The Atlanta Falcon Fanbase Has A Bum Rap

by Dave the Falconer on Jul 24, 2007 11:28 AM EDT in News Comment 7 comments

Over at Pacman Jonesin', Adam looks at the ten worst fanbases in the NFL. You'll never guess who's on that list:

Atlanta Falcons - Falcons fans belong on this list every bit as much as Cards fans do. In fact, the Falcons were actually ranked second worst in the NFL fan loyalty study I linked above. Considering the size of the Atlanta market, that's just embarrassing. The city has bad fans, and what's going on with the Atlanta Hawks backs up that claim. When Michael Vick has to sit out all year long, the Georgia Dome is going to be empty. Falcons fans don't pack the seats for Ookie (is this pic right before an electrocution, or a hanging?), so I definitely don't see them doing so for Joey Harrington.

Adam alerted me to this post with the disclaimer that it's meant to spark a friendly discussion, so I'm going to throw a happy hand grenade back over the fence. Atlanta has historically been known as a bad city for fans. Between the fact that the Atlanta Hawks have two fans named "Ted" and "John", the Atlanta Braves have that embarassing Tomahawk Chop, and the Falcons have historically been a very bad team, our rep is basically shot. You don't get a reputation like that without deserving it, but I would argue that most of our fans are still well-informed and care deeply about the Falcons. I will never understand how a team like the Saints could have their fans wearing bags over their heads out of embarassment and still be considered more loyal fans. I don't want to pick on the Saints so much, though, because there's another team ranked higher than us that deserves that ire. You see, the rankings Adam is basing his thoughts on are so incredibly dumb that they rank the single worst fanbase in football above ours.

Namely, the freakin' Arizona Cardinals.

Someone please help me understand these goddamn ratings. I'm not sure why the December temperature, fairyland "difficulty rating" and per capita income factor so heavily into this. I guess they're trying to figure out if most people are too poor to go to the stadium? Why don't we just throw in what kind of music people like? Atlanta fans love Talib Kweli, so they must hate football. Or better yet, how many Atlanta fans have a fear of spiders? That could be very relevant to the discussion. As are December temperatures, of course. I totally see how if you're too much of a wuss to attend a football game in December, it should count against your team. This is all making so much sense to me that I think I'll have BizJournals just go ahead and rank my friends and family. That way I'll know which ones suck and which ones I can still hang out with.

It seems to me to be much more relevant that the Cardinals fill 60% of their seats, compared to 82% for the Falcons. Call me crazy, but I think a team that fills a little over half their seats probably has worse fan support than a team that fills over 75%. Yet there are the Cardinals, smugly and completely irrationally towering over us. At least Adam's list is in alphabetical order. It also includes such fan bases as the Saints, who before the last couple of years (and I'll admit, those were truly inspiring displays of loyalty) were probably worse than the average image of a Falcons fan. I don't feel comfortable straight up arguing Adam's rankings until we all get a chance to rally behind this year's team, but nothing's stopping you guys from ripping on him if you think it's justified.

Thoughts?

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It's the fans...

I think that this has more to do with the fact that so many people who live in ATL are from other places. These folks don't leave their loyalties at home. They may root for the Falcons/Braves/Hawks/Thrashers when these teams don't play THEIR team, but when the Saints/Cardinals/Celtics/Rangers come to town, their hometown colors come out! The town is not unified behind their teams (until they start winning - and winning BIG).

Then, worst of all, they pass those hometown fandom to their kids, so even THEY don't root for the ATL teams.

by randyfrog on Jul 24, 2007 11:50 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

That's an interesting perspective

It comes to the heart of what I hate most about fans, which is the fair-weather mentality.

by Dave the Falconer on Jul 24, 2007 12:43 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Fair weather

Ranking fans scientifically is extremely stupid. Namely because, theres no actual science to determining support besides the sheer #of ticket sales and % of the stadium filled, and the average decibel level screaming or silent fans emit during their time in said stadium.

