Too many #$%# Northerners in this town...

[Bullshiznitz]

Im with you Griggsy...people who still root for their "home" town team sicken me.....I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, but have been down here for over 10 years.  How anyone can root against the home town team is beyond me and in my opinion truly does show they are bandwagon fans.  Oh, the Devil Rays suck so Im going to still root for the yanks/sox/etc... Its pathetic.  And hey, you can have your old memories (I still remember the back to back stanley cups with Lemiuex and Jagr...and the Pirates going from horrible to division winners during the Bonds/Bonilla/Van Slyke days)...but guess what thats the past...now I get to be part of memories of the Lightning stanley cup, and the Bucs superbowl win...and the frustration of being a Devil Rays fan.  Thats what a true fan is....

[TexanMark]

Im with you Griggsy...people who still root for their "home" town team sicken me.....I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, but have been down here for over 10 years.  How anyone can root against the home town team is beyond me and in my opinion truly does show they are bandwagon fans.  Oh, the Devil Rays suck so Im going to still root for the yanks/sox/etc... Its pathetic.  And hey, you can have your old memories (I still remember the back to back stanley cups with Lemiuex and Jagr...and the Pirates going from horrible to division winners during the Bonds/Bonilla/Van Slyke days)...but guess what thats the past...now I get to be part of memories of the Lightning stanley cup, and the Bucs superbowl win...and the frustration of being a Devil Rays fan.  Thats what a true fan is....

Griggsby hates you,too.....why?

You're a friggin northerner.

[TakeItOrLeavitt]

Are you the same guy who calls people who were born and raised in the Bronx, but living in Tampa for like 3 years Yankee bandwagon fans?

The funny thing about that is when you go to Rays games there are always a ton of people walking around with Yankee AND either Buccaneer or Lightning gear on. They really are some of the biggest frontrunners out there. I love baseball and the Rays but it's painful having to go pay to listen to Yankee or Red Sox fans cheer on their team.

[Herman_Momart]

.  How anyone can root against the home town team is beyond me and in my opinion truly does show they are bandwagon fans

Dont have to root against them, just dont have to root for them.  I have zero interest in the Tampa Bay bucaneers, never have, never will.  Part of the reason is when i moved here no one cared about the bucs and neither did I (rightfully so).  But 5 years later there were bucs magnets, flags and peuter jerseys everywhere.  It was amazing to me.  

how does that define ME or a transplant as bangwagon??? It would be bandwagon if i started liking them after they got good like all the natives.  I mean the devil rays do suck, when they get good all the locals will go to the games and i still wont.  Hence, me not being bandwagon and those people going only because of fair weather are.  Right? I thought thats what bangwagon meant.  

[Mama_Bull]

Hmmmm.....interesting situation.

I have a buddy - grew up in Pittsburgh - moved here in '78 to go to USF (his folks had retired and moved to Florida, as was the custom back in the day). However, his formative years were spent north of the Mason-Dixon, and he never really 'left'. He has three degrees from USF, but only follows USF sports marginally. He follows Pitt football, Pittsburgh Steelers at the pro level, and the Pirates in baseball. No interest, other than passing, in the Bucs, Bulls or Devil Rays. Not an alumi associaiton member or a season ticket holder. And, I've run across a lot of folks who are the exact same.

Tampa is a repository for snow bound 'fugees. They grew up in Ohio, Michigan, New York and migrated south, but just never did shake their early infulences - and never embraced the new digs, probably ,because deep, down inside...Ohio and Michigan and New York are still 'home'. Even though they've been here 20 or 30 years, they're still quick to tell you "I'm from [insert state here]", it's only later that they tell you they've been here for twenty-odd years, they make is sound like they moved down just a few weeks back.

I'm fortunate in that I live in the city in which I went to college. I can imagine the inconvenience of having to follow your school from a distance (unless, again, it is OSU, Michigan, Texas, etc.).  I wouldn't want to try to follow the Bulls from Monroe, North Carolina. Then again, just cause I move (hypothetically speaking) back to Monroe, doesn't mean I'd become an ECU Pirate fan simply because they're the local team. I have no obligation to do so.

*and if USF every played at NCSU, Duke, Wake Forest, UNC, East Carolina...I'd be there in the Green-n-Gold.

