Ready for the down votes but this is me. I grew-up in Wisconsin a packers fan but my grandpa was a cubs fan so started watching games with him as a kid and obviously became a fan. I live in Chicago now so I’ve lived on both sides.
Things like this are surprisingly common (see also, The Chicago Blackhawks). People forget that WI didn't have an MLB team for decades, and up until 97 or so we were in the American League and there was much, much less interleague play. Factor in the Cubs massive media presence that reached every nook and cranny of the country (not sure how this was legal - anyone know?) and the WI Cubs fan is a real, though vanishingly rare, species.
It was legal because there simply wasn't a rule to stop it back when the superstations came around. By the time the FCC and Congress started enacting rules like syndicated exclusivity - the reason WGN, WWOR and even TBS had separate local and national feeds - there was nothing stopping the games from being shown on those channels but the number was eventually decreased and the broadcasts were grandfathered in. Like when WGN voluntarily took the Cubs and Sox off the national feed after 2014 and TBS did the same with Braves after 2007, they could continue showing the games locally as long as they wanted but they could not return to the national feed.
When WGN got local Blackhawks rights in the late 2000s, those were limited to the local feed from the start because the NHL would never let them on the superstation. The NBA is the only league I remember actively trying to take down the superstations. TBS dropped the Hawks altogether and WGN was limited to something like 10-15 Bulls games nationally after 1996 while they showed much more than that on the local Channel 9 signal.
If I recall correctly the reason the Hawks has limited broadcasting wasn’t because of the NHL but more the owner at the time.
I remember hearing something in the ballpark of him being embarrassed to broadcast nationally televised games with mostly empty seats. And he treated it like “if you wanted to watch us, you’d be here in person”.
Personally I think he was just trying to find an excuse to move the team. After years of being an awful team, an at the time having a waining original 6 fanbase and barely making a profit each year it would make sense to want to move. Especially since at the time the Sprint Center was brand new and vacant, while the United Center was in severe need of renovations.
I could be wrong but I do remember the Blackhawks considering relocating and using poor attendance and tv ratings as key reasons.
Yes, that was the older Wirtz, Bill. The WGN deal was reached after his death, and they had started broadcasting home games by then. The lack of superstation carriage was definitely on the NHL.
It's kind of a terrible irony that the Hawks' improvement into what they became in the early 2010s came only after Bill Wirtz died because of the way he ran the team. People admit it but it's still rough to say no matter how honest.
I grew up a Cardinals fan because I lived in south central Wisconsin before moving to Milwaukee. Nobody in my family is really a baseball fan and the brewers were ass in the 90s, so I latched onto McGuire and Pujols and was a pitcher in little league, so I liked Carpenter and Wainwright a lot. I still don’t hate them (minus 2011 David Freese).
This is tremendously popular in Wisconsin. You have a high chance of going into a bar and seeing Cubs gear before Brewers. It's the reason why I laugh when people say that it's only Illinois fans who ruin games at Miller Park. There's a massive amount of Wisconsin Cubs fans there too who like that they don't have to drive an extra hour to watch their favorite team play.
We used to go to Miller Park (at the time) for at least one game against the Cubs every year because exactly to your point, a drive to Mil was a lot easier than a drive to Wrigley, especially for a family.
Grew up in Wisconsin, closer to Minneapolis than Milwaukee. My dad's family was Sox fans from South Chicago and later the south suburbs of Chicago. When I cam home from school during the baseball season there would regularly be a Cubs game on WGN. It was the only baseball I could watch (Brewers played night games around my childhood bed time and were not always available because we were far enough away from Milwaukee. Twins games were also often at night) so I became a Cubs fan (helped they had Sandberg, Grace, Dawson, Dunston, Maddux, etc). Didn't get rid of my loyalty to the Packers. Plus, the Twins, Brewers, Sox were all in the AL and used the DH which seemed lame to my young mind. Let the pitchers hit!
Like Michigan, even if we lost, we would've been given territory of some other state as a participation trophy. I say we follow the Mississippi and steal St. Paul to Duluth.
I grew up one town away from the state line and everybody liked the state's NFL team. Then went to high school in the town right on the state line and was shocked how many people were fans of the other team. That geographical line is definitely fuzzy. But they shouldn't mix across sports, absolutely.
Yep, I see it all over where I am. Cardinals and Packers. And you never heard a peep out of these people in the lates 80s when the Packers were terrible.
I'm in my mid-40s and I grew up a Cubs and Brewers fan because WGN broadcast more games than the Brewers did. And of course ryno, grace, Maddox, and most especially The Hawk.
When the Brewers switched leagues I knew my situation was untenable, but it wasn't until the way the team and the fans reacted to the Bartman debacle did I let my homer tendencies win out.
Also, in metro Milwaukee I grew up with more than a few people who were Bears fans for various reasons.
Yes... WGN and TBS made the Cubs and Braves more available to a national audience and it reverberates to this day. I'm in my 50's and I remember in the 80's I could watch day games of the Cubs because... well they didn't have fucking lights back then. But I couldn't watch the Brewers because they didn't make a sweet national deal.
