Interesting NFL fan demographics

[mikesteelnation1]

I read this article that was linked on another site I frequent, and found the data to be quite interesting.

https://m.facebook.com/note.php?note...51298370823859

Here's what I found most interesting:

In light of the niners recent success California is awash with lovin them some 49'ers, yet the ravens reach hasn't gone much past their metro area.

It seems Pittsburgh has more counties that are fans in Ohio and the Carolina's than the home teams. Outside their metro areas the fans of the Bengals, browns, and panthers dissipate quickly. The browns and panthers especially, and it probably has something to do with their lack of success lately (and I use lately quite loosely with the browns), while it seems the Bengals recent success has engendered more counties than their more historically relevant cross state rival.

It also shows how widely dispersed and engrained cowboys and Steelers fans are. Both were among the top 5 teams of every other teams fans "friends lists". Packers and pats were almost top 5 on every list.

[edave]

It also shows how widely dispersed and engrained cowboys and Steelers fans are. Both were among the top 5 teams of every other teams fans "friends lists". Packers and pats were almost top 5 on every list.

Is that a facet of having appeared so frequently in the early Super Bowls? Been thinking about this again since coming across it and it feels right to me. I'm a Packer fan because they were winning and the Bears were losing when it was time to pick a team that was not the Giants.

Some other stuff...

Using winner take all for counties on national maps is great for visualizing some things, lousy for others. There's a bit of that going on here, especially for Jet's fans. The poor Jet's managed to take only one county (even though it's also one of the more populated nationally), Nassau County, where Long Island slams into NYC. I'm actually kind of surprised they managed to win one county. The Jet's are like Avis even in their home region, always #2.

OTOH, the Packers won an area in Idaho that appears to be part of Craters of the Moon National Park and the whole INEL test reactor area. Other than Atomic City, I don't think there are any other towns. Not much in the way of population out in that area of the state.

[mikesteelnation1]

Is that a facet of having appeared so frequently in the early Super Bowls? Been thinking about this again since coming across it and it feels right to me. I'm a Packer fan because they were winning and the Bears were losing when it was time to pick a team that was not the Giants.

Some other stuff...

Using winner take all for counties on national maps is great for visualizing some things, lousy for others. There's a bit of that going on here, especially for Jet's fans. The poor Jet's managed to take only one county (even though it's also one of the more populated nationally), Nassau County, where Long Island slams into NYC. I'm actually kind of surprised they managed to win one county. The Jet's are like Avis even in their home region, always #2.

OTOH, the Packers won an area in Idaho that appears to be part of Craters of the Moon National Park and the whole INEL test reactor area. Other than Atomic City, I don't think there are any other towns. Not much in the way of population out in that area of the state.

I'm with you here Dave. I moved to Pittsburgh in 98, and I caught the black and gold fever. No way a young impressionable guy could fathom being a fan of another team in that environ.. I still love watching the games in a Pittsburgh bar. Love catching away games there in my favorite bar, up on mt Washington.

Discussing any of the "colored" map requires the basis of knowledge to be the population density of the colored squares. Does the fact the viqueens have so many purple squares mean anything?? Not at all. No one lives in northern Minnesota or the Dakotas. Lots of purple. Less than a million people involved as a whole, not just this snippet of info. Denver also has tons of orange squares where no one lives. It's all relative...

[Afrocomb]

Interesting map, but without age demographics it's very hard to draw conclusions. Facebook users are more likely to be younger & those who actually 'like' pages are probably younger still on average.

This means teams with more recent success, such as the Saints are likely to be over represented, whilst teams whose main successes are pre-1990 are likely to be under represented, such as the Raiders & Bears.

It is something that has been seen over the last 2-3 decades in soccer over here in England. As the number of games televised increased dramatically, kids started choosing the successful teams they saw on TV over those in their locality. This wasn't a problem in the NFL with the local game taking priority on TV. But with the introduction of packages such as the Sunday Ticket, kids growing up now can choose which team to watch. That together with the migration of fans around the country makes it harder to snag the loyalty of your local fans!

