This article is in response to There’s no I – or we, us, our – in fan.
“I want to bring back the pride and tradition long associated with the Pittsburgh Steelers, and more importantly, with the people of Pittsburgh.” Bill Cowher, upon being hired as Head Coach of the Steelers in 1992.
“To be honest, the fans pay our bills. They pay my bills. They pay for my house and everything else. That’s the best feeling in the world to come out and see 60,000 people at a football game.” Lee Flowers, on what motivates him (1998).
Sitting in my seat in the upper reaches of Ford Field in Detroit prior to the kickoff of Super Bowl XL, one thing was clear to me. Steeler Nation is REAL. Not only is it real, but it has a significant effect on the success of the organization it supports.
I spent no more than 16 hours total in Detroit, Michigan for that game. I wasn’t there reporting or writing, I was there as a card-carrying, Terrible Towel-toting, fanatical member of the legion of black and gold followers known as Steeler Nation. When the bus we were on let us off in downtown Detroit, had I not known any better, I would have thought I was in Pittsburgh. Tailgate parties, Steelers Polka, jerseys both new and old, all lined the streets of America’s least livable city. On the off occasion that we ran into one of the 300-500 Seattle Seahawks fans that actually made the trip to Detroit for the biggest game in their franchises history, they also could not believe the level of support the Steelers had in a city so far away from their home base.
There has always been a traditional rumor about Super Bowl XL, that Detroit is so close to Pittsburgh that it enabled Steelers fans to travel to the big game more so than those Seattle fans. To that I say nonsense. You see, after waiting a decade to taste Super Bowl glory again, Steelers fans would have traveled to the MOON if the NFL had deemed the Dark Side to be the host of the 40th annual tradition of pomp, circumstance, and pigskin. It was a non-factor. I personally knew people who took out second mortgages and sold their boats to buy tickets to that game and swing their travel plans. Steeler Nation IS a part of the Pittsburgh Steelers. When the introductions were taking place inside Ford Field, it was Franco Harris swinging a Terrible Towel and Jerome Bettis getting his moment of glory that were the moment etched in time. The backdrop of 60,000 gold towels swinging at the biggest game in the world took those moments and transformed them into memories. Steeler Nation did that.
As a season ticket holder for the Steelers since the late 1990’s, I have personally seen the fans in both Three Rivers Stadium and Heinz Field will the Steelers to victory. We not only create an environment that adds to the opposition’s already-unnerved system, we create another layer of the warfare to the sport. Call us the “front line”; we wage the war from the stands, willing our players into better play by ensuring they know we are there in victory – and in defeat.
There is another reason why I consider the fans to be a part of any organization, and that is the financial support they provide. The millions of dollars spent on merchandise and concessions throughout a season allow each professional team to greatly enhance their success. Take the Pittsburgh Penguins, a team who has experienced two periods of great success in their history – wrapped between a lowly start and a very-tedious time period where the team almost left the city. It was the fans of this team that essentially begged Mario Lemieux to purchase the team and keep it in Pittsburgh. It was the fan support that allowed the team to begin plans for the new arena that cemented the long-term legacy of hockey in Pittsburgh. It remains the rabid Penguins fans who are the key ingredient in a sports food chain that provides jobs and financial stability for a region that needs as much economic help as possible to maintain three professional sports teams in one of the smallest markets in America.
When the fans cease to support the team, the food chain loses its number one need. While some teams re-locate due to the sheer audacity of ownership (see the Baltimore Colts, Cleveland Browns, and soon the Sacramento Kings), most teams leave town because they lose the connection to the fan base. The Montreal Expos were a successful franchise back in the early to mid-1990’s, in fact owning the best record in baseball prior to the 1994 strike. Fans flocked to Olympic Stadium to watch those Expos, as they did back in the early 1980’s when the team was posting five-straight winning seasons. Bad ownership and terrible decisions (such as removing games from local television to try and bolster attendance) helped ramp up the final call of moving the team. The Expos lost their fan base by treating their fans as a number, instead of their rightful place as a part of a franchise. The writing was on the wall well before the Expos left town to become the Washington Nationals in 2005.
Fans in Pittsburgh had have a front row seat to the sags of the Pittsburgh Pirates, who came ever-so close to leaving town a few times before finally needing a controversial political vote to ensure a new stadium. Even since PNC Park was erected in 2001, the Pirates have languished in mediocrity. This is a case where management has done everything in their power to try and lose their fan base, only to watch as Pirates fans continue to support their team, even as they continue setting record marks for futility. PNC Park may have saved the Pittsburgh Pirates from moving once, but it will be the fans that ultimately keep the team here. The Pirates have now had back-to-back seasons where they have drawn more fans than they have in years, and this while the team has tanked the second half of their promising campaigns. It is safe to say that the only thing keeping the Pittsburgh Pirates relevant in the world of sports are the fans of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
“Super fans” like Fireman Ed in New York are simply novelty items, like the Pirate Parrot or Steely McBeam. These superfans are attempting to make the game about THEM. I can agree with those who peg that strategy as wrong. It is not about any ONE fan, it is about ALL of US. Together, we bind the world of professional sports – owners, players, fans. Without us, these teams – these leagues – they do not exist.
There may not be a WE or an I in Team, but there is a ME. Enough ME’s and there is an US.
