This goes pretty far into the land of the subjective, but according to Brand Keys, here are the most loyal and least loyal fan bases around:
Top-5 Teams 2014
1. St. Louis Cardinals
2. Philadelphia Phillies
3. Boston Red Sox
4. Atlanta Braves
5. San Francisco Giants
Bottom-5 Teams 2014
30. Houston Astros
29. New York Mets
28. Seattle Mariners
27. Arizona Diamondbacks
26. Colorado Rockies
The measurements are made by the “four emotional drivers” of fan loyalty, which are (1) Pure Entertainment; (2) Authenticity; (3) Fan Bonding; and (4) History and tradition. These are mixed in a pot with things like overall league and team rankings, viewership and merchandise sales and then this comes out like so.
I can’t say that it seems intuitive. Because I know a lot of Mets fans. And they have had very few reasons to cheer in the past few years, yet they keep coming back. Whether that’s love or that’s insanity I have no idea, but it’s certainly loyalty of a type. I’ll also say that seeing the Braves where they are is at least a bit curious. While they get way more crap thrown on them for not selling out games than they deserve, the fact is that Braves fans, thanks to the TBS legacy, are a pretty far flung lot, covering a lot of the country. That helps explain why attendance doesn’t always track popularity, but it also seems to be pretty bad for the whole “fan bonding” thing.
Anyway, take this for what you will. I assume most of you will take it as either validation of your own fandom or a great and uncalled for insult, depending on where you team lies on the loyalty scale. Because that’s how everything related to fandom works.
