OT: If Philadelphia Had No Sports Teams, Who Would You Root For?

[Pantokrator]

This is a great question!

NHL - I would sadly be a Devils fan. Their defensive game suits my style, so I would have loved that awful team from 95 on.
NFL - Saints - I'm 2 hours away
MLB - Atlanta in the National league (I got to see all those games in the 90s). KC Royals in the American league
NBA - I don't follow NBA at all. Probably a Spurs fan because I liked Tim Duncan.

 

[PALE PWNR]

Idk

 

[Striiker]

For me it kinda depends on what exactly youre asking.

Do you mean a) if suddenly starting tomorrow all the teams disappeared, or do you mean b) if they never existed to begin with.

If “a”... I have no clue... I’d have to seriously think about it. I have no attachment to any other city, so I’m either neutral or dislike them. And I have no 2nd team, so I cant just default to that.

If “b”, I probably never would have gotten into hockey to start with.

 

[onlylordsvsmorebp]

Long ****ing Cooperall.

cooperall= cool as ****.

 

[VoiceOfTheFlyers]

For me it kinda depends on what exactly youre asking.

Do you mean a) if suddenly starting tomorrow all the teams disappeared, or do you mean b) if they never existed to begin with.

If “a”... I have no clue... I’d have to seriously think about it. I have no attachment to any other city, so I’m either neutral or dislike them. And I have no 2nd team, so I cant just default to that.

If “b”, I probably never would have gotten into hockey to start with.

As if they never existed to begin with.

 

[Magua]

If my family, almost all from the area (the important ones anyway), didn't have Philly teams to attach themselves to, they likely would've attached themselves to a different set of teams, therein passing that rooting interest down to me as well. Sports tend to be familial. If Philadelphia never had teams, which is an outlandish premise given the size of the city (unless Philly didn't exist either), logic would probably dictate most of us would have generationally gravitated towards the nearest metropolitan team(s) -- please don't make me think too deeply about being a Rangers fan -- or even that disgusting Sheetz-eating intrastate rival, especially for people who grew up in 90s hockey.

 

[Jray42]

If my family, almost all from the area (the important ones anyway), didn't have Philly teams to attach themselves to, they likely would've attached themselves to a different set of teams, therein passing that rooting interest down to me as well. Sports tend to be familial. If Philadelphia never had teams, which is an outlandish premise given the size of the city (unless Philly didn't exist either), logic would probably dictate most of us would have generationally gravitated towards the nearest metropolitan team(s) -- please don't make me think too deeply about being a Rangers fan -- or even that disgusting Sheetz-eating intrastate rival, especially for people who grew up in 90s hockey.

Honestly, this is probably accurate for me as well.

I'm a flyers fan because my grandfather was a die hard fan, who passed it to my dad, who then passed it to me. I would probably be a fan of whoever they were fans of, and it very well could have been one of the New York teams.

 

[VoiceOfTheFlyers]

I find it highly odd that no one identifies wholly with another town.

 

[Magua]

It's the antithesis of odd. That would be odd.

 

[Jray42]

I find it highly odd that no one identifies wholly with another town.

Most (some) of us identify with one town... Philadelphia.

I don't think many people identify with 2 or more towns. I'm sure they're out there, such as people who have spent a good portion of the lives living in two separate cities, but I doubt it's the norm.

 

[VoiceOfTheFlyers]

Most (some) of us identify with one town... Philadelphia.

I don't think many people identify with 2 or more towns. I'm sure they're out there, such as people who have spent a good portion of the lives living in two separate cities, but I doubt it's the norm.

And yet, most of the posters on here aren't from Philly. By definition, they are identifying with 2 or more towns as is anyone who roots for two or more teams from different cities.

 

[Jray42]

And yet, most of the posters on here aren't from Philly. By definition, they are identifying with 2 or more towns as is anyone who roots for two or more teams from different cities.

I don't think that many of the posters who aren't from Philly are fans of all 4 sports teams here, but I could be wrong. I think you see a lot of people who are Flyers fans, but fans of other teams in other sports, so I don't know how much they would identify with Philly as a whole.

I think it would be rare to have someone who (for example) identifies with and is a fan of all Philly teams, but then also identifies with Denver and would switch all allegiances to the Denver teams, in every sport.

 

[LegionOfDoom91]

I only root for area team’s. I don’t care about basketball but if I did I would root for the Sixers.

 

[Magua]

It's this idea of "rooting for a town" that makes little sense to me for people who have no personal connection with a a city.

Flyers fans from elsewhere are not generally rooting for the city of Philadelphia....."go Jim Kenney go!" I think people from elsewhere are primarily rooting for Philly's hockey team. It does meld it a bit because you associate with Flyers fans and there's (sometimes) camaraderie in the sense you want them to be happy for their other teams if they're doing well, or you pick up a little cultural transfusion. But not always or enough where you're suddenly a die-hard Eagles, Sixers, and/or Phillies fan. You may not even like those sports. I won't say it doesn't happen, especially for people abroad, but I don't see it being commonplace, certainly for all 4 major teams.

And if the idea is rooting for an entire's town teams as a secondary fandom (which is far weirder), I usually call BS on those things. We all have teams we "like" in other cities. But we like them from a distance. Do you follow them with even a scrap of the obsessiveness of your main teams?

 

[VoiceOfTheFlyers]

I don't think that many of the posters who aren't from Philly are fans of all 4 sports teams here, but I could be wrong. I think you see a lot of people who are Flyers fans, but fans of other teams in other sports, so I don't know how much they would identify with Philly as a whole.

I think it would be rare to have someone who (for example) identifies with and is a fan of all Philly teams, but then also identifies with Denver and would switch all allegiances to the Denver teams, in every sport.

But that's not what's being said. It's if Philly teams never existed in the first place.

 

[VoiceOfTheFlyers]

It's this idea of "rooting for a town" that makes little sense to me for people who have no personal connection with a a city.

Flyers fans from elsewhere are not generally rooting for the city of Philadelphia....."go Jim Kenney go!" I think people from elsewhere are primarily rooting for Philly's hockey team. It does meld it a bit because you associate with Flyers fans and there's (sometimes) camaraderie in the sense you want them to be happy for their other teams if they're doing well, or you pick up a little cultural transfusion. But not always or enough where you're suddenly a die-hard Eagles, Sixers, and/or Phillies fan. You may not even like those sports. I won't say it doesn't happen, especially for people abroad, but I don't see it being commonplace, certainly for all 4 major teams.

And if the idea is rooting for an entire's town teams as a secondary fandom (which is far weirder), I usually call BS on those things. We all have teams we "like" in other cities. But we like them from a distance. Do you follow them with even a scrap of the obsessiveness of your main teams?

I think it's hard to say. There's certainly a big 4 for 4 contingent within the city itself. That is, people who were born and raised here, who are a fan of all 4 major teams.

There's also a lot of people born and raised in the city who are fans of other teams. For myself, I'm a hardcore Oakland Raiders fan but personally could care less about the city of Oakland. Strangely enough, I despise Philadelphia politics as well.

 

[Kermit the Prog]

I find it highly odd that no one identifies wholly with another town.

17th post in the thread:

Flames, Falcons, and Braves. Was a big Hank Aaron and Darrell Evans fan.

I've lived in the Philadelphia area all my life.

 

[Pantokrator]

And yet, most of the posters on here aren't from Philly. By definition, they are identifying with 2 or more towns as is anyone who roots for two or more teams from different cities.

I grew up in Wilmington, DE, about 15-20 miles South of Philly, so even though I haven't lived there for 30 years, my family still does. Hence, the Philly connection for me.