastle though, I love the club, the fans and the city. I try to get over there as much as possible and always look forward to the trip as much as possible.

I went to more Cork City games when I was younger but it's tough to get to them now as I don't live there anymore, when they're playing in Dublin though I do my best to get there. I'll be heading to the FAI Cup final though and looking forward to it!

I don't think it's necessary but it's better if your team is local. I don't understand though how there's Man United fans in London and down south in general when there's local clubs playing at a high level in the same league or on below. If I had a Football League team nearby, I'd have to support them rather than flying/driving half way across the country.

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2 minutes ago, TCO said:

I don't think it's necessary but it's better if your team is local. I don't understand though how there's Man United fans in London and down south in general when there's local clubs playing at a high level in the same league or on below. If I had a Football League team nearby, I'd have to support them rather than flying/driving half way across the country.

I don't even know that many Orient fans apart from my mate Dave. When I was growing up everyone was an Arsenal or United fan apart from that one pleb that supported QPR. Its a lot easier to become a fan of whoever is the biggest team at the time.

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