I like to consider myself to be practical, diplomatic and
fair. I have an ability to clear my mind and make an opinion based on what I
believe to be righteous and most importantly, realistic. Some accuse me as
being skeptical and others say overly optimistic. When it comes to Philadelphia
sports teams, I use reasoning, deduction, facts and fandom in my analysis of
the standing with the city and the fan-base.
With that being said, I believe our Philadelphia sports
teams have grossly underachieved in the last two years. But even more disturbing is our
blurred realities of management and fans u feathered support of perennial
mediocrity. In what I will call, The
Philadelphia Fan Thesis,” I will dissect the fallacies and realities of each
teams relationship with fans. I will do my best to not feed individual stats,
rather just relay the details as they support my points.
The first things we need to come together on is what teams
should be relevant to this study. My measurement is sheepish, silly but in the
scheme of things very truthful. You need to ask one fundamental question. If the team wins a championship, will this
constitute a parade down Broad Street. It’s honestly the only thing that
matters. This exact premise will eliminate all individual champions. Thus, we
salute the excellence of our local golfers, swimmers and colts (RIP Smarty
Jones) but none will ever invoke a city-wide parade. Although we love our
college teams too, they will not have parades either. In basketball, a parade would be on campus
and likely mocked by rival local schools. No one from St. Joes would applaud a
Villanova championship and likewise. In football, the answer is simple, NCAA
doesn’t have a playoff thus has no real champion we can celebrate in any
city.
Secondly, people brag about being 4 for 4 fans (Flyers,
Sixers, Phillies and Eagles). This is a mark of a true Philadelphian but in
reality, it’s a rarity to be part a 4 for 4 fan without having a partiality to
one specific sport. Ask any parent who their favorite child is, they will say “I
love all my children” but no one ever really buys that. We all have
favorites…except for me because I’m a true 4 for 4 guy because I see the
potential and flaws of all the teams. By the way, I love all my children but
that’s only because I have only one.
With that being said, let’s begin the analyzing.
PHILLIES
It is my opinion that the Phillies have the most intelligent
fans. By intelligence, I am speaking in terms of game knowledge and not life
knowledge. Just because you know a lot
about baseball doesn’t mean you can ace the SAT’s. Sure we occasionally got a non-intelligent
knucklehead streaking on the field or starting a fistfight with a helpless
Pirates fan but baseball is a thinking man’s sport and any true Phillies fan
are five steps ahead of most rival fans on what reliever will be coming in for
a better matchup or who will be pitch-running for Thome or what batter maybe
laying down the bunt.
Furthermore, they are always aware of streaks, milestones
and remarkable achievements. If an opposing player were to hit his 700th
homer in Philly, The fans would first boo the fact that they gave up a homerun
and as the rounds 3rd base, the fans would stand and applaud his
milestone. Much like the Flyers, fans are very much disillusioned and
brainwashed by management. Many would believe that our GM is the best thing
since sliced bread. How can you say bad words about a guy who got 4 pitching
aces in 2011? I’ll tell you who. One who could see that same GM got no hitting
aces to get us over the years of regressing. Everyone knows that pitching wins
in the playoffs but when you are eliminated in a game in which you scored zero
runs, it makes you think how irrelevant 4 pitching aces can be. At this
writing, the team has an ace with an ERA under 2.00 and zero wins to his name.
Let us not forget that the Phillies have regressed each year since this GM took
over. In 2009, they lost in the World Series, 2010, they lost in NLCS, and in
2011 they lost in the NLDS. Where is the progress? Lastly, how hard can it be
to put a team together when you have the 2nd highest payroll in
baseball and the 9th highest sports team payroll in the world? The
Phillies have talent because money talks but they have the wrong talent. This
is a true blind spot of Phillies fans who would swear by the Ivy League GM.
I would also say that Phillies fans are the most fickle and less
loyal. The opposing voice would say that the Phillies have sold out of every
game since 2009. I would counter that by saying that selling seats is not a
function of loyalty but rather a symptom of winning. Where was the fan base in
1994-2007 when a well-attended night would mean the stadium was half full? In
full disclosure, I have a season plan for the Phillies. My plan did NOT begin
in 2009, the year after they won the World Series. Rather my plan began in
2003. Proudly I attended games when the team floundered into the mid-summer grind
and when the “E-A-G-L-E” chants would frequently arise.
