Who is the most hated team in US sports?

[jeremym480]

Re: Who is the most hated team in US sports?

OK, so lets sit down and play numerous games of hold 'em...Assume we're evenly skilled card players, BUT for every game I get 5 cards in my hand and you get 2. Or I get $200,000 in chips and you get $90,000.

Would that be a fair tournament?

Would it be at all impressive to you or anyone if I won a majority of the titles? Would that make a me a better card player than you? Or am I just winning because I have an advantage you don't? Would it really make my titles as meaningful as if you beat me?

Good analogy. It's almost like if the Yankees were in Nascar there car could go 201 mph and the next closest (the Met's) could only go 135 mph. Whereas the slowest car (Marlins, Pirates, etc.) can only go 30-35 mph.

Really something needs to be done or else the Yankees are going to grab up all the big name FA's every year and their payroll will be up in the 300 millions in another 4 or 5 years.

[Speedy]

Re: Who is the most hated team in US sports?

Because of horrible business decisions made which have no effect on how much money they spent. So the Yankees have to make up for those who are incompetent w/ their money and player evaluations?

Regardless of the market, the longer a team stays uncompetitive the less interest/money the team will generate - that's common sense logic.

Atlanta won 14 division titles consecutively but by the end of the run attendance was already declining - fans knew they'd flame out in the NLDS or LCS. If one thinks about it makes sense: Jim sees his team get into the playoffs and for 14 straight years the team is in...but they always fail; regardless of performance in the regular season it simply seems inevitable. The last time Atlata was top-10 in attendance was '03 (when they had the best record win 100+ wins).

Some markets will never succeed b/c of the lack of support from the fans and/or ineffective marketing (hello FLA franchises) but I believe if a city shows a competitive & exciting team and a promise that team will continue to build the fans will come.

[Trevytrev11]

Re: Who is the most hated team in US sports?

The more I think about the poker analogy the more I think it fits.

Imagine a series of tournaments with 30 players who's starting chip count is equal in proportion to the 30 MLB teams.

That means you have players some players with 2-3-4-5 x as high as other players.

More often than not you final table is going to be made up of a majority of those top players. They don't have to be as perfect in their play. They can take risks when others can't because they benefit from a higher stack. They can see more flops, throw out more bluffs, chase more draws, etc.

They may not win every tournament, but unless they royally screw up, their going to be in the running damn near every tournament...and hey at the final table, anything becomes possible.

Every now and then you are going to see one of the smaller players show up at the final table, but they have to be lucky. They have to take minimal risks, make all of the right moves and have some good luck on themselves and some bad luck on some of the bigger players. One wrong move, they are short stacked and are now playing against the blinds.

Now imagine the big stack guy is Mike the Mouth Mattesow and he thinks he's the best poker player in the world because he has the most top 10 finishes


Now throw that same analogy with starting chip counts based on NFL salaries and you have a much more fair tournament (even if some are being taught and mentored by Doyle Brunson and some by no one).

[BoomerSooner11]

Re: Who is the most hated team in US sports?

To give a demographic statistic here, I hear a lot of hate going towards the Yankees.

[matt8204]

Re: Who is the most hated team in US sports?

MLB: Yankees

NBA: Lakers (probably)

NFL: Patriots or Cowboys I'm guessing

NHL: Don't know; maybe the Penguins because people are jealous about them being the current champions. A lot of people don't like Crosby either.

NCAA: Duke basketball and Notre Dame football are hated by a LOT of people. Maybe USC football also. A lot of people get pissed about how they're always hyped as a quasi-NFL team, yet seem to get knocked off by an inferior Pac-10 squad every season.

[JBH3]

Re: Who is the most hated team in US sports?

You are right, boxing, UFC, etc. would be much better if there was one belt and light weights had to beat heavy weights to win it. Weight caps for parity and fair compeition are just stupid. Who wants to see even and fair fights.

Wow. Completely different and in no way the same context.

OK, so lets sit down and play numerous games of hold 'em...Assume we're evenly skilled card players, BUT for every game I get 5 cards in my hand and you get 2. Or I get $200,000 in chips and you get $90,000.

Would that be a fair tournament?

Would it be at all impressive to you or anyone if I won a majority of the titles? Would that make a me a better card player than you? Or am I just winning because I have an advantage you don't? Would it really make my titles as meaningful as if you beat me?

I don't even know how to play hold'em so I don't understand your analogy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So how bout we breakdown everything that the Yankees have built...all the years of success during murderer's row and hold it against them that they play in perhaps the BIGGEST market in American sports as if that has no factor in generating their revenue.

The point I'm making here is you can hate the Yankees now loud and proud because you can say "they buy their world championships". However, the NFL and NBA cap model has shown that large markets, even w/ a cap, are predominantly still the big boys. So even w/ a cap you're still going to hate the Yankees. They (MLB) won't cap staff budgets, so NY can afford the best front office, and just becomes piling on for no other reason than continued success that you wish YOUR team could duplicate.

[JBH3]

Re: Who is the most hated team in US sports?

Regardless of the market, the longer a team stays uncompetitive the less interest/money the team will generate - that's common sense logic.

Atlanta won 14 division titles consecutively but by the end of the run attendance was already declining - fans knew they'd flame out in the NLDS or LCS. If one thinks about it makes sense: Jim sees his team get into the playoffs and for 14 straight years the team is in...but they always fail; regardless of performance in the regular season it simply seems inevitable. The last time Atlata was top-10 in attendance was '03 (when they had the best record win 100+ wins).

Some markets will never succeed b/c of the lack of support from the fans and/or ineffective marketing (hello FLA franchises) but I believe if a city shows a competitive & exciting team and a promise that team will continue to build the fans will come.

