3 Reasons for Fans to Be Mad as Hell

If you’re a sports fan (and if you’re reading this, I’m guessing you are), I pity you. As a big one myself, I feel your pain. I know what it’s like getting your hopes up at the beginning of every season only to feel like you’ve been punched in the gut (or elsewhere) when your squad falls flat. And then, what do we do? We get in line to do it all over. Even though we pretty much know we’ll be left disappointed again, we saps do it anyway. Isn’t that the definition of insanity?

It's not just the losing that hurts. Most of us (perhaps Dodgers fans aside) have accepted that our teams will probably lose more often than they win. It’s the other factors that are particularly irksome. Like the ridiculous ticket prices and how a company like Ticketmaster can legally – and surely gleefully – gouge its customers. It’s the insane costs of concessions and merchandise. It’s the never-ending battle over TV rights and streaming services and the confusion and expenses involved in even watching games. But there are other things, too; things that are even more insidious that can make it hard to be a fan.

Relocation or Threats of a Move

When you grow up rooting for a team, it becomes a fixture in your life. Even if you don’t go to games too often or at all (see above), if you regularly drive by the stadium or arena or just see folks sporting the hats and t-shirts, the team becomes ingrained in the culture of the area. As far as you know, it has always been there and it will always be there.

Unfortunately, many owners don’t feel the same way. The people lucky enough (or rich enough) to be able to own professional sports teams do a great job of thinking about their shareholders, but they’re often terrible when it comes to the fans. The list of cities that have had teams ripped away is long. Look at Oakland. It wasn’t too long ago that the Raiders, Warriors, and A’s all played there, and now all are gone.

Look at the Chiefs. The team has called Kansas City, Missouri, home for over 60 years, and most of their fans probably can’t recall a time when it didn’t play at Arrowhead Stadium, which has been its stomping grounds for over a half a century. As of 2031, that will all be over.

The team isn’t just moving out of the city, it’s moving out of the state. Great news for the branding people, however, as the Chiefs will still play in a Kansas City, but now in Kansas. Why make the move? The Hunt family, which owns the team, wants new facilities, and Kansas aims to cover 70% of the $4 billion or so it will take to build them. By the way, the Hunts are worth $25 billion. The most ironic part is that Clark Hunt said the choice was made with fans in mind:

“We made a decision as a family that this was the right opportunity and the best for the organization for several reasons. It's about the fans. My dad [Lamar Hunt] was always about the fans and thinking about the future.”

A team with an even longer legacy playing in one place is the Bears, who have been in Chicago for more than a century. For years, the organization has been trying to build a new stadium, and it’s now threatening to move to Indiana to get it. The McCaskey family owns the Bears, and while not as flush as the Hunts, they’re still estimated to be worth more than $1 billion.

Short-Sighted Personnel Decisions

Jerry Seinfeld famously said this about being a sports fan: “You're rooting for clothes, when you get right down to it. We're screaming about laundry.” To a large extent, this is true. Few (if any) teams return the exact same players every year; for a variety of reasons, this usually doesn’t make sense.

While the name on the front of the jersey is ultimately more important than the one on the back, most fans would probably agree that it’s not that much more important. Why do we fall in love with teams in the first place? It’s because of the people wearing the jerseys. If a little kid at a baseball game gets a player to sign his ball, guess what? He’s probably going to be a fan of that guy for the rest of his life.

This is why it’s crushing when the people you’ve developed an emotional connection to are abruptly gone. It’s bad enough when they’re at the end of their careers and management decides they’re not worth paying anymore. What’s worse is when productive and popular – and even great – players are shown the door. The Mets, for example, recently chose to sever ties with many guys who were fan favorites. Even more of a blow was the fact that several of them – including Pete Alonso – up to that point had been lifelong Mets.

As a fan, you frequently have to ask yourself if you can still support a team that takes heart out of the equation and instead seems to use other body parts (or perhaps robots) to make decisions. Trae Young fans know what I’m talking about. So too do Dallas Mavericks’ fans who still wear Luka Doncic jerseys. As will Detroit Tigers’ and Pittsburgh Pirates’ fans if/when Tarik Skubal and Paul Skenes are eventually traded.

Political Interference

Anybody paying attention can see that the political climate in the U.S. is toxic. Perhaps eventually we will return to an era of common sense and reasonable and rational debate, but I won’t be holding my breath.

For the most part, sports have been pretty apolitical. Nobody ever really seemed to care much about the affiliations of players, and why would they? They’re paid to play a game. And while many former pro athletes have become elected officials or tried to (remember when Hershel Walker waxed poetically about vampires in a stump speech?!), for most, politics never played a big role during their careers.

Athletic marvels, players are also entertainers, and sports for many is an excellent distraction from the “real” stuff going on. But when sports and politics collide – as they have done a lot lately – it can be impossible for fans to use games as escapism.

If you’re a fan of football, politics have been front and center thanks to Trump. Last February, he became the first sitting president to attend the Super Bowl. In November, he showed up in the booth of a Washington Commanders game at Northwest Stadium. Though if he has his way, their next stadium will be named after him. Previously he threatened to block funding for their new facility unless they started using their old name again.

If you’re a fan of the other type of football – namely, fútbol – there’s no getting away from politics either. Thanks to the World Cup being played in the U.S., Trump has aimed to make himself the center of attention, highlighted (lowlighted?) by his farcical “peace” prize.

Follow golf? You can’t get away from political influence. Like the UFC? There’s going to be a fight on the grounds of the White House in July. Love watching the Olympics? Be prepared for the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles to be dripping in politics.

Whatever side you are on, you probably don’t want your favorite teams or players being used as pawns by lawmakers, billionaires, or anyone else. You just want to enjoy watching sports for the fun and excitement it offers.

This should be the rallying cry of all fans, and if the people running things don’t act like they care about us, why should we care about them?