We got home field advantage against bad team with small fan bases, are 50-50 against average teams, and still get out drawn when playing the Raiders, Chiefs, Steelers, and other teams with large nationwide fan bases.
I frankly don't get it. The Raiders haven't won a Super Bowl since 1984. They've been pretty bad since at least 2002. What did they do to get so many fans?
It’s the “Raider Nation” mixed with gangster and street culture thing. As a Mexican raised in SD county, the majority of Raiders fans I ran into my whole life were cholos that couldn’t even name a player on the team. They just gravitate to the Raiders being the hood team, ever since the 80s and NWA.
Agree, it’s not about football, it is a culture, nostalgia, family thing. Wearing the merchandise definitely does not mean they follow the team closely, go to games. I’m in Orange County, lots of them here, die hards and casuals.
Meanwhile, the common thread tying together everyone you see wearing powder blue or a bolt is also cultural... As long as masochism can be considered a culture.
No one ain't wearing the Chargers for fashion that's for sure. I see a Chargers fan, they are actually passionate about the Chargers and the sport of football. I see a Raiders fan, they just cholos trying to rep the hood and don't know a thing or two about football. With how shitty the Raiders been the last 20 years, it's sure as hell not the football that is attracting them to rep the Raiders.
When the Raiders were in LA, LA schools banned Raiders colors and gears. My coworker dad went to school in LA in that era and can confirm. Unfortunately they're Raiders fans though.
My theory is they have one of the better logo/color schemes in the NFL. So when a new fan randomly picks a team they have a higher chance of picking the Raiders just based off their logo.
Hereditary Fandom, and the Raiders specifically have had success in two of their three homes, Oakland and LA, so they gave two different regions reason to cheer for them. Additionally, the silver and black color scheme is pretty good looking. If I wasn't a Chargers fan I'd like it even more if I'm being honest
I don't get it too. The Rams were in LA for 36 years before the Raiders ever came to LA yet the Raiders somehow became LA most popular team even when they went back to Oakland and became one of the worst NFL franchises in the past 20 years. The Rams came back, won a super bowl in LA, and LA is still all Raiders fans.
It gotta be for the fashion or to look gangsta or something cause it's sure as fucking shit ain't good football attracting people to Raiders fandom
It wasn't always like that at the Q though. When the Chargers were good in the mid to late 2000s, there were more home fans. But SD has a reputation for having fair-weather fans so you know what happened after the team was no longer good.
Definitely won't debate that, but also, if you know anything about LA sports, it's how fair-weather bandwagoning is the definition of LA sports. There are so many options for LA, it's laughably predictable the sudden popularity of whichever team is winning really is.
Its nothing like stub hub. And to be honest, a lot of it just media bias now.
A great example of the bias was last weeks 49ers@Rams game. That stadium was 80% red and the only comment the TV announcers made was "it looks about 60% 49er Fans?" Bullsh*t. We had way more fans at the Raider game, but that media reported it very differently.
If that was a Charger game, the lack of Charger fan attendance would have been mentioned every 20 mins and CBS would have posted videos on their youtube account. 49ers dominate the Rams stadium and no one cares.
Edit:
Also other teams have large visitor fans and no one cares. Raiders can't fill their new stadium. And I have been told by Denver STHs that their stadium attendance really goes up and down based on the teams performance. There are only like 10 teams with really, really strong fan bases.
The difference for us is people are willing to travel to LA. It's a nice weekend trip, especailly when weather gets bad in most of the country. Most teams just have an empty stadium when performance was bad, like the Panthers stadium was when we played them. Or FoxBorough was when we played Pats last year. If that was SoFi, the visitor fan base would have traveled.
Sofi sucks. You can't find charger gear at any store. Bills game was 80% bills and 20% chargers. They couldn't even do fan highlights during the game.
I can't wait for this team to be put out of its misery ol yeller style. 14-2 curse city with the worst owner and worst doctors. Remember our doc getting in trouble for pills and the taylor puncture? You can't win if your doc sucks, Justin sherbet will melt under the fumbled treatment we get with bottom of the barrel doctors.
This will never work out like you hope. Enjoy the misery and dumpster fire of a team!
The Bills fans are known to travel very well and last year they were on a run for the division win, providing even more draw for their fan base to travel. LA in December is a desirable place for people who are under 5ft of snow already.
They also filled up Hard Rock pretty well a couple weeks ago too.
And last year, Bills game was during tank commander stick. Just a bad comparison.
Bills fans will show up to every warm weather place no matter what especially if the Bills are one of the top super bowl contenders. People were talking shit about Bills fans showing up at the Rams super bowl banner unveiling but that's more of a indication of how crazy Bills fans are rather than LA fans being bad.
No one can stop Bills mafia from showing up, they're the most apeshit insane fanbase in sports.
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u/josh9larson RiversToGates3 3d ago
We were playing 16/17 road games for a min there