The Phillies are generally a fan-friendly organization. Over
the last few years, they have gathered players with good attitudes, fun
personalities and commitments to community organizations. A night at the
ballpark is relatively inexpensive (compared to other clubs) and the Phillie
Phantatic is still the best mascot in all of sports. Obviously it doesn’t
always enhance the team’s performance but still makes a fun sports atmosphere
for the family.
EAGLES
Without a shadow of a doubt, these fans are the most
passionate. It’s a very blue collar crowd. In other words, there are not a lot
of people going to games wearing suit and ties (unless of course you are in the
owner’s box). These fans are also the most vengeful group. If you got a big
interception against the Eagles in a key playoff game, such as Ronde Barber,
you can not only expect to be booed forever and subsequently banned from all
Philadelphia area restaurants. The fans also welcome back players with open
arms. The one caveat is that you have to be a player that legitimately wanted
to stay an Eagle but left town because ownership saw things differently. These
players include, Brian Dawkins, Reggie White and Randall Cunningham.
Eagle fans unfortunately are also short-sighted. They often
forget the achievements of dearly departed players. Terrell Owens was booed mercifully
when he returned. Mostly because he joined the Cowboys, mainly because he was a
cancer in the locker-room but generally everyone forgets his career game in the
Super Bowl (playing with one bad knee none the less). The Eagles lost the game
by three points and had they won, he’d be the most revered Philadelphia sports
figure…ever.
Then of course there is McNabb. A man who is unquestionably
the greatest quarterback in our teams history but because he didn’t win the
“Big One,” by the way there are only 33 people in the world that can claim to
be the starting QB of a Super Bowl winning team, he will never be revered in
Philly. My point is that Eagle fans are ungrateful and have short memories.
This is a characteristic that can also be identified in Sixer fans.
Lastly, Eagle fans are pretty realistic. They know when the
team is bad and are often ahead of management in terms of team needs. They knew
3 years before the Eagles management that the team needed a legitimate WR.
Eventually the team signed T.O. The fans also knew years ago that the team had
little presence in the Middle Linebacker spot.
As far as management is concerned, there is a perception
that the team is “The Gold Standard” in football. It’s almost an array of
arrogance. No one around the league buys that mentality and quite frankly,
neither does the fans. There is one thing that both Eagle fans can agree is
that there is never a feeling of management “tanking it.” Because of this
shared value and fans, there will likely not be an empty seat for years to
come.
Let’s also recognize that football is a regional event. The
schedule is smaller and the impact of each game is magnified and of course
analyzed by both young and old. Add to the mixture that games generally occur
on the same times each week; it makes it easier to follow for everyone. No
sport in our city galvanizes and invokes discussions like football. Because of
these factors, The Eagles will always rule the roost. It was said that in 2008,
the Phillies trumped the Eagles in fan favorability and to me it was a very
temperamental movement of the arrow based on the significance of the world
championship.
Once again, I use a Broad Street parade as a barometer of
passion and favorability. Barrack Obama’s inauguration bought 1 million people
into the US capitol, a Phillies parade bought 2 million fans onto Broad Street.
Add those two numbers together and you may get 75% of what the population of an
Eagles parade would be. In the next few years, the Phillies can get old and
start losing, fans would then stop coming to games. In that same time, The
Eagles can go 6-10, sign Andy Reid to an extension and still sell out every
game.
SIXERS
This team is probably the hardest to analyze. The best way
to measure any team is to compare their best seasons versus their worst
seasons. Unfortunately their best season was over a decade ago. This much I do
know. Philadelphia Sixer fans are very reactive. More so then any other sport.
They talk about how this team has no defense. Yet they want to trade their best
defensive player away because he isn’t a superstar. The majority of the city
complains that the NBA is not fun because it is a super star driven league.
Yet, in 2001, when Iverson took us on his shoulders and carried the team to to
the finals, the NBA was just fine and dandy.
***As an aside, all Philadelphians lament about how bad
leagues are when their favorable team are not dominant. For example the state
of Major League Baseball was awful in from 1994-2007. Then miraculously, the
Phillies made the postseason and Major League Baseball is once again a great
product. Ask any Philadelphian when the glory days of basket were. They would
say the 1980’s. That’s when we saw the likes of Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and
Dr. J. Why else was that era good? Because the Sixers were winning.
There is no team in our city that elicits more bandwagoners
then the Sixers. It is shameful. People only care when they are winning. This
is very similar to the Phillies. Only the Eagles and Flyers get fan support
throughout good times and bad.
