Bill Simmons Lobs Bomb on Cardinal Fans

[ASUCHRIS]

We'll see. I'll be in Lincoln for the KU game on October 2nd or the Mizzou game on the 30th and I'll be judging whether 'Sker fans are good fans or they just have no lives.

a little from column A.....

 

[NMCardfan]

I just want to share my experience about the "fans" in Phoenix. I'm a huge Cardinal fan from New Mexico (I grew up in St. Louis, thus my alliegence). A few years back, my wife and I flew to Phoenix for the Cardinal/49er Monday night game, and I was so disappointed because we got harassed walking through town in our Cardinal jerseys. What kind of home-town advantage is that? I always feel like I'm cheering for the away team when I see a Cardinal football game at Sun Devil Stadum. It's really depressing.

Not to bash Phoenix, but I wish the Cards never left St. Louis. People say it's a bad football town, but I don't buy that. There are great sports fans in St. Louis. The Blues and the Cardinal baseball team sell out virtually every game, and the Rams do pretty good too. If Michael Bidwill were in charge of the team when it was in St. Louis, the football Cardinals would still be there, and doing quite well.

Phoenix is just a place where fans from cold weather cities move because they get tired of shoveling their driveways in April. It's never going to be a place where lots of people feel passionate about the Cardinals like the people in Green Bay feel about the Packers, or the people in Illinois feel about the Bears. It's really unfortunate that the true fans, the ones that bleed Cardinal red, number so few in the Phoenix area.

 

[CardShark]

I just want to share my experience about the "fans" in Phoenix. I'm a huge Cardinal fan from New Mexico (I grew up in St. Louis, thus my alliegence). A few years back, my wife and I flew to Phoenix for the Cardinal/49er Monday night game, and I was so disappointed because we got harassed walking through town in our Cardinal jerseys. What kind of home-town advantage is that? I always feel like I'm cheering for the away team when I see a Cardinal football game at Sun Devil Stadum. It's really depressing.

Not to bash Phoenix, but I wish the Cards never left St. Louis. People say it's a bad football town, but I don't buy that. There are great sports fans in St. Louis. The Blues and the Cardinal baseball team sell out virtually every game, and the Rams do pretty good too. If Michael Bidwill were in charge of the team when it was in St. Louis, the football Cardinals would still be there, and doing quite well.

Phoenix is just a place where fans from cold weather cities move because they get tired of shoveling their driveways in April. It's never going to be a place where lots of people feel passionate about the Cardinals like the people in Green Bay feel about the Packers, or the people in Illinois feel about the Bears. It's really unfortunate that the true fans, the ones that bleed Cardinal red, number so few in the Phoenix area.

So when are you going to make the move? We need to shore up the ranks!
I'm originally from Albuquerque. Is that where you are now?

 

[NJYAJ09]

Denny Green looks like hes moving the franchise into a new direction, we just need more people to go to the games! I wish it was that easy.

 

[WisconsinCard]

Let me get this straight, I am somehow obliged to pay the Cardinals for the privilege of them making me miserable?

Why don't I have season tickets anymore? How about having to pay 30-50 bucks a ticket for two preseason games in the hottest weather known to man?

How about all the not just losing but horribly inept football in a stadium that is barely a good college stadium?

Bill Simmons cracks me up. However, unless a person has season tickets for this franchise from 1988 to 2000, I don't want to hear about it.

Improve the team, I will be there. Until, nope.

Let me get this straight, if the Cards make you so miserable, then why are you a fan? I didn't miss a game from the they moved there until I moved to wisconsin. Maybe I am just psyco fan but the cards are my team. I gotta tell ya I am proud to tell people I am a Cardinals fan. Proud as proud can be!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[NJYAJ09]

Let me get this straight, if the Cards make you so miserable, then why are you a fan? I didn't miss a game from the they moved there until I moved to wisconsin. Maybe I am just psyco fan but the cards are my team. I gotta tell ya I am proud to tell people I am a Cardinals fan. Proud as proud can be!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey man, I'm all with you, I'm proud to be a cards fan as well.

 

[WisconsinCard]

Hey man, I'm all with you, I'm proud to be a cards fan as well.

Thanks God I am not the only one. Some people just look at me in amazment when I tell them that. All my friend here tell me when the cards start winning they will tell evryone that they see that "he aint no band wagon fan."