Enter Philadelphia. A new stadium. A young corps of HOMEGROWN talent, and what'd know...they did all that by NOT buying up the FA market. Such is the blueprint for any other team. They made a splash w/ two FA signings in Thome and Wagner, but those didn't contribute to their success now and other than that relied on building a team the right way...scouting/draft/development and plugging in holes through free agency w/o breaking the bank (Ibanez).

Atlanta's consistent failure was bound to have that effect. Getting the fanbase's hopes up every year, and seemingly ripping their hearts out yr after yr after yr will bring down the morale and interest. Perhaps that's when spending money funnels interest back in. The slow drop off in success also had to do w/ Stan Kasten departing and new front office management.

[Trevytrev11]

Re: Who is the most hated team in US sports?

I don't even know how to play hold'em so I don't understand your analogy.

How about black jack....or better yet, Monopoly? Everyone knows how to play Monopoly. You start with the standard amount of money and spend several trips around the board slowy buying up properties and I start with a ton of money and buy up half the board on my first time around. And we'll see who wins the majority of the time...sound fair?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So how bout we breakdown everything that the Yankees have built...all the years of success during murderer's row and hold it against them that they play in perhaps the BIGGEST market in American sports as if that has no factor in generating their revenue.

I love the Yankee's of the 1920's and 30's and 40's and...you should see my game room, but Free Agency didn't begin until the early 70's, so it's hard to fault them for anything before that .

The point I'm making here is you can hate the Yankees now loud and proud because you can say "they buy their world championships". However, the NFL and NBA cap model has shown that large markets, even w/ a cap, are predominantly still the big boys. So even w/ a cap you're still going to hate the Yankees. They (MLB) won't cap staff budgets, so NY can afford the best front office, and just becomes piling on for no other reason than continued success that you wish YOUR team could duplicate.a

Here are the 5 biggest cities in the US
New York
Los Angeles
Chicago
Houston
Phoenix

Only twice in the last 18 years has a team from these markets won the Super Bowl and both times it's been the Giants and there were 17 years in between those two.

I would argue that the teams that are consistantly the best in the NFL are the smartest teams. How much money has been spent on early QB picks in the last few years that have turned into busts (Quinn, Russel, Young, Smith, etc.). Meanwhile the two best teams over the past ten years found theres late in the draft (Brady, Rothlesberger). These teams seem to find players that fit their systems better than anyone else and refuse to overpay for players. The Patriots have given up key guys every year and never seem to skip a beat. Better than any of the other teams in the NFL, these two teams seem to get their players to buy into their system.

In the NBA, it's only been the Lakers since Jordan retired.


And as far as capping staff, I'm not convinced it'd make that much of a difference. There are far too many talented front office guys for one team or ten teams for that matter. Besides, baseball is so much more of an individual game compared to football and baseball that I don't think a coach makes that big of a difference. Running an offense in baseball consists of filling out a lineup card and letting your players swing away. Obviously there's more to it than that, but you don't game plan for a week like you do for football.

[Trevytrev11]

Re: Who is the most hated team in US sports?

Enter Philadelphia. A new stadium. A young corps of HOMEGROWN talent, and what'd know...they did all that by NOT buying up the FA market. Such is the blueprint for any other team. They made a splash w/ two FA signings in Thome and Wagner, but those didn't contribute to their success now and other than that relied on building a team the right way...scouting/draft/development and plugging in holes through free agency w/o breaking the bank (Ibanez).

Isn't that the way it should be? Building from within, making some good, even maybe risky key signings at the right moments and watching all of that build into a champion...so much better IMO than just buying everyone elses talent, that they can no longer afford.

Had the Phillie's won again, I would have felt much more happiness for them...I would have felt they truely did it the right (hard) way and earned it.

As a Phillies fan, I imagine you feel a bit of pride in the matter they have done things. Sure they spend more than some, but they're spending much of it on players they brought up (Utley, Rollins, Howard, Hammels) or players that they got at a discount at other times and have matured with the team (Werth, Ibanez (kind of), Lee next year?).

[P2K]

Re: Who is the most hated team in US sports?

I see the relation success=hatred

I disagree because the Steelers have the most Lombardi trophies. Besides rivals, who hates the Steelers?

San Francisco were the Golden Dynasty in the '80s. Who hates them?

[elgreazy1]

Re: Who is the most hated team in US sports?

I'd say Yankees, Cowboys, Lakers, in that order. No one loves, hates or loves to hate those teams more than any other. It has to do with being winners, being very global organizations (world known) and having ownership that always does everything BIG.

[Po Pimp]

Re: Who is the most hated team in US sports?

Yankees are probably the most hated team due to their high payroll.

Duke basketball is pretty hated too.

Lakers started getting hate during the Shaq/Kobe era. They were pretty well liked when Magic ran the show, but I think Shaq leaving a promising team to head to greener pastures, then Kobe with his arrogance and the belief that he is copying Jordan made them very much a hated team. It didn't help that they won three titles, the controversial Kings series, when Karl Malone and GP joined the squad, plus getting Pau Gasol for a tuna sandwich.

My personal all time hated teams are:

Lakers
Duke
Packers
Pistons
Knicks
Cubs

[jeremym480]

Re: Who is the most hated team in US sports?

I just thought that I should update my "hate list" with football season and the baseball playoffs in full swing and the basketball season only three weeks away.

1. Yankee's
2. Viking's
3. Heat
4. Auburn
5. Laker's
6. Bear's

[adice15]

Re: Who is the most hated team in US sports?

1. Yankees
2. Lakers
3. Georgia
4. Oklahoma

[WazzuRC]

Re: Who is the most hated team in US sports?

1. UW Huskies
2. Yankees
3. Duke
4. Notre Dame
5. Boise State (the fans)
6. Any team Brett Favre is on