that's old and I don't buy it. Those are based on facebook likes, the Giants won a SB last year. you don't think they'll get more likes?
There's a lot of inaccuracies in this piece. The Cowboys and the Steelers don't have claim over Southern Virginia and the Carolinas. Before the expansion Panthers came into play in the mid 90's, the Redskins had a geographic stranglehold on everything from the Maryland suburbs of DC, all of Virginia, NC and many parts of SC were Skins country too. The Skins still have multi-generational fans all over Virginia(obviously) and the Carolinas, a lot of my relatives and friends amongst them
Based on Facebook likes? lol, must be official. Living in Queens and LI, i personally know way more Jet fans, and see way more Jets gear out and about.....even when the team sucks. (equally as unofficial, but just my experience in those areas) Green Bay in Alaska was interesting....never been there, but maybe the cold weather games draw appeal?
I live in Southern Virginia. It is mostly Steelers, with a lot of Cowboys. I only know a few Redskins or Panthers fans. And of course, I'm the only Jets fan around.
I would like to see this done in 2009, 10, or 11. All that wretched Vagiant blue would be green (most of it at least) of course this poll is done when the Jets are a low point. Also would like to see this done in say 1995 when the Bills are coming off 4 super bowls and the giants are nobody's. Bills would claim every county north and west of green, delaware, and columbia. Fucking bandwagon giants twats I can see plenty of steeler spillover into Northern W. Virginia...but not Southern VA. That has to be mostly skins
Notice how all the teams with lots of fans have a great history, or have won a Super Bowl in recent years. Those are also the teams who have a lot of unloyal fake fans. I go to school here in New Jersey, before Giants won the Super Bowl last year no one cared about them.. once they win, everyone is a Giants fan. I can only imagine how it is in other places.
Cowboys are the only team that can endure crappy play and still have that massive a fan base. I bet Miami at one point probably had as many (if not more) fans in Georgia and alabama than the Saints and Falcons...not so anymore
I'll agree that facebook "likes" might not be the best measure of a teams popularity in certain areas. You can find little tidbits here and there, but big picture-wise I'd say it's close to accurate. You'll find Cowgirls/Steelers/Packers everywhere. They are probably the top 3 most popular teams nationally. Also the Giants do OWN the tri-state area for the most part, except Long Island.. where the Jets are the team.
I'm impressed with how LI still clings to the Jets despite it being 30 years...the Jets were truly Long Islands team and while New Jersey has embraced them to an extent...they were probably better off staying. Even if it was dumpy Shea Leon Hess was a horrible owner
i don't think your last statement is true at all. Brooklyn and Queens have the edge with Jet fans, and Manhattan just goes with the hot hand. Outside of that, i would think Giants have the edge being around longer, but not by an overwheliming factor.
Jets HQ was in Hofstra, LI, until just a couple years ago.. Jets players lived in LI as well... Many still do, like Wesley Walker, Freeman McNeil, etc. It was really the Mets that screwed the Jets out of Shea, and Koch made no attempt to accomodate them with a stadium of their own. Baseball teams, no problem, but the city never supported a football stadium. Woody is also a Jersey guy, part of the reason there was no attempt for a new stadium in Queens, or to keep HQ out on the Island. Sharing the stadium made economical sense, but was just terrible idea for distinguishing the team and territorial affiliation.
that's true...I'm aware of that. I just didn't think that simply holding training camp there would keep ties so strong. I was recently at an Isles game and saw TONS of Jets gear. And maybe 1 giants hat. for what it's worth the giants ran to connecticut, and then to Jersey and beat the Jets there by a good 9 years. That helped them gain a larger foothold in the northern NJ market as well as central Jersey and near the shore tend to have lots of Giants fans. They even took the NY off their helmet (the jets did too but we were still in NY when we did that) they also took to calling themselves just "The Giants" and stopped referring to NY in their name altogether. I'm surprised they don't get more grief for their outright rejection of the city/state of NY. however it's probably best for the Jets players to live/train as close to the stadium as possible. From what I can remember there was an offer made in 1989 to bring the Jets back to Shea, the Mets agreed to improve facilities and give the Jets september home games...for some reason idiot Hess said no Maybe holding camps in Cortland will help establish a pocket of a fan base up there. That's bills country for the moment but they're just awful and have been for some time
And I know this will never happen...but I'd like to see at least 1 pre season Jets game a year at Citi Field (if not reg season game like the packers used to do in Milwaukee) Citi Field had soccer so they could easily fit a real football field there
That's an interesting idea and I think it would take very well. Unfortunately, I don't see Woody Johnson ever agreeing to it. He's obsessed with his concrete jungle in Jersey.
Good points. The Giants have long been out of new york, even from a practice and HQ perspective. Woody had a real opportunity to brand the Jets as the team of NYC. Manhattan stadium was only thing i recall him pursuing, which wasn't a good idea but i'd prefer that to sharing the stadium. I like your idea regarding 1 game in Citi field, but it would likely never happen. It is what it is now, he missed the opportunity to truly distinguish his team from a territorial perspective. Now its just a muddled mess from a territory perspective, and in 20 more years most won't remember either teams history of origin. Winning games will be the most important determining factor in attracting new fans going forward.
totally agree, great idea but Woody would never go for it. god i hate that stadium. If there were a game in citi field, i would w/o a doubt go.. I now go to only 2 games a year. 1 road and 1 home. This year both were games against Dolphins.. ugly, ugly 2 games. Vast amounts of cold beer didn't wash away the taste of those performances.
I agree that winning games will bring fans to the seats. As for the proposed West Side Stadium, I was really hoping it would work, thus the Jets would move back to Manhattan. Too bad MSG killed the possibility of having a football stadium there. I think the current MetLife Stadium was the idea that Woody had for the proposed WSS. That's probably why a lot of Giants fans were upset that their stadium in which the Giants had sole ownership was gone in favor of a stadium that is now co-owned. We have to accept this reality now that MetLife is here to stay for a long time, and the only way Jets can new fans is by winning games.
Southern Virginia (Va Beach, Tidewater area0 has always been Skins country for 75 years. Sonny Jurgensen used to run youth camps down there in the 60's. Not sure if you're from that area or new to it but believe me, that's always been Skins territory. The only thing I could think is that a lot of diehard Skins fans were turned off by the franchise from around '95- 2010 and a lot of bandwagon Steelers fans came out of the woodwork because of their success and the Skins suckage over this period. However lifelong VA beach and Tidewater people will tell you the same thing.