I have lived here for 17 years now.  I do not root for any other school but USF.   I'll never be thought of as a native Tampanian with my NY accent.  BTW, the way, I root for the Bucs and Bolts as well.  I'm not much of a fan of the Devil Rays (because I'm not a big baseball fan).  

[WoolyBully]

But the question is...what constitutes the "home team"? Do you think all the folks decked out in Orange were alumni? Or were they fans from way back? Same with the Notre Dame game...were they legit alumni or subway alum?

And you can't rule out the possibility - probably extremely high in both cases - that being fans of 'Cuse or Irish, this is their sole trip to the dome. It's not like they're there to root AGAINST USF, but there to see a team to which they are aligned in some way. I know a lot of folks seated around us had never been to the dome before, but were there sporting their finest Irish regalia. I doubt I'll see them again, anytime soon, for at least two reasons.

Thing is..until USF starts winning with some measure of regularity, you're going to run the risk of being outnumbered by touristas when you play marquee teams. We growl and snap at USF/UCF attendance. We have a season ticket base of around 16K seats. What do you s'pose RayJ would like, color wise, if (hypothetically) UF or FSU or even UM were to swing by? You don't think we'd sell out the ENTIRE STADIUM and it would be laden with foreign flag fans? I wouldn't be surprised if some of the folks - obviously of lesser breeding - seated around you show up sporting non-USF attire, spouting the caveat that "I was a [insert non-Bull centric team here] fan before I was a bull fan".

Per my previous: I'm Bull until the bitter end. If I did find myself back on Tobacco Road, I would be at any Bulls appearance sporting the green-n-gold. Under no circumstances would I leave behind USF simply because I live next door to Duke University.  And I would imagine those 'Cuse & Irish fans see it the same way.

Now...if USF had more fans than either of them, this thread would be a non-issue. But hoops being what it is - and assuming no radical improvement for years to come - there will be more instances of being outnumbered in the back yard.

[SRQ]

Win, win consistently, win BIG and enough transplants become fans.  Its simple; not easy.

[ChiTownBull]

It's also part of having our school in a large city. People who attend universities in traditional college towns move to larger cities to find jobs. I live less than a mile from the Depaul campus and constantly see people wearing Big 10 and ND attire. Almost all of the big 10 schools are in small towns which are close to Chicago.

Same goes for USF...a lot of alums of other universities especially gayturds and f$u move to Tampa. The ones that we need to covert are our own Alums that root for other schools.

[smazza]

I just read the post about the Syracuse chant at the bball game. I think this is a major issue that runs deeper than just a basketball game or two.

My wife and I went to Barnacles to catch an away USF game this past season, and you could barely find a TV with it on. They place was loaded with fans of other teams though. (Ohio State is the one i REALLY remember...they were everywhere).

The only thing I can really say about it is RIDICULOUS.  Im sorry, but if are THAT many of you that love your "home" team THAT much, then move the #$%$# back.  No kidding, the market is flooded, primarily with fans of NORTHERN teams.. It makes me so angry think to think of the weak souls that are all like "waaah, im cooold" so they move down here with their freakin Ohio State/Yankees/Red Sox shirts. ARGGH!

Im from Georgia, but I live in Tampa because its one of about 3 places in the entire US where I can do my job. Dont tell me these people moved down because they "had" to.  If you move down here because you like it, then support the local economy.

Not sure why this urks me so much...but I was fighting mad at the USF-ND game.  

Freaking northerners. Go back from whence you came.

you need to find a small town somewhere and pitch a tent

[Griggsy]

Hmm...ok. Now that I left for a few hours and came back and read this, I think I was a little abrasive.

My point in a nutshell is that Im not happy about the fact that groups of people move en masse from (fill in the blank) and then support their "home" teams OVER the local teams.

Someone mentioned moving to Chicago and still supporting USF. If I were to move outside the state as an alum (say, Atlanta)...would I support Georgia Tech over USF? Of course not.

The difference I think is that I dont think USF fans are going to overtake the local market in Atlanta to the point that Ga Tech sports programs will suffer.  If USF played Ga Tech in basketball, you're not going to outnumber THEIR fans.

Not sure how (or if) this is a 'problem' that can really be fixed. But it sure feels good to gripe! Either that, or maybe I can just move into a tent out in the country.