Supporting your local team?

[Warp Renegade]

This question is mostly about football (or Soccer for any Americans) but applies to pretty much all sports.

I don't support my local team, I check how they are doing and I like to see them doing well but not a supporter really. My local team are in the Championship so towards the end of the season it can get interesting if they are up for promotion or relegation. I can get into it then but for the rest of the season, their playing style doesn't interest me at all.

So I would say that even though I'm not a massive fan, if anyone asks then I would say I support Liverpool FC. I like how they play, it's always interesting, you never know if they have a good streak then they could top the league. The fans are 100% hardcore, the atmosphere is amazing and supporter loyalty is great.

So, I've been told that I'm a glory fan but I disagree. I think that as a consumer I have the right to watch the level and kind of football that I want to see, along with the fans and atmosphere. I spend my hard earned money to buy tickets, travel etc... then I should at least enjoy what I am seeing.

I don't only watch movies that have been made locally, or eat cuisines invented locally or listen to music only by local bands because I want to see the best movies, eat the finest cuisine and listen to the best music that the world has to offer. Why should I limit myself to only seeing, eating, hearing etc... things that have been produced locally to me?

I don't see why the same principles shouldn't apply to football which afterall is just a form of entertainment.


Any opinions either way? Am I a glory hunter or just a FOOTBALL fan?

 

[Pegasus]

IMO this is just loving the game. If you grow up watching a team, you'll probably like them as an adult as well. That said, what you said about the style of play is important, too. The team that is big where I live now (Patriots) plays a style of (American) football that I am not really a fan of, being very pass-heavy (though not quite as much this year). I'm a fan of rush-first football, and so in the pros, I watch teams like the Dolphins (a rival to the hometown Pats). I will also tend to follow athletes that are respectable in college play regardless of the team they play for.

If you're enjoying the game so much that you're breaking down the style of play, I think you're enjoying sports for their intended purpose!

 

[Volundr]

I dunno Warp, I, like many other football fans don't simply find football as a form of entertainment. My team has a big role in my life, a good result can put me in jubilation, a bad one can ruin a day. Fortunately my team plays a style of football that suits me, so in that sense I can't really say I have experienced the opposite side of the spectrum, although for a long time, my team had been doing poorly. Although this year being in the Champions League, playing well and beating huge teams, one can't help but feel a personal level of pride and joy from the team they have grown up supporting and stuck with.

I think it's completely different to your local music, film etc analogy, as film watching isn't a tribal culture, where as football, for the most part, is. You have a link to a team and grow up with it, experiencing their highs and lows as you go through life, as opposed to, lets say people that support Man Utd. with absolutely no connection to Manchester.


I don't know your connection to Liverpool, perhaps it's the closest Premiership team, perhaps your dad supports them or something, but to me, without a connection to a team it is extremely difficult to be a supporter. Sure, I like a lot of teams in other leagues, and root for them to do well and even know all their players, basic history etc., but I wouldn't claim to support them as, at the end of the day their results mean nothing more than a 'oh nice, they won', or a 'ah, they're not doing so well this year'. Where as, like I said, my teams results have a real affect, as sad as it may sound. I genuinely feel low if things aren't going so well, and I genuinely leap up in joy if we score a last minute goal etc.

If of course, you have the same emotional connection, then I am of course wrong, but I personally would be surprised, as, your reasoning is that you, as a consumer should, pay for what you want to see, rather than supporting through pure passion for and connection to the team?

 

[Pander Bear]

I vote football fan, not glory hunter.

 

[KamMoye]

"emotional connection"

i support the spurs, because i support the way they do business. that's my emotional connection. i used to supoprt the lakers, my local team, but when i stopped liking the way they did business (kobe bryant), i stopped supporting them. when he's gone, maybe i'll go back to it.

meh who cares, do what you feel