[Ragar]

The Carolinas are interesting in this way. Before the Panthers it was all about the Redskins, as that was the "home" team most of the local stations had chosen due ot the odl radio days of the Redskins being aired. So becasue of that, there was also a healthy dose of Cowboy fans, with a very, very few Atlanta fans thrown in. When the Panthers came in, a good percentage became Panther fans, while the Skins and Cowboys were getting ready to enter their "bad" years which made the transition a little easier to the Panthers...all in the NFC programmming.

I recall growing up that the AFC was almost always showing Steeler games as their were no close AFC teams tot eh Carolinas(and no one likes Miami), so they should what at that tiem was teh closest rivalries, the Browns, Bengals and Steelers. Since the Steelers were winning, my guess is they took more then the Bengals and Browns.

In regards to Long Island for hte Jets, that's where I was born and have Uncles, Aunts, and counsins still there(Hicksville area)...it's definielty Jet's county in Nassau

[darvon]

Again, old tv programming set a lot of this.

Dallas is America's Team because it was traditionally the 2nd game for NFC East cities because of the time zone. So a HUGE pop center saw them.


Remember I think like 80% of the US pop is Eastern Time Zone.

[packa7x]

Is that a facet of having appeared so frequently in the early Super Bowls? Been thinking about this again since coming across it and it feels right to me. I'm a Packer fan because they were winning and the Bears were losing when it was time to pick a team that was not the Giants.

Some other stuff...

Using winner take all for counties on national maps is great for visualizing some things, lousy for others. There's a bit of that going on here, especially for Jet's fans. The poor Jet's managed to take only one county (even though it's also one of the more populated nationally), Nassau County, where Long Island slams into NYC. I'm actually kind of surprised they managed to win one county. The Jet's are like Avis even in their home region, always #2.

OTOH, the Packers won an area in Idaho that appears to be part of Craters of the Moon National Park and the whole INEL test reactor area. Other than Atomic City, I don't think there are any other towns. Not much in the way of population out in that area of the state.

Jets fans seem to be mostly from LI, Staten Island, and Brooklyn. Weird how that stuff works

[darvon]

It's interesting to see which OLD teams are not in ANY 5 friends. (other than stl and KC which were mentioned)

One is not surprising. One IS surprising.

[mkocs6]

I can't speak to the Carolinas (and Ragar already did so), but I can tell you that in Ohio, there aren't many people living in a lot of those yellow counties (with exceptions being Franklin, where Columbus is located, and Lucas, which is Toledo and has often been considered in the Detroit orbit--lots of Tigers and Michigan fans up there--but not universally so, and Mahoning, or Youngstown, which has traditionally been split between the Browns and the Steelers with Pittsburgh having the upper hand more recently; so, that's an odd mix and those three areas still are not as large as Cuyahoga, Hamilton, and their surrounding areas). I'll try to find the link and post, but a few months ago a firm polled Ohioans as to their favorite NFL teams, and the Browns came out with the greatest percentage of fans at something like 30%. In any case, there's no clear majority in Ohio. And, as edave said, I'm sure the Steelers (and Packers) have won over a lot of young fans (and facebook users) in areas that don't have a truly local team (and perhaps elsewhere as well). On the other hand, this is a winner-take-all map, so it's hiding fans behind whatever majority (in many counties in a place like Ohio, probably only a plurality) is, especially in major population centers.

Here's another problem with drawing too many conclusions from this map. If you scroll down to the who-are-fans-supporting-in-the-Super-Bowl electoral map, Ohio is mostly red (for San Francisco) with pockets of purple (for Baltimore). Based on that map, I can guarantee you that two of the purple counties are Cincinnati and Cleveland. You'd have to be out of your mind to believe that this sufficiently indicates that Cincinnatians--but especially Clevelanders--would be rooting for Baltimore in this game.

Anyway, I'm not trying to un-skew a poll here, we've had enough of that business. And don't get me wrong, there are plenty of Steelers fans in Ohio. I do think the presentation here makes it look much more dramatic than it in fact is, though. I haven't been able to locate that Ohio poll up to now, so just take my word for it that I wouldn't blatantly make something up. Here, however, is Public Policy Polling looking at the national picture in December.

[Bengals1181]

I wouldn't be so sure mk. Most Bengals fans are decidedly torn on choosing between a division rival, and the team that cost them two Super Bowl victories.


Also, while the Ravens are rivals, it has typically been a rivalry of mutual respect.