RealGM

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/05/12/upshot/basketball-map.html#6,36.660,-77.591

Interesting map. Likes by area of the country. Check out Baltimore its Heat/Lakers/Celtics. Zero love for our Wizards north of Columbia, MD.

May have seen this before, just came across it. Work of Nate Silver's former team. Admittedly it's using Facebook data, but it's actually a very useful dataset for targeted marketing.

Growing up in Columbia and attending HS in Takoma Park in the '80s, I can attest that I was always in the minority in my support of the Bullets.

America is a country of bandwagoners.

stevemcqueen1 wrote:America is a country of bandwagoners.

Right, if you updated it the Cavs would probably have replaced the Heat. Because of the greater focus on star players than in other sports, the bandwagon effect for fans may be greater in the NBA than it is in the NFL, etc.

stevemcqueen1 wrote:America is a country of bandwagoners.

Those MD/VA fans didn't get the memo that the Wizards have been better than the Lakers and Heat last season.

Kanyewest wrote:

stevemcqueen1 wrote:America is a country of bandwagoners.

Those MD/VA fans didn't get the memo that the Wizards have been better than the Lakers and Heat last season.

The actual story (link in there somewhere) spoke to the extreme transient nature of some areas resulting in a few teams (DC, Atlanta) essentially having no fans outside their immediate area.

DC is little more than a stopover in a career other then the federal government.

Induveca wrote:

Kanyewest wrote:

stevemcqueen1 wrote:America is a country of bandwagoners.

Those MD/VA fans didn't get the memo that the Wizards have been better than the Lakers and Heat last season.

The actual story (link in there somewhere) spoke to the extreme transient nature of some areas resulting in a few teams (DC, Atlanta) essentially having no fans outside their immediate area.

DC is little more than a stopover in a career other then the federal government.

True, but all of those transplants didn't move from LA, Boston, and Miami. :-/

DC's poor fan base can't be blamed on transient professionals alone. 35 years of vacillating between mediocrity and abject failure would erode most NBA fan bases.

Still, it's maps like these that makes Teddy think (and act) like we're a small market team. We kinda are, if we define the Wizards' market as only the red parts.

If I was a Wiz marketing director, I'd take this as a huge opportunity to grow my fanbase. Start sending players to the HS's in Howard and Baltimore counties, make those kids into fans and plant seeds for turning the whole Washington/Baltimore area into our market.

I'm not trying to be racist here, but I have noticed that black NBA fans tend to follow a player more than a team - i.e. LEBRON/KOBE etc rather than the Wizards. Those areas are more black than the rest of the DMV...

adarsh1 wrote:I'm not trying to be racist here, but I have noticed that black NBA fans tend to follow a player more than a team - i.e. LEBRON/KOBE etc rather than the Wizards. Those areas are more black than the rest of the DMV…

Stak5 explains:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBltgfK-U3k[/youtube]

I guess what you're saying is that the Wizards need mo' better playas. That proposition should get multiracial support.

Our team(s) have just been bad. Transient region has nothing to do with it. People just want to root for a winner.