Franchise Relocation and Fan Allegiance

Abstract

This article examines how the fans of four sports teams reacted when their favorite team relocated to another city: the Houston Oilers to Nashville, the Quebec Nordiques to Denver, the Hartford Whalers to Raleigh, and the Winnipeg Jets to Phoenix. Drawing on conversations among fans of these teams on Web sites, it was found that, despite the differences in sports, teams, and cities across these four franchises, the people studied expressed similar feelings about the importance of the teams in their lives and of their desire for the franchises to return. In addition, differences were found among fans as to what aspect of the team they were expressing continued allegiance to. Some fans pledged to continue to fight for a team for their city, whereas another group pledged allegiance to the team name and logo. The article concludes with a discussion suggesting some future directions for research on fan allegiance to sports teams.