The Pittsburgh Steelers are now the best franchise in the the NFL.
No doubt Steeler Nation is still rejoicing after a last-minute Super Bowl victory.
But why is there a Steeler Nation? According to the city’s Web site, Pittsburgh has a population of just 334,563 — that’s smaller than Mesa. A sports team from such a small city should not have a national following.
Pittsburgh is only one of several sports team “nations.” The Red Sox Nation. Yankee Nation. Los Angeles Laker Nation.
There are two consistent variables between those teams: playoffs and championships. All of those teams regularly make the playoffs and have won several championships.
I’ve never heard of the Baltimore Orioles Nation. And Arizona Mills stores don’t stock tons of Minnesota Timberwolves apparel.
It can’t be that the people from cities with winning sports teams are just migrating. Look at New York. They have two football teams and two baseball teams. Mets Nation is considerably smaller than Yankee Nation, because the Mets are considerably awful.
While it’s understandable to want to be part of the winning team, it can’t be healthy. Cheering on a distant team to associate with winning sounds more like a personality disorder than being a fan.
What happens when that team doesn’t win anymore? Logically, those fans would move on to a better team.
Inevitably, though, like all sports fans, they will be disappointed. Sports outcomes are difficult to predict. Case in point: The Arizona Cardinals made the Super Bowl this year.
And if being a sports fan is mostly disappointing anyway, it makes more sense to be disappointed with everyone else in the community. When your friends and family are depressed after a loss, the last person they want to see is a fan of the winning team. “Nation” fans tend to be that person.
But besides just being annoying, being a bandwagon fan can have serious consequences. “Nation” fandom is a real disservice to the community.
Those fans of distant teams hurt their local economy. While Guatemalans manufactured my Yuta Tabuse Phoenix Suns jersey, the Just Sports store I bought it (on clearance) from was in Arizona. If I wanted a Kenyon Martin Denver Nuggets jersey, my only option would be to buy it from online retailers.
Buying a Suns jersey also helped the Suns organization, which according to LinkedIn.com has 201-500 employees. Those employees pay Arizona taxes and buy goods from Arizona stores.
Those taxes went to the state of Arizona and the city of Phoenix. The government was able to spend some of that on infrastructure improvement. Those improvements helped to bring other revenue-generating events, such as last year’s Super Bowl and this year’s NBA All-Star Game, to Phoenix.
At the very least, bandwagon fans should convert to fair-weather fans, who at least occasionally buy fan gear and watch broadcasts. Losing hurts, but it’s an unavoidable aspect of life, and the best way to cope with it is practice.
Nobody likes losing, but fan “nations” make everyone losers.
Reach Chris at cogino@asu.edu.