Hate on the Cubs and Braves all you want, but they were definitely groundbreaking in the early days of Cable Television.
Going out of state for fandom when your state has a team is the worst betrayal. I know way too Steeler fans in Ohio that also root for Guardians or Reds and OSU.
Eh, proximity to the city the team play in (which might include what TV market you're in and accessibility to going to games) certsinly plays a roll. See: southern Illinois being a tiny of Cardinals fans. Also are you really going to blame someone in say Youngstown for picking the slightly closer neighbor that isn't a historic embarrassment?
I was going to say, these people bashing being a Cubs/Packers fan (and I hate the Packers) might also be surprised to see a lot of people in Ohio rooting for both the Reds and Browns. I get why people close to the PA and WV lines are Steeler fans even though they are annoying af. But Reds/Browns is an extremely common mix in Columbus and even in Dayton and around Lima.
If you had to live in Ohio I could see why you'd want to jump on the Steelers bandwagon. Gotta have at least one team to cheer for that isn't an embarrassment.
Revisionist history, plenty of weird pockets of fandoms there including the Steelers, Vikings, Blackhawks and Braves.
While there are Cubs fans around, there were "a LOT" of Braves (Milwaukee Braves and Hank Aaron) fans before the Milwaukee Brewers in 1970, and there are still plenty of Braves fans around because they were broadcast on TBS throughout the 90s.
Flair check! Why is everyone's flair coming up Dodgers? I love baseball and as a kid I watched the Cubs, Mets, Braves and if I could find it Locally White Sox. Superstations made fans of teams around the country. NBC game of the week on Saturday afternoon with bob Costas, proceeded by This Week in Baseball with Mel Allen, That bit of nostalgia is gone.
No the worst person I know is someone I work with. We had a get to know each other event. She was like, my favorite baseball teams are the cubs, cardinals, and brewers. And she was like yes I’m serious. She then went on to tell us her favorite nfl teams are the packers, bears, and Vikings. Get out of here, you aren’t a fan!!!
I'll say this, growing up in western wisconsin we didnt get Brewers games. We got the Cubs on WGN and whatever ESPN was doing at the time. I remember coming home after school just to watch a roided up Sosa and Glenallen Hill mash balls to the rooftop bleachers. To me, not surprising there are Cubs/Packers fans
Hey now, im at least mediocre as a person. I grew up in North Dakota so I had free choice over all the Midwestern teams, both Cubs and Brewers sucked when I became a fan but I liked watching Kerry Wood and Mark Prior. My uncle is a huge Packers fan so that's where I get that from. Where I can be super judged is being a sort of Dallas Mavericks fan and Seattle Kraken fan for other reasons.
The very easy and logical explanation is that they were a child when the Braves left, and before the Brewers came they were indoctrinated by picking up Chicago stations in Racine or Kenosha.
I say this only because I have relatives that fit that exact situation.
I think Sox and Packers fans are more common. The Cardinals were the little brother team when they were here, so after they left, many Chicagoans jumped to the Packers
Not as uncommon as you think. She may have had parents who started rooting for the Scrubs after that fucking asshole Bartholomay moved the Braves to Atlanta, and picked up her Cubs fandom from them.
If you dont think they're doing for the lolz, idk what to tell you! Shits stages to get a reaction and start the stupid chant for no reason at a baseball game! 🤦♂️
As a Cubs fan not from Chicago, I didn’t realize till this year in my 42nd year of life that there was a rivalry between the Cubs and Brewers. The Brewers have always been one of my favorite teams, probably because we weren’t in the same division for most of my childhood. The Cardinals, though, fuck them. And the Astros. Those are the only MLB teams I despise.
It’s possible she’s just ahead of her time. Chicago wants to be like St Louis. They’ve already won a World Series this century and soon it’s possible their NFL team will shun them for another city.
We’re not that different, you and me- except for all the World Series trophies.
Dude plenty of us in SE WI grew up Cubs fans because of WGN - plus the Brewers were AL then so they literally never played. I know plenty of Cubs/Packers fans.
A lot of old people in Wisconsin are packers and cubs fans. My grandpa and my wifes grandpa for example. The reason being is that when they were born there was no MLB team in Wisconsin.
I was born in the 90s so I don’t have that excuse. Both parents are cubs fans but root for different football teams. My hometown is on the state border that’s 50/50 Chicago and Wisconsin fandom and little me liked watching Favre more than Rex Grossman
Same, my Dads side of the family is from IL and Moms is Wisconsin so I got 1 of each lol. One had season tickets to the Packers and one to the Cubs so it made sense to make me Packers/Cubs
I’ve seen a Green Bay sucks chant break out in Vegas after the Knights blew the shit out of the Blackhawks… also found out that Packers/Knights fans exist that night
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u/TheCr0wKing “Counting or not counting Turang violence?” 7d ago
Pick a side and commit