Hometown Fans Have It Best

Growing up, most of us picked a favorite team to cheer for week in and week out.  For some of us, the chance to cheer for the hometown team wasn’t the preferred option. Maybe the hometown team wasn’t very good, maybe their jerseys were ugly or maybe we just picked another team just to be different from anyone else in the area.  Whatever the case may be, the true hometown fans have it best and for many reasons.

I’ll use hockey as an example, more specifically the NHL.  I can say that I’m a born and raised Buffalo Sabres fan.  I think the only time that the Sabres might not have been my favorite team was when I was a child and got my first taste of hockey from a Nintendo video game called “Blades of Steel”.  Back then, I picked the Edmonton Oilers as my team because they were a cool lime green in the game (not even their real colors).   I remember going to my first game at the Aud in Buffalo and while I was excited to be watching the Sabres play, I wanted Oilers merchandise.  To my dismay, the team’s colors were Orange and Blue and while that didn’t stop me from purchasing a mini hockey stick and pin, I lost interest in the team.  Instead, I started cheering for the hometown Sabres.

At first the interest in the team was non-committal, but over the years, my interest grew much like a large Buffalo snow ball being rolled down a hill.  Memories of the great calls from Rick Jeanerette such as “May Day” or “LA LA LA LA LA LA LAFONTAINE” became staples of my earliest memories of the team.   When I reached high-school, I had an enormous group of friends who would gather for most games at friends’ houses and we would cheer and pout in unison.  I attained many great memories that linked my team to my friends.  These memories weren’t necessarily centered on winning, but the fun times to be had with the people around me.  The opening of the HSBC arena, The Stanley cup finals in 99’, the magic of the 05-06 and the 07-08 seasons, President’s trophy, revived their old logos, the Pegula Era.  Each of these events was shared among my family and friends and by a city that was behind their team.

Some of my friends cheer for teams who are expected to be a Stanley cup contender each year, even while living in Buffalo.  They can walk around proudly knowing that their team hasn’t missed the playoffs in 2 decades and they have Stanley cups to be happy about.  But with all that being said, they don’t have the experiences of walking down the street in Buffalo only to hear car horns and the metro tooting their horns to the tune of “let’s go Buf-Fa-Lo”.  They don’t have the local gatherings where an entire bar is cheering for their team.  They don’t have a local fan base to share in the team’s success and failure. They’re on their own.  They don’t have the memories that I have created over the years with great people.

Has my team won the Stanley cup yet?  No, they haven’t.  Would I trade my experiences for 5 Stanley cups?  Never in my lifetime. Not everyone has the opportunity to have an NHL team in town, but for those who do and choose not to cheer for the hometown team, they’re missing out.  These fans can get excited about another team that they couldn’t fully experience and I’m sad for them because they don’t know the half of it.  Sports represent so much more to us than the final score at the end of the season.  Just like a great movie or even life in general, it’s about the ride and the experiences along the way.  I can tell you that when the Sabres finally do win a Stanley Cup, the thrill of that victory will be so much rewarding to someone who has stayed true to their hometown team.  Knowing that you’ve stuck with your team, created memories, and have people to share the victory with, is something that the outsider fan will never know or experience.  And for that, they are missing the whole point of cheering and best part of being a fan.