 

[jstadvl]

This is

all crap! It's the same old rehashed garbage once again. Did someone under the age of 25 use the word "boss?" Groovey. Cool to see evryone is soo hip again. Win, stadium, and fans quit dissing their own team and team matters and the change will happen.

 

[chickenhead]

You can't compare the Cards' attendance situation with the Jets. The Jets draw from a metro area of over 20 million and the largest corporate community in the world. NY could easily sell out teams on top of the Giants and Jets. There are only 16 games between the two of them remember.

Also, I wouldn't be so quick to compare Phoenix unfavorably to St. Louis. There's no disputing the baseball Cardinals, but it's not like the football Cardinals were abandoning a sold-out rabid stadium. Do I blame the football fans? No, not any more than I blame Phoenix fans for not supporting Bidwill.

Remember people, it's not just a matter of losing. The Cardinals have been a laughingstock for years. There's a huge difference between that and a losing team like the Bears. No one disputes that the Bears are a proud franchise regardless of record, and they have a multitude of dormant fans even in the worst of times. The Cardinals have yet to fully capture a new fan base after ditching an old one.

I'm a Cards fan because I grew up in Phoenix and it's another way to stay connected to the hometown. However, if I were some random fan, it would be hard to start cheering for an owner so universally disrespected.

 

[jstadvl]

Why villify

Bidwill? He's done less to deserve it than other AZ. sports franchise owners. And, as stated, when those franchises started losing scalpers were losing money or barely breaking even.
NMCardfan,next time your in town you need to hang with us, you won't get harassed without giving 2 hundred percent back. You'd be suprised how quickly big mouths, even from very big people, get real quiet, when you stand up for your team.

 

[Pariah]

You'd be suprised how quickly big mouths, even from very big people, get real quiet, when you stand up for your team.

Yup, I can vouch for that. I shut up what seemed like an entire fire house of NY firement at the giants game a couple of years ago. I paid for it though, I had no voice for the next few days and then they drank me under the table at hooters after the game.

Good times, good times.

 

[Mulli]

Okay okay. Since yesterday, I decided that I need to go to at least a few games next year. Sheesh.

 

[SECTION 11]

Okay okay. Since yesterday, I decided that I need to go to at least a few games next year. Sheesh.

try to make the home opener. the halftime meets are pretty fun.
guaranteed cheap entertainment.

 

[chickenhead]

Bidwill? He's done less to deserve it than other AZ. sports franchise owners. And, as stated, when those franchises started losing scalpers were losing money or barely breaking even.

I'm not saying Bidwill is villainous, but his tenure has been double the length of the D'backs or Coyotes, with much less total success than the former and arguably no more than the latter. When I compare him to the Suns, he compares unfavorably. Sure, the Suns have driven me crazy at times, but I think the product has been better, and the fans respected more. Just my opinion, of course.

 

[pete]

I just want to share my experience about the "fans" in Phoenix. I'm a huge Cardinal fan from New Mexico (I grew up in St. Louis, thus my alliegence). A few years back, my wife and I flew to Phoenix for the Cardinal/49er Monday night game, and I was so disappointed because we got harassed walking through town in our Cardinal jerseys. What kind of home-town advantage is that? I always feel like I'm cheering for the away team when I see a Cardinal football game at Sun Devil Stadum. It's really depressing.

Not to bash Phoenix, but I wish the Cards never left St. Louis. People say it's a bad football town, but I don't buy that. There are great sports fans in St. Louis. The Blues and the Cardinal baseball team sell out virtually every game, and the Rams do pretty good too. If Michael Bidwill were in charge of the team when it was in St. Louis, the football Cardinals would still be there, and doing quite well.

Phoenix is just a place where fans from cold weather cities move because they get tired of shoveling their driveways in April. It's never going to be a place where lots of people feel passionate about the Cardinals like the people in Green Bay feel about the Packers, or the people in Illinois feel about the Bears. It's really unfortunate that the true fans, the ones that bleed Cardinal red, number so few in the Phoenix area.

Phoenix deserves to be bashed NM! Phoenix has roughly doubled in size over the past decade, yet few of the newcomers take their kids to the games, especially Cardinal games. Those teams that you mention, local sports are like religion there and you are born into them. It takes generations to establish that sort of a following but I have doubts it will happen here because many of the newcomers still want to follow their previous teams. Therefore, they don't take their kids to see the local teams and that generational fan base just never gets established. You combine that with the pathetic Cardinal track record and you get an empty stadium unless the team is winning.

