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June 10, 2004

In Praise of the Fair Weather Fan

Back in 1987, sometime during the American League Championship Series, Patrick Reusse and Joe Soucheray - on their old "Monday Night Sportstalk" show - lambasted the immense, loud, boisterous crowds that suddenly began turning out to see the Twins. Although the Twins had had a good season - after several straight bad ones, including a 1986 that saw them duelling the ChiSox for the AL West's cellar - the fans had been light and variable until the post-season got underway. Suddenly, the avalanche was on, and tickets for the Twins were hotter than Milli Vanilli and Debbie Gibson rolled into one..

"Aaaaaah", croaked Reusse, "buncha fair-weather fans".

Dang straight, I thought.

Except for the Bears and, most seasons, the Twins, I'm the king of the fair-weather fans.

I'm a busy guy - work, kids, time-intensive hobbies, yadda yadda. I go through a particularly rigorous cost-benefit analysis for everything on which I might spend time; does the cost (in time) benefit me in enjoyment more than the other things I might do?

That calculation leads me to toss things out pretty ruthlessly; among the detritus, losing teams (like the '90 Twins) and even entire sports (Hockey).

And let's be honest; sports need fans like me. It's only good capitalism.

In a normal free-market economy, sports teams need to deliver - good teams, good efforts, winning records - to provoke audiences to part with their hard-earned money. If the team is phoning it in, punching the clock, nobody but the absolute hard core will care - and the team will fold, and will deserve to. To draw people, they have to appeal to the fickle tastes of...me!

In the East-German-like sports economy of places like Wrigley Field, Fenway, and the vision the likes of Patrick Reusse, Joe Soucheray and the like have, everyone would troop dutifully, a horde of gray-faced sheep, to the Sports Allocation Centre, for their weekly ration of Sport. The team would slog through the motions, the herd audience would pay $5 for their hot dogs and dutifully clap at the appropriate times, and go home wearing their $399 sweatshirts.

So you see - fair-weather fans like me are not only absolutely vital for the health and survival of sports; we are good for free enterprise, even democracy itself.

Don't be ripping on fair-weather fans. Salute us - for we are the champions of freedom.

Posted by Mitch at June 10, 2004 07:30 AM
Comments

About twenty years ago a couple of economists did a study team performance and fan attendance. The basic result was that teams that had more "fair-weather fans" -- meaning that attendance was highly dependent on team performance -- won more championships. Cubs and Red Sox fans are extremely loyal, and ... well, I should not have to complete this sentence, painful as it is for a Sox fan to say.

Posted by: kb at June 10, 2004 10:12 AM

As Cubs fan, I feel yer pain.

Posted by: mitch at June 10, 2004 01:56 PM
hi