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Entry #5
Chicago Has The Best Sports Fans In
The World
Posted August 14, 2011, 11:01pm by Jamal
Collier
 Chicago
is often coined as the “Second City” or the second most prestigious
city in the United States because of its entertainment, culture and
finance. I don’t know much about that stuff, but what I do know is
that Chicago should be the first city when it comes to sports.
Not many cities have five major sports teams. Chicago has the Bears,
Blackhawks, Bulls, Cubs and White Sox. The Sporting News named Chicago
the Best Sports City in the United States in 1993, 2006 and most
recently 2010. I have lived in Illinois my entire life and I love it
here and plan to continue to do so for the rest of my life. You can
call me biased, but I’ll always believe there is no better place in
the world to be a fan than Chicago.
Chicago fans are some of the most passionate fans around, even when
they’re wrong. They love their teams almost as much as they love to
hate their rivals and opponents. Several of the biggest rivalries in
the sporting world include Chicago teams (i.e. Cubs/Cardinals,
Bears/Packers, Blackhawks/Red Wings).
And the fans in Chicago do hold their teams accountable. When the
product on the field is below par, they stop spending their money and
force management to do something about it. It doesn’t mean they do not
care. In fact, it hurts me more when my team loses than the joy I get
of my team winning. Chicago fans love their teams despite the fact
that they don’t win as much as we would like.
Chicago is a Bears town. Now, I’ll preface this by saying I am not in
any way a Bears fan. This city loves this team. A lot of them ride and
die with this team and get annoying during the highs when we have to
hear “Bear Down.” This is one of the most historic franchises in the
NFL and had it not been for George Halas we may not even have an NFL.
Bears fans do scream for head coach Lovie Smith’s job at the first
sign of losing, which I may not agree with, but they want a winner and
will not accept anything less. And just for the record, Calvin
Johnson’s touchdown should have counted.
Recently, the Blackhawks have come back alive in Chicago after an
awful period of time to be a hockey fan here. Did some of them jump on
the proverbial bandwagon, maybe, but when the team started showing
games on television people started to watch. This proves to me that
people wanted to enjoy and cheer for this team if they are just given
something to root for, and the Blackhawks were impossible to watch in
the early 2000's.
Then, there are the Bulls who have spoiled Chicago the most winning
six championships within the last twenty years when the greatest
athlete in history played his games here. But even when the Bulls are
having a down year, the Bulls still can fill seats. In fact in midst
of this NBA lockout they are one of the few teams that actually made
money last year.
Now it is going to take a lot more to get me to say something positive
about White Sox fans. They may be the worst fans in all of sports,
sans the idiots in Philadelphia. A team that has had much more success
than their North side counterparts can hardly ever sell out its
stadium and that’s ridiculous. And yes they can’t be all watching at
home unless they are putting their mute button to good use with Hawk
Harrelson announcing.
For my money, the best fans in all of sports are Cubs fans. They are
everywhere and often times populate other stadiums when the Cubs are
on the road. This is all despite the fact that their team hasn’t won
in however many years, my selective memory allows me to forget the
exact number. I hate the “lovable loser” nickname the team gets and I
realize it is in part because of their fans support, but this season
Wrigley Field hasn’t been necessarily packed every night. So, maybe
Cubs fans are starting to get it...when the team stinks, make it hurt
the owner’s wallet and things may change.
I believe Chicago is the greatest city in the world and is like sports
fan heaven. Maybe other cities are a little jealous of Chicago? As
Joakim Noah said “I've never heard anyone say, 'I'm going to Cleveland
on vacation.'”
And, of course Detroit fans watch their awful teams faithfully. After
all, what else is there to do in Detroit?
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