Of course when the local teams start winning, the newcomers show up en masse and act like they were fans all along.

 

[AzCards06]

Season ticket holder since 1988

Keep in mind, the new stadium will hold 10,000 LESS people than Sun Devil.

Of course, Sun Devil was configured to hold massive crowds due to the once a year Fiesta Bowl being held there, and in no way is it nearly comfortable for sold out crowds. Most NFL teams play in front of crowds in the 60's. Add to that the terrible parking options, and you'll see the need for an NFL quality venue.

We have that coming.

I've been trying to convert people in town over to the Cardinals for years. Most people have the same experience: they finally buy a ticket to a game when their old team comes to visit. They go to the game, and if they survive the heat, they swear it was the most uncomfortable experience they've ever had, and swear to never go again.

There you have it in a nutshell.

Comparing the Cardinals to other NFL teams' attendance is stupid. Most NFL teams have generations of fans to choose from.

This is a football town waiting to explode. It will explode. If you wait to see it before you get your own guaranteed seats every year, it'll be too late.

Then we'll never have this conversation again.

 

[SECTION 11]

Then we'll never have this conversation again.

YYEEAAAAAAHHHHHHAAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!

You must be registered for see images

 

[KingofCards]

I enjoy the small crowds. A football game all to myself. I get to stand on my seat all game, move up to the front. Spill beer on the empty seat in front of me and not have to apoligize. Run up, grab a beer and not miss a play. Can't beat it.

 

[PhxGametime]

Most of my posts are at Suns board and I'm not the smartest person but with so many teams in Arizona - hard to be a diehard of every team in AZ. I will watch every game I can of Cardinals, D'Backs, and Mercury (very few on TV) but I am diehard Suns and UofA Basketball fan. I don't attend any sports games (of any team) myself but I am a fan and I'm sure there are plenty of fans out there - that follow team. I've lived here all my life, so I do root for home teams (even Coyotes, although not much of a Hockey fan - not asu though ).

Every team here has been successfull at 1 time or another and some fans remain with team - but IMO fans have favorite sports (I've seen a lot of posts here on this board talking about Cardinals being only team in town hehe 365 days Cardinal red). I just don't think it all has to do with winning - most of you here don't see casual fans like me on this board much (I've always had night crew jobs as well, so hours are different as well) but I talk about Cardinals with my dad a lot (biggest Cardinals fan I know in person). Also being a big Basketball fan, don't have as much knowledge about Football to enter discussions. Not attending games, shouldn't make you less of a fan? Most of the guys on Suns board don't even go to Suns games and we're diehards - TV and radio work for some. As a fan of all Arizona sports (sorry asu) - fans being embarrassed of team might be disrespectful to some but not all fans are bandwagoners. Arizona sports rule...

 

[chickenhead]

I don't see why any city really 'deserves' to be bashed, necessarily. Most of the franchises we look up to have had lousy stretches, but none of this was an issue until the ante was upped by maximizing revenue, ubiquitous sports marketing, and mommoth TV contracts. It’s way to convenient for some fans to trot out ‘decades’ of history while judiciously ignoring that aspect. I don't think fans have become fickle all by themselves. Once upon a time fans identified with their team to a large extent because the home game was a huge part of the sports spectator experience. Now with cable, satellite, and internet, the equation has changed. Cardinals game blacked out? There's nothing to stop you from breathing NFL for 24 hours on Sunday, and therefore not the same motivation to avoid the blackout, nor the same motivation to switch allegiances from a team you can watch just as easily from a living room in Phoenix as you can from a living room in Chicago. I grew up in Phoenix, and still took a couple of years for me to be a die-hard, because when they arrived I was an 11 year old Marino-era Dolphins fan.

I think it's this expectation that a city will be totally loyal to a franchise from inception/arrival that is unreasonable. Have you guys noted that since arriving in Arizona, the Cardinals are 89-167? During that same time, the Bengals are 92-164. That's right, during the Cardinals lifetime in Arizona, they are the wrost team in the NFL. The absolute worst. The fact this forum is so active is awesome – kudos to everyone for their dedication. But perrennial disappointments just don’t gather as many fans, and it’s not all about the bandwagon, either, it’s about the hope of winning. There’s never even been much of a “next year” vibe about the Cardinals in Phoenix. That’s the most important thing that needs to change.