What makes a good sports city? You would think it should
represent the best in resident loyalty, heart and fanaticism
combined with exciting seasons and championship quests.
But apparently, the honor of best sports city, according to
Sporting News, has been relegated to a couple of fluke teams and
superficial bandwagon fans ““ Anaheim and Los Angeles.
Sure, in the past 12 months the Southern California area has
seen tremendous success from the Angels and Ducks to Trojan
football, but are we really a “sports city?”
The answer is a resounding no. Why?
1. Anaheim and Los Angeles cannot be combined into the same
city.
2. The fans.
On the first point, it has been made clear to me by the locals
that Anaheim and Los Angeles aren’t alike.
Let me give you an example. If you look up north, although San
Francisco and Oakland are designated the Bay Area, they
wouldn’t ever consider themselves the same city. Fans rarely
support both the ’49ers and Raiders or both the Giants and
the A’s. This applies to Anaheim and Los Angeles; are you an
Angels and Ducks fan or a Dodgers and Kings fan? Pick one or the
other.
More importantly, to be a great sports city you need great fans,
and unfortunately, the fans here are just atrocious. They come late
and leave early, constantly talk on their cell phones and are more
preoccupied with which celebrities attend than the actual team
performance.
Case in point: I recently saw a woman who worked in a city
office wearing Robert Horry’s Lakers jersey. When I asked if
she was upset with Horry for leaving for the Spurs, she looked
confused and asked who that was. After telling her she was donning
his number, she replied “Oh, I only wear it because
it’s cute.” So, it seems fashion has won, yet again,
against fanaticism. Too bad Versace doesn’t design jerseys,
then we would see even more wannabe fans sporting blind support for
their So Cal teams.
Plus, blatant bandwagon support has never been so apparent than
in this past year with the Angels and Ducks. How many people really
cared about these two teams until they made their respective quests
to the World Series and Stanley Cup? Now, the Angels are a pitiful
59-64 and have reverted back to being the annoying cousin to the
slightly better 63-59 Dodgers. If this was a true sports city,
wouldn’t Anaheim fans be in an uproar seeing their defending
champions fall back into disgrace?
To demonstrate what true fan support should be, just look at my
beloved Sacramento Kings. For 13 years we struggled with what I
like to call the Dark Ages ““ the team was terrible, a joke
around the league. Yet fan support never wavered; we were die-hards
and sold out every game at Arco Arena. Now, times have changed
(thank goodness) and during the playoff season, Arco Arena shakes
under the deafening cheers of the standing-room-only crowd, and the
city lives and dies on every win, loss or trade. Though only a
microcosm of what if could be if we had more sports teams (our AAA
Rivercats often sell out), Sacramento has the right idea.
Now I have no intention of turning this into another SoCal v.
NorCal debate, but to be a great sports city, fans have to be
unyielding in their support. You can always look to Green Bay and
the Cheeseheads who pack Lambeau Stadium in the winter to see
another example of true fanaticism. Los Angeles and Anaheim simply
do not offer that steadfast support. How often does Dodger Stadium
sell out? So far this season it’s only averaged 60 percent
capacity. Sure, there is a wide spectrum of sports available in the
southern California area to spread out the fan support, but a city
this size has plenty of people to fill seats.
Fortunately, we only have to live with this for a year ““
just like the rally monkey and the Angels in the playoffs.
If you have any predictions on next year’s honoree,
please e-mail Bach at jbach@media.ucla.edu.