Bandwagon Fans; Try Not To Get Hurt When Jumping

It's looked at by the most annoying thing in sports by some die-hard fans. The "Bandwagon" fan is something no one understands, but almost everyone does.

Bandwagon fans are with "their team" through the positive times, but don't care about the team when they're going through the negatives. When these fans are looked at by the die-hards, they seem to get rather annoying.

The die-hard fans sit through the losing streaks, the low budget times, and the "what is wrong with them?" seasons. They are always there, always try to find positives, and always support their team, even if they don't fully agree with what's going on. When the bandwagon fan comes, they get annoyed because they see their relationship with sports as full time, while the bandwagonner sees it as a part time/when it's convenient relationship. But why are they looked at as annoying?

I see myself as a full-time sports fan to all of my teams. I've watched the Rangers through all the 40 and 50 win seasons, the playoff droughts, and the times when they never seem to have any kind of big names even semi interested in playing for them.

I watched the Cowboys when they lost Aikman and Smith, when they went from the best team in the NFL to one of the worst, and slowly climbed back into the spotlight.

And when my teams become good enough to attract bandwagon fans, I WELCOME them with open arms.

Yes, you read that right, I welcome them.

The reason I do this will be shown to you by this years situation with the Rangers. They finally have a post-season year, and are doing well because of a trade they made during the season for Cliff Lee.

Cliff Lee makes a lot of money, and is only going to stay in Texas past this year if he keeps on making that much money, if not more. At the beginning of the year, it was only the die-hard fans buying tickets to the Ranger games, making the attendance somewhere between 15,000 and 25,000 a game.

Now, late in the season and in the playoffs, the attendance is between 40,000 and 45,000.

What does this mean? The more people coming to the game, buying tickets, buying programs, grabbing a shirt for their son who has school the next day and couldn't go, buying a beer for them and their friends, the more money goes to the Rangers, which in turn keeps those big names in Ranger uniforms, and also brings in more big names in the offseason.

For those of you who speak the language of Math, this equation will help you understand.
Better players + More Bandwagon Fans = More Money.
More Money = Even better players coming in in the offseason.

So I say, go out and buy that Ranger shirt even though you can't name anyone on the field, I'm completely fine with that. I've been going to Ranger games since I could walk (I went to the 1996 Playoff game against the Yankees, and I was born in 1991. I am serious when I say that I've been going since I could walk), but I look at the bandwagon fans as regular fans because all they're doing is helping me.

The only negative to the bandwagon fans is that tickets are a bit harder to grab, but I think I'm fine with that if we're winning ballgames.

Go Rangers, Go Cowboys, and Go Pokes!