Wal-Mart fan ratio

[hokiehead]

back East we used the term "Wal-Mart fans" for fans of schools that never attended the institution, and in many cases never stepped foot on the campus. there's probably a Western equivalent of the term but I haven't leanred it yet.

SB mined facebook data and ranked the schools by percentage of members with likes who also attended the school.

full rankings

I'm surprised that:

• 'Bama is not #1 //their Wal-mart fans actually take pride in not being alums ("it's too easy to be a fan if you went to the school"). Yes, Notre Dame has a huge advantage, being a school of 12,000 kids yet having every Catholic in the country root for them.
• USC-East and Clemson aren't higher, for the same reason
• a little surprised A&M and BC have the highest percent of fans who were students //figured they would be a large schools more lacking in athletic success and competing with regional pro teams, like Minnesotta and Cal
• I'm shocked that Mississippi State is 4th lowest for Wal-Mart fan ratio

I'll take a little pleasure with CU and VT's positions as P5 schools mostly followed by alums -- creates an impression that we have a highly educated and truly loyal fan base. OTOH, I'm happy for my teams to get all the revenue and support they can get from any fans. OTOOH, it's the Wal-mart fans who usually make total jack-asses of their selves at the games and on message boards, embarrassing the rest of us.

 

[TimmyDUBs]

I might not be getting this correctyly, but if your team just doesn't have many fans, wouldn't that give you the highest percentage?

 

[hokiehead]

for each school, they took all the likes, and then looked at, "of those that like a school, how many are alums?". so, not really.

 

[Gary Indiana]

for each school, they took all the likes, and then looked at, "of those that like a school, how many are alums?". so, not really.

School A- 5 likes 4- Students/Alums

School B- 250, 000 likes 50, 000 students/Alums

Timmy might be on to something.

Unless you're saying there was a "like" threshold that needed to be met?

 

[BuffsNYC]

​I am shocked that after the last 15 years there aren't more bandwagon fans for the Buffs.

 

[TimmyDUBs]

School A- 5 likes 4- Students/Alums

School B- 250, 000 likes 50, 000 students/Alums

Timmy might be on to something.

Unless you're saying there was a "like" threshold that needed to be met?

Irrelevance and relatively few fan likes pretty much guarantees that your percentage will be higher.

 

[dio]

This is a direct result of sucking. I bet if you ran this in the 90's, Buffs would be in the first chart

 

[dply]

I haven't heard Wal-mart fans before I had just heard t-shirt fans.

 

[Shldr2Shldr]

I haven't heard Wal-mart fans before I had just heard t-shirt fans.

We also call them Oregon Fans.

 

[BehindEnemyLines]

WalMart fans = east

Nike fans = west

 

[torero]

I've never met a Northwestern fan besides the one guy I know who went there. That seems like a strange school to be on the t-shirt fan list.

 

[DBT]

I don't think most fans in 'bama can actually qualify to get into college, can they?

 

[Buffnik]

The relatively low number of "Wal-Mart" or "sidewalk" fans is an issue for CU and other western schools.

If you want attendance, revenue, fundraising, a friendly state legislature and to draw a big tv number... you need to cultivate a fan base that's 80-90% non-alumni. This is one of the problems that CU has had. It's exacerbated by the fact that so many alums return to California or Texas or wherever after graduating and lose connection with the program. CSU has more alums living in the state than CU does.

 

[DBT]

Yeah. After he's finished with building all this really cool ****, Rick needs to build fan base.

 

[onealcd]

The relatively low number of "Wal-Mart" or "sidewalk" fans is an issue for CU and other western schools.

If you want attendance, revenue, fundraising, a friendly state legislature and to draw a big tv number... you need to cultivate a fan base that's 80-90% non-alumni. This is one of the problems that CU has had. It's exacerbated by the fact that so many alums return to California or Texas or wherever after graduating and lose connection with the program. CSU has more alums living in the state than CU does.

Didn't Bohn say that most of the donors to CU are not alumni?

 

[TimmyDUBs]

It's about branding the "Buffs" like a clothing company or something. I don't really know of any examples, but if you just make our logos, colors, or whatever "cool" it wouldn't hurt.

 

[Duff Man]

Never understood why alums would look down on non-alums.

 

[TimmyDUBs]

Never understood why alums would look down on non-alums.

I think of it as the opposite. I think alums can feel extra proud to be fans because they "earned it." I value my Buff fandom more than Broncos because anyone can just choose to make the Broncos their team. That and it is cool that all alumni fans can relate to the CU experience with eachother and to a certain extent the team.

 

[Buffnik]

I think of it as the opposite. I think alums can feel extra proud to be fans because they "earned it." I value my Buff fandom more than Broncos because anyone can just choose to make the Broncos their team. That and it is cool that all alumni fans can relate to the CU experience with eachother and to a certain extent the team.

Interesting thing about that is we have several people on AB who I know are much bigger fans now than they ever were as students. As students, it was CU athletics was background noise to them. As adults, CU athletics is something that connects them to friends and the community -- which is pretty much where the sidewalk fan approaches it from. That and loving college sports, of course.

