Fan loyalty poll

http://www.sfexaminer.com/sports/mlb/2011/03/survey-ranks-fan-loyalty#ixzz1HGDXOCPK

AP summarizes fan loyalty poll (across all sports).

For the NHL:

 

I think it's quite shocking that the Toronto Maple Leafs aren't high up that list...

 

It doesn't tell us who was polled, where they were, and when it was.

It doesn't even tell us how the "Sports Loyalty Index" was determined, or what formula was used.

I wouldn't read too much into it without this information.

 

The best attendance record in pro sports apparently means little in a fan loyalty index... who knew?

 

Or the Canadiens.......

 

Didn't the Bruins have 12,000 fans per game when they were in last place 4-5 years ago?

Not saying we're the most loyal, but our last place Sens get 18,000 fans per game. Certainly more loyal than Boston.


Leafs should be #1 in this poll.

I'll also give props to the remaining die-hard Islander fans who have put up with more than you can imagine.

 

lol redwings and boston.

Loyal fans at supporting a winner but not a loser.

 

Habs and Leafs not there discredits this list instantly. Why even post such nonsense?

 

The fact that the Caridnals are not top 5 in Baseball, in addition to the ommission of the Leafs and Habs in hockey, makes me declare bunk on this survey.

 

Looks more like a list on who could win the cup this year. Fan Loyalty? My ass. Habs and Leafs easily should be on that list. What other city in North America could have the record of the Leafs and still be dominating the sports headlines like they do in Toronto? Montreal - and that's really about it.

 

Agreed.

There's absolutley no way that Vancouver fans are more loyal to the Canucks than Leaf or Habs fans are loyal to their teams. I'm a Vancouver fan and I live in Vancouver and I'll tell you that Vancouver is a bandwagon city. Not to the point where we flat out won't support our team if things aren't going well, but we certainly wouldn't be selling out.

 

I lived in Vancouver from 1998 to 2005 and they are definetly a BandWagon fan base. They do, of course, have a core fan group that is very large, in comparassion to many teams but give them 3 or more bad seasons and the change will be drastic.

Barely anyone was talking about the Nucks' back in 98-99. But now everyone and thier dog was a lifelong Canucks fan.

Just with them being in the top 5, you know this poll is BS.

 

Poll was taken from fans leaving arenas in 5 cities. I'll leave it up to you to guess which 5...

 

Important to keep in mind the sizes of the cities/metro areas on the list, as well as their combined dispersal populations to other areas. Keep in mind how many other major sports large US cities have to watch/buy tickets for/etc. Just because a guy from, say, Boston, might prefer to spend his ticket money on the Sox or the Pats doesn't mean he doesn't at least slightly follow the Bruins and root for them in crunch time. Even if he only follows the Bruins lightly, he's still probably never going to become a Rags fan if he moves to New York; it's not just a team loyalty thing, it's a city/culture loyalty thing. For a lot of the major US cities, especially east coast cities, the city rivalries are as large and old as any of the sport rivalries (some people from these places have huge arguments over their ******* pizza, for chrissake).

 

Unlike Toronto and Montreal, Boston and Detroit have 3 other major NA sports teams they can purchase ticks for when their hockey team sucks. Montreal just has the Habs, Toronto has the Leafs, Jays, and Raptors. Boston and Detroit have NFL teams as well. Why blow your load on a crap hockey team when you can get good tickets to a possibly better performing team.

 

Some more background on the index:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_loyalty#Measurements_and_indices_of_fan_loyalty

 

It's ridiculous not having the Rangers and Canadiens in there.

In fact, it makes the 'poll' worthless.

 

All 3 of them?

 

agreed

 

most Detroit fans are only there when the team wins...how is that loyal? The other teams on the list I don't disagree with but Detroit shouldn't even be top ten.

 

Maybe because your loyal?

 

I thought if a team was too good for too long, the fans would lose interest and leave? Atlanta Braves Syndrome.


It's hard to really study Detroit in any context here because the team has been so good for so long, an entire generation has grown up with a team that's always in contention. Considering the major sports demographic targeted is the male 18-35 yo group, Wings fans at the 35 yr end of things would have been born in 1976. They were 7 yrs old when Yzerman was drafted. That's roughly the first point/age most kids start following a team. By the time these guys were teens, the Wings were already on their 20 yrs of straight playoff appearances (as Ilitch had turned the tide).

In fact, there are very few fans that might have any recollection of the Dead Things Era from the sense of having watched all that led up to it and then how the franchise exited that phase.


That said, I agree that those crazy Habs and Leafs fans belong on the top part of this list.

 

Since this is an American survey, I think it would quite shocking if they were....

 

Pretty much this.

 

exactly

personally i'm 20 years old and the last time the Wings missed the playoffs was....before I was even born


it does seem pretty weird that Montreal and Toronto aren't up there but seeing as how this is an american survey and we don't know where they are(just not in the top 5 so for all we know they could be 6th/7th or something) its understandable

how are the Rangers 20th though? what is this even based on?