I don't understand who fans of PRO teams are rooting for?

[Jack from Charlotte]

The players are rarely from your own state or area.

The owners aren't from your area until you give them a bunch of your tax money and they move there at least, part time.

The players may leave tomorrow if they're free agents and get a better deal somewhere else.

The whole team may move if they get a better deal from another city.


I don't get it? Colleges at least stay in the same city. (One exception is Wake Forrest which was moved in about 1960 by The Winston Cig Company.)

[Orsino]

1. The important thing is to root for a team you could see locally at home...

...to follow their strategies, celebrate their victories and weep at their defeats. It's less important that they have been raised in your town or state.

I have about zero interest in sports, but I get this part, I think.

[KamaAina]

2. Seinfeld: "Really, we're all just rooting for laundry."

There you have it.

[mark414]

3. well, most elite college sports teams feature players not from that state or area

and my Packers aren't going anywhere...they are literally owned by their fans

[Jack from Charlotte]

5. Not so. Almost all top colleges feature players from their own state....

and their area. It's quite rare that more out of state players make up the 80 to 85 scholarship players on a college roster. Only smaller states like say an Oklahoma might be made of of under 50% Okies and then they rest are usually from Texas.

Green Bay is the secret the NFL doesn't want anyone to talk about. Publicly owned teams would be their worst nightmare. Why? Because they can't threaten to move if they don't get tax payer funded stadia.

I wish a city would condem a sports team some time and then take it from it's owner. Just like condeming a piece of property in order to widen a road. Bring out all the NFL statements about how the team is so great for the city. Pay the owner what it's worth.... but seize it and keep it as a public work.

End of moving threats and end of shake down for a new stadium paid by tax payers every 20 years.

Any wonder why Green Bay hasn't built a new stadium for about 50 years?

[Tommy_Carcetti]

6. Condemning a team

"I wish a city would condem a sports team some time and then take it from it's owner. Just like condeming a piece of property in order to widen a road. Bring out all the NFL statements about how the team is so great for the city. Pay the owner what it's worth.... but seize it and keep it as a public work."

A novel idea.

Major League Baseball essentially condemned the Montreal Expos franchise a couple of years ago. The owner ended up buying the Florida Marlins, whose owner had in turn bought the Boston Red Sox. MLB let the Expos flounder in Montreal for a few years while essentially admitting the team would be moving. They even played a chunk of their games in Puerto Rico. Then MLB moved the Expos to Washington to become the Nationals, waited for Washington to approve a new stadium deal, and sold the team at a pretty nice profit thereafter.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

4. Civic pride

Whatever city you are from or near, that city's pro team gives you a sense of unity and identity. When the team wins, everyone gets to rejoice and be proud. When the team loses, it gves everyone a sesne to be collectively depressed. Either way, the city's sports team proves to be the great unifier.

That is why like it or not, a city never seems to be considered "big time" until it gets a pro sports team. A city can have all the great restaraunts possible, all the great museums you can think of, but without that sports team for everyone to get behind, it would always seem to be missing something.

And yes, players change teams. The team could move and break the city's heart. But no matter what, the idea of the five or nine or eleven or how many ever guys wearing a city's name across their chests carries a great amount of power to the city's people. When they win the championship, people go into the streets in spontaneous, joyful celebration. When they lose a heartbreaking game, the whole city seems to shut down.

I remember being in Baltimore last year when the Ravens were about face the Indianapolis (Colts), who were the former incarnation of the Baltimore Colts before they were ripped away from the city in the middle of the night. The whole week the city was psyching itself up--the word was should the Ravens win, what a great catharsis it would be for the 13 years the city was without a NFL team. And in the end, the Ravens lost. And the day after, the whole city seemed to be in a huge funk--I walked into a supermarket and nobody seemed to have the slightest of smile or in the mood to talk. In a way, it was sad. But in another way, it felt good in a strange way. Too many times, people get sad and depressed over things that no one else can understand or relate to. But when you see an entire city sad, you get the feeling that just for this one little, seemingly inconsequential thing, you are not alone in your bitterness and disappointment. That you have several hundred thousand people who feel the same way you do, for the exact same reason you do. And it gives you a connection with your neighbors, in the strangest of ways.

[MissMillie]

7. Lots of times the players on the teams get involved with the community

it doesn't matter to them which community, they just jump in and help out. Programs for Children's Hospital, Jimmy Fund, Boys & Girls Clubs, all sorts of community service.

:hi: