According to a study that we have conducted here, at East Coast Egos, we have come to the conclusion that the world is full of no-good, godforsaken, bandwagon sports fans. We have found a way to back up this notion with statistics: There is a much greater correlation between a teams’ historical success and their value than the amount of local supporters they have and their value.
Value, of course, is derived from the amount of fans that a team has, amongst other factors. In ECE’s study, we took the top 31 ranked teams on Forbes’ 2014 Most Valuable Sports Teams list and weighed them against the teams’ success and population in their metropolitan area. Success was measured by major championships won by the respective team.
Although there are outliers, such as the poor San Antonio Spurs and Montreal Canadiens, this study is shockingly accurate
Here is a look at the data:
For those statistics nerds, there is a .136 correlation between a team’s home metropolitan area population and their respective value. On the other hand, there is a .781 correlation between the amount of major championships a team has won and their respective value. For everyone who slept through statistics class, a higher correlation suggests a more significant association, and the highest possible linear correlation is 1.
So when your friend from Minnesota tells you that he likes the New York Yankees “because he always has,” you now know that, statistically, he is likely to be just another goddamn bandwagon fan.
East Coast Egos 