Why little teams need bandwagoners too...

What do teams like the Yankees, the Lakers and the Boston Red Sox all have in common? Most would agree that contributing to depreciating team fan bases as a whole would be a big start. In this day and age, for certain city’s sports teams, it is hard to feel the drive to cheer on for the same ol’, same ol’. Due to such high demand for bandwagon-esque teams like the three listed above, it seams that its become harder and harder to cheer on the smaller markets, as the more “popular” teams just appear to win it all all the time. Is it due to better talent? Sure. But there is one thing that drives the team. It’s at the center of all teams inner driving soul. A fan base is a team’s most valuable counterpart. It’s the peanut butter to their jelly, the fuel to their gas tank and so on.

Team’s these days need to celebrate the little victories. By appreciating the tiny wins more, they can start their own bandwagons. Fans can and will begin to stand by their team. Fans want something to relate and to celebrate with. They want to be a part of something great that’s a part of their hometown. What ever happened to things like winning the pennant? Now it’s all about getting straight to the big dance, bypassing go and not collecting your $200. Celebrating the little wins such as the very first playoff series, like the AL Champs the Texas Rangers did, is a good start.

With pro sports such as the NBA and MLB, there comes a thing called desensitivity. Generations now days grow up accustomed to this team being the greatest and that team being the best and most popular. Now is where the term “domino-effect” falls into place. As these teams get bigger and bigger, popular and more popular, more and more athletes are saying, “well I want to play for that team” or “I want to play for this team.” Then everything becomes a downward spiral of monopolistic type franchises “buying” their championships.

In order to bypass this inevitable lingering future, fans and the less “popular” franchises need to start small by, like I said before, celebrating the smaller victories; start with a good campaign by rejoicing the little things and before long, teams will find that more and more fans with a sense of pride and an undeniable abundance of faith in their team will be by their side cheering all the way, thus jump starting a better domino effect.

This is the time for fans to take back their sports. This is the time for fans to balance out a lop-sided world of anti-competitive, athletic leisure. What players need are bandwagoners, but not just for that solo dominant team, for all sports worldwide. If fans and franchises spend the time celebrating each win one day at a time, like it’s the biggest win of their life, then I believe the playing field will be even once again.