I live in New York, I became a falcons fan because I was an impressionable little kid who liked Deion Sanders and the falcons were the first team I saw on TV.

Now back to why my hometown is relevant ...The Yankees claim to have the best fans in the world, last year they sold over 4 MILLION TICKETS; Seemingly backing up their claim. However earlier this year, before this little run theyre making to get back in the race, the stadium (thats what they call it) was seeing fewer and fewer fans....and wouldnt ya know it, it seems the Mets were drawing more fans while they were winning. Thats how it goes, and its great to have a two team town to be able to show it off numerically. Historically, when both teams (mets & yanks) have been good, both draw approximately the same number, and when one is good and the other is bad, "fans" of the mets, or yankees, seem to switch sides, because most people aren't die hards, they just like to see and cheer for a winner.

Its that simple, winning teams will always draw a crowd (Except the braves, most likely because Chipper Jones is a giant douche (seriously a grown man going by the name chipper!?!) and there will ALWAYS BE A LARGE NUMBER OF FAIR WEATHER FANS. Middle aged middle/upper middle/upper class people like to go watch a winner.

The Golden State Warriors are a perfect example of this phenomenom. During their losing seasons they'd draw 3000 less people per game then they did this year. During the opening round of the playoffs they were able to fill their small # of seats ( by stadium standards, nba arenas are tiny compared to baseball and football stadiums) with diehard fans; these fans screamed and shouted and gave the warriors a legit home field advantage, something you hardly ever see anymore. The next round, following thier upset of the Mavs, wealthier, fair weather fans showed up...the crowd noise stopped, and the home court advantage seemingly disapeared.

by Hamburger on Jul 24, 2007 2:01 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

all you have to do

is just look on this blog and see that the last diary posted by a fan was several months ago if you want to know about Falcon fans.

There are an awful of of people living in Atlanta that are not from Georgia and the fan base for the team just isn't there.

by Terry on Jul 24, 2007 2:17 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Bull.

I've lived in suburban Atlanta my whole life, and I've got one good reason why Atlanta fans are lackluster...it's because we're so use to failure. Does anyone remember the Atlanta Knights? If you think about it, we're even use to disappointment with the Braves and their almost unbroken streak of 14 consecutive years of loosing in the play-offs (I mean, besides the time we beat Cleveland for the World Series Title). The last time the Hawks were even considered dangerous was almost before I was born! The Braves are usually a lock to get beaten in the first round of the NLCS, and until 1998, the Falcons had barely even sniffed the SuperBowl. It's hard to be super motivated to go see your teams when they continually let you down.

I think this rating needs to be changed in that regard. Bad fans would be fans who refuse to support a winning team. I'm not a bad fan because I've been conditioned for failure by almost 23 years of lousy play by my hometown teams, I'm a disappointed fan.

by blackertai on Jul 24, 2007 2:38 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Thanks...

For the link!

I do buy the out-of-towners reason, but not the losing excuse.

Browns and Chiefs fans pack the house every home game, and when was the last time either of those teams even won a playoff game? 1993, I believe.

by pacmanjonesin on Jul 25, 2007 4:17 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

It's not just losing.

Woa, woa. I said losing & constant disappointment. If it were losing, that'd be no problem. As you say, there are diehard fans that support their teams no matter what (Vanderbilt?), but I'm talking about teams in Atlanta constantly teasing us with greatness and then disappointing us. Back to the Braves, I mean, I'm pretty much expecting us to get to the post season again this year and get wiped out by some other team we probably beat in the regular season (see years 2000-2003?). And with the Falcons, when we finally make it to a SuperBowl, what happens? We're on the other end of a John Elway trainwreck. And the hawks, even in the 80s, should have been good but weren't. And take this season, when the Thrashers got to the playoffs and then immediately got swept. That's what I'm talking about.

by blackertai on Jul 25, 2007 5:37 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs