re: do you buy the "local pro team" hurts your college team arg?

I think Memphis fans would be the best group of people to ask about this. The Grizzles have only been there since the year 2001.

NCAA Basketball attendance 1970-2014


Its hard to gauge from the attendance numbers. Memphis attendance spiked in the year 2001 from 12000 to 16000 for some odd reason. Its not like Memphis was particularly good in those years. It might even imply Memphis got a boost from a pro team. The new arena wasn't ready until 2004.

I think it's a case by case situation. In Louisiana, the Saints/LSU actually build off of one another sometimes. I'll never forget January 2012 when the Saints were hosting a playoff game and LSU was playing for the national championship all in the same weekend. Almost all of the locals were decked out in LSU/Saints gear all weekend long. After the Saints won Saturday night, all of the Saints fans in the quarter were starting L-S-U chants and the dome went crazy when the Golden Band from Tigerland played before the Saints game started.

I've also heard L-S-U chants break out after Saints games, and Who Dat chants break out after LSU games. Louisiana is just a football crazed state for the Tigers and Saints. I really admire it. This is coming from someone who grew up out-of-state. It's definitely not like that in Tennessee with the Vols and Titans. The Pride of the Southland would get booed off the field if they played before a Titans game.

In some cases, sure, but that can go the other way as well. UCLA to some degree but mostly USC are a major factor in NFL teams not doing well in LA.

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but mostly USC are a major factor in NFL teams not doing well in LA.

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So you're going with the "people just don't have the bandwidth to be both college and NFL fans in LA" argument?

If you look at Louisiana no, but then again maybe that's because the Saints were shite for so many years

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but since when to granola munching hemp wearing frisbee flower childs care about an archaic sport that represents masculinity? The left coast commies and football just don't really add up to a good mixture, regardless of what a billionaire stadium developer does.

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What in the frick are you talking about?

Frisbee flower childs?

Also granola is so 90's, we're all about organics and grass fed beef these days. Get with the fricking times.

Stick to bitching about Pinkel. That suits you better.

I definitely think that having one or more pro team(s) hurts the local colleges. Of course it does. There are people who are going to "have" a football team and there are those who couldn't care less. Among those who "need" a football team every available team is competition to the next. I'm surprised at how many in this thread claim to think otherwise.

The "I've been to Arkansas and Alabama" argument may be anecdotal, but I've been to either state several times and I've seen a heard a veritable shite load of that anecdote.

There are ticket sales and TV ratings and either are affected. These are small potatoes. It's the t-shirts and toothbrushes and pajama pants and shower curtains that prove the argument. The Razorbacks benefit tremendously from Little Rock's having no NFL franchise. Missouri benefits from being the only appreciable college football in Missouri, and it suffers measurably for there being pro football in St. Louis and Kansas City. (I say "measurably" as if I know the measure; I do not. But I'm sure some economist somewhere thinks he does).

If it were up to me there wouldn't be professional football. Not that I'd support a law to abolish it; rather I wish that most Americans felt as ambivalent toward it as I do. But this is beside the point and has nothing to do with the common sense demanding my position.