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Originally Posted by demonrail666
Maybe you're an exception amongst US sports fans but fandom in the UK is much more defined by where you're from - in football, anyway. Even if you move from the area you grew up, most people keep supporting the same team for life. As embarrassing as West Ham are right now or as rich and successful as they might end up becoming, I'll support them either way. I just couldn't conceive of doing anything else.
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No, in the US sports are also similarly very much a local affair, and indeed, Los Angeles is legendary. Between 1980-85 LA teams won TWO Superbowls, THREE NBA Championships, an MLB World Series,and even was home to the 84 Olympics where USA won a lot of Gold medals. Needless to say in the 1980s America despised LA. Over the past 50 years LA sports have won over 20 national championships, mostly NBA, but also 3 Superbowls with the Raiders, two World Series with the Dodgers, the MLS Galaxy have won 3 championships, and even our NHL Kings finally won the Stanley Cup two years ago... Don't forget that we host the college football championship games at the Rose Bowl and between USC and UCLA LA has won quite a few of those too!
In the 1990s we declined a bit, but by 1999-2000 we were back on track so that the Lakers won 3 back-to-back NBA champions and rekindled America's beef with LA sports. So yeah, we're local. BUT LA is also home to 5,000,000 people who were not born here, so in LA are a shitload of fans of non-LA teams who brought their other team love with them to LA when they expatriated from wherever they came from. Me? I stopped enjoying the Lakers after Shaq left in 2003, and in NBA sometimes personalities are as likable as home-town teams if not more. So I ditched Lakers and became part of a huge LA phenomenon, the patented "LA Laker Hater." We just be hatin for fun yo!
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There's other teams I like, either because of the way they play or something about their history or just some 'vibe' about them but they'll never be 'my team' in the way West Ham are.
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I can agree with that, but what if West Ham over time became a team full of lowlives and douchbags who you don't want to support? What if all the local fans become such obnoxious pricks that you want nothing to do with them? That is what happened to LA and the 2000s Lakers, and I was sick of it! So I started Laker-hating..
Maybe its because the US is such a HUGE country for sports, but in every sport there are roughly 30 teams to go around for about 300 major cities! In other words, a lot of bandwagon fans and just random team fans.. Its also a good reason why American sports are so personality driven.