There is also a perception in the NBA that dominos to lack
of support for the Sixers. The perception is that NBA players are hoodlums and
overpaid brats. This perception never made any sense to me because it implies
that the other sports don’t have overpaid players or hoodlums. Andre Igoudala
is a poster boy for the “overpaid” argument. In 2008, Andre Igoudala was paid
80 million for six years. No doubt, it was and still is a big commitment to a
guy not known as a superstar. With that being said, he would have got the same
contract (or even more) elsewhere. His talent in the league is more recognized
and appreciated. This year, he will be one of only 15 players to represent the
US in the Olympics. This puts him in the same breath as Kevin Durrant, Lebron
James, Kobe Bryant, Blake Griffith, etc. This under-appreciation is a trend in
Sixers history. They couldn’t wait to trade Allen Iverson, Charles Barkley and
Moses Malone. These are arguable 3 of the top 5 Sixers ever…all run out of
town.
Overall, I would classify the fans as guarded. They watch
from afar but are always waiting for the shoe to drop. They are anticipating
failure and they only watch when the team is playing great. There is not enough
of a compelling argument to draw them in. There is no new stadium or the
anticipation of a superstar and the feeling is that although the team is
improving, they can’t compete with a team with a superstar.
FLYERS
Flyer fans hold two very distinctive characteristics. They
are unquestionably the most loyal and least intelligent fans in town. I don’t
mean either to be negative, just both a factual. For example, lower level
tickets are one of the highest tickets in the league. Yet, fans, whom are
stereotypically blue collar and not wealthy, still gladly shell out the money.
They love hockey and they love the Flyers. It is nationally recognized as a
hockey town and the character of the team is generally locked in stride with
the character of the city.
The team also has one of the best owners in the NHL and
really the best owner in the city. He is not bashful and lets everyone feel
that his wealth is far less a concern then the Flyers raising a Stanley Cup.
You can see it in his face and feel it in everything he says. Unlike many of
the athletes, he can feel the pain of a loss as deeply as the fans.
As for the intelligence part. I once again use the term
sports intelligence as opposed to general everyday intellect. The Flyers have a
very specific trend these past few years. Build the team with balance scoring
(They always seem to lead the league in individual players with at least 20
goals a season). This offensive production often overshadows management’s inability
to pick the right goalie. This ultimately leads to a quick demise in the
playoffs. The team then makes a few adjustments, the team raises ticket prices
and the process is again repeated. The people still show up to games and they shoot
down anyone who criticizes their team.
I grew up a Hockey-Head. In our house, it was the preferred
and most loved sport. Obviously I still love it today because I’m a true 4 for
4 guy but it’s like a bad romantic film, the ending is always predictable. With
the other teams, I don’t feel that way. You always get surprised by the better
or the worse with the other teams but with the Flyers you kind of know that
they will dominate in the regular season and then ball up in the fetal
possession come post-season. It’s the living legacy of the franchise, get
goalies that are past their prime or sign goalies with a high pedigree to
obnoxiously long contracts. In the end
its ok because the loyal fan-base will continue to shell out money and worship
management.
Here’s the difference. If an Eagles fan was upset with the
team or management, they would (and have) shown up at a practice with signs
voicing their displeasure. They Flyers fans would never question management.
It’s not in their blood. They are foot soldiers that hear no evil, smell no
evil or taste no evil.
THE BIG FINISH
My life has crossed 1/3 of a century and I am pretty certain
that some certain things will never change. Some things are cut and dry choices
in life, such as work, school, love and restaurant preferences. Other things
are birthed to you. Such as religion, family and being a trained Philadelphia
sports fan. Like religion and family, each has its features and its flaws. Like
my Uncle Franks hairy mole, there are diversions and distractions. For the
Flyers it’s their inability to land the right goalie, for the Eagles it’s their
inability to win under Andy Reid, for the Phillies it’s an inability to
overspend / underperform, for the Sixer’s it’s about relevancy. Obviously for
Uncle Franks it’s about laser surgery.
But for all their faults individually, it is the best sports
town in America collectively. People invest more emotionally and financially
then most American cities. More people in this region watch more games than
most sports town. Most Philadelphia fans peruse the dozens of blogs and even
care enough to know more than they should about the regional reporters who
cover the teams (Google Bill Conlin and boy molesting).
In a town saturated with restaurants, theaters and
historical presence, it is nice to know that we all still stand in general
solidarity of our teams. We embrace, we hope and we can’t wait to ship out the
next best talent to emerge. Then we actively ask for that talent to be traded.
