Football map
This probably doesn't belong on a Beat Authority blog, but I discovered this endlessly fascinating map of football fan regions which I want to share. Here's a bigger version. It was created by something called The CommonCensus Sports Map Project, and yes, they have maps for other sports too. You could spend hours going over this map and dissecting its sociological and demographic implications. I'd love to get the people who made this map together with the intense statistician and baseball fan who runs this blog. The result could change the world. Or at least build a better tailgate party.
Here are my thoughts on the map:
1. I love the densely packed territories around the Great Lakes region, the cradle of football. I suspect that these regions are pretty accurate, even with a small sample. I'd love to see how this would look without the Indianapolis (née Baltimore) Colts, for a more traditional feeling. I suspect that Indiana would be divided into Bears, Bengals and (since this is traditonalist) Cardinals regions.
2. Speaking of the Cardinals, I wonder how long it takes a transplanted or new franchise to build up a solid fan base? I notice that the Rams area seems pretty small considering their success. The same goes for the Ravens.
3. I'd like to see a more detailed map of the NYC area to see how the Jets/Giants rivalry plays out.
4. I love the fact that the Packers/Bears boundary seems to match the Wisconsin/Illinois line.
5. What's up with the 49ers zone around Salt Lake City?
6. Why do people like the Cowboys so much?
posted by Delany Flushboy @ 4:35 AM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
I love that map. It is interesting to see how people in the different areas identify with different teams/regions of the country.
I am not too surprised by the breakdown of the football teams. We are pretty much a Patriots area here in Northern VT. I was also not surprised to see all of western NY go for the Bills. They are a pretty dedicated group of fans out there.
Thanks John. I wasn't too surprised either, but I was actually surprised to see the size of the Bills' territory. Pleasantly surprised – I was born and raised in Buffalo. I went to school in Binghamton and was shocked that so many locals there (foolishly) rooted for the Giants. You can actually see that on the map too. I guess that always made me believe that the Bills-zone was smaller than it actually is. The Binghamton thing seems to be a pocket. I was also actually surprised to see that the Patriots claim some territory around Poughkeepsie. Wonder if that's just because they're currently a powerhouse. I'd LOVE to see a version of this map that mutates over time.
That's exactly what I was thinking. The Pats have the most number of total fans, just ahead of Dallas. I'm sure that wasn't true 15 years ago. But was there ever a Bills bandwagon in the 90s? If only Scotty Norwood had....never mind.
I just can't quit this map. Now I want to know how the baseball map corresponds to the NFL one. I've taken the two maps into photoshop and set one on top of the other, but the results are very hard to understand because they didn't use consistent colors between the two maps. I wish I could get my hand on the source files so that I could rearrange the colors. I'm going to send the folks at CommonCensus an email. Keep you posted.
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