Editorial

STUDY: Fans Of Sports Teams Are Becoming ‘Fluid,’ Cheering For Multiple Teams

(Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)

David Hookstead Sports And Entertainment Editor
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A new study says sports fans aren’t nearly as loyal as they once were, and it’s certainly a reason to be concerned.

Peter R. Orszag wrote the following for Bloomberg about fans not being as dedicated as they once were:

When our son switched his NBA allegiance from the Houston Rockets to the Golden State Warriors, my wife, a lifelong Rockets fan, was aghast. But a new report suggests this type of disloyalty is about to become commonplace, with enormous implications for the sports market.

The new report, from the Sports Innovation Lab, co-founded by former Olympic gold-medal-winning ice hockey player Angela Ruggiero, suggests we are entering an era of the “fluid fan,” whose allegiances and attention shift rapidly. In the U.K. already, almost half of younger fans now support more than one soccer team — something that would have been hard to imagine decades ago.

Yeah, this is going to be a major problem for me. It’s actually not just a major problem. It might be a problem that is too much for me to move past. (RELATED: July Is The Final Month Of 2019 Without College Football)

Fans are just switching allegiances? Is that a joke? Has the world been turned upside down? You can’t just switch allegiances.

That’s not how it works at all. That’s not even close to how it works, and I’d know better than just about anybody else on the planet.

I grew up in Wisconsin in the land of the Green Bay Packers, and I’m a gigantic Detroit Lions fan. You know how much success the Lions have had in my life?

None, and the Packers have won multiple Super Bowls in my lifetime. Yet, I didn’t just jump ship. I didn’t abandon my squad.

I’ve been rolling with them since day one, and that won’t be changing anytime soon.

Anybody who changes allegiances when it comes to sports should be arrested. Anybody who just switches sides is a traitor. You know what we do with traitors? We imprison them for the good of society.

I’m weeping for the future of America right now. Pick a team and ride with them until the end. It’s not a difficult concept to understand.