 

[Duff Man]

I think of it as the opposite. I think alums can feel extra proud to be fans because they "earned it." I value my Buff fandom more than Broncos because anyone can just choose to make the Broncos their team. That and it is cool that all alumni fans can relate to the CU experience with eachother and to a certain extent the team.

Maybe it is just my family's background. Outside of a select few, none of them went to college. Yet they are some of the most passionate college football fans I know.

 

[TimmyDUBs]

Interesting thing about that is we have several people on AB who I know are much bigger fans now than they ever were as students. As students, it was CU athletics was background noise to them. As adults, CU athletics is something that connects them to friends and the community -- which is pretty much where the sidewalk fan approaches it from. That and loving college sports, of course.

You kind of defined me. I went to most games, but definitely skipped a few for various reasons (like preparing for a block party-turned-riot.) I was less intense in the latter half of my college experience, and didn't fully reengage until five or so years ago, corresponding to when I joined AB.

 

[BuffWarHog]

I grew up in CA and didn't really pay much attention to any college football. I was crazy into ski racing. As a freshman and sophomore, I was so so with football. My junior year I got pretty interested. By my senior year I was rabid. And it only got worse from there.

I don't mind people being fanatic about their favorite teams - I just can't stand when they say "we" unless they actually WENT TO THE SCHOOL.

 

[hokiehead]

School A- 5 likes 4- Students/Alums

School B- 250, 000 likes 50, 000 students/Alums

Timmy might be on to something.

Unless you're saying there was a "like" threshold that needed to be met?

it's about ratio, not raw numbers:
A = 80%
B = 20%

now, consider school C = 550,000 likes and 550,000 alumns = 100% (I suspect this is close to how A&M is tracking)

I've never met a Northwestern fan besides the one guy I know who went there. That seems like a strange school to be on the t-shirt fan list.

that one surprised me too -- I suspect there's a bunch of Chicagoans who like the Wildcats as their local college team even though they attended CU, Wisconsin or even Illinois (it's hard to hate NW, even for other B1G rivals).

Interesting thing about that is we have several people on AB who I know are much bigger fans now than they ever were as students. As students, it was CU athletics was background noise to them. As adults, CU athletics is something that connects them to friends and the community -- which is pretty much where the sidewalk fan approaches it from. That and loving college sports, of course.

I think for me, it was more the longer I was married, the more into sports I got. "hmmm, I notice she leaves the room whenever i turn on football, I wonder what will happen if I watch more football?"

 

[dio]

Interesting thing about that is we have several people on AB who I know are much bigger fans now than they ever were as students. As students, it was CU athletics was background noise to them. As adults, CU athletics is something that connects them to friends and the community -- which is pretty much where the sidewalk fan approaches it from. That and loving college sports, of course.

:wave2:

 

[hokiehead]

Never understood why alums would look down on non-alums.

You'd have fun hanging around Tarheels.

I'll see if I can find it, but a Duke buddy once showed me a thread on a UNC forum where the discussion was over whether or not non-alums should be "allowed" to wear licensed school logo apparel. Posters were advocating for a policy that allowed Wal-Mart fans to wear the shirts and other items with the baby-blue and white colors, but not with the logos. For some reason the school never adopted their suggestions though and still sells logo'd team apparel at Wal-Mart.

 

[buffs6236]

Well i will give you my story. I never went to CU. I am 35 years old, Born, raised and live in Omaha Nebraska. I have been a Buff since age 6 and going to at least one game a year since age 12. I have seen our great times and humbling times. I also have been a season ticket holder for the past 14 years.

I wanted to go to CU and play for them but in my sophomore and senior year in high school i blew out one knee then the other. I couldnt afford the out of state tuition so i stayed close to home. I consider myself an important fan to the university and personally as important or maybe more important than an Alumni fan. I have absolutely ZERO ties to the University except what i have made/built over my life. I regularly donate more than my annual requirement for my seats in section 104.

Honestly i think we need more fans that are NOT alumni. Not saying we need bandwagon fans but more interest/causal fans of any kind. We need more support.

 

[sackman]

We do need more non-alumni fans. A lot more. Here's the thing that's encouraging to me, though: We're #2 on that list, and we still put a solid number of fans into the seats. All we need is some small sign of life and this thing can really take off. I think an ideal number is probably around 15%. You need those folks who have the direct connection to the school, but you also need folks who just like the place.

 

[CUBUFF80]

Never understood why alums would look down on non-alums.

Because we're better than them.....:thumbsup:

 

[sackman]

My Dad falls into that category. He moved here in 1969 with no connection at all to the school. He soon bought season tickets because he enjoyed college football. He's now owned season tickets for 40+ years and he never went to school here.

I think a lot of it has to do with the kind of people who move to Boulder these days. Back then, they were IBM types from the East Coast who might have had a connection to college football. They were more likely to adopt CU as their new team, and raise their kids as CU fans.

Now, people move here from California and think college football is a violent game that needs to be banned. Times have changed.

 

[CVilleBuff]

Hokie, I'm pretty stunned by VT because the Walmart VT fan is all around since Vick. A fairly common breed in Virginia that's VT football in the fall and UNC basketball in March.

And I'll also add it's not a bad thing (except the UNC part). Non alum fans are crucial.