How many times have we seen it? heard it? or even been part of it? the home team is losing, and the crowd begins to chant their expressions of disapproval....or in other words..."BOOOOOOOO!!!!!"
After taking notice of the lack of real support some fans give their teams... a friend of mine told me that Jeff Van Gundy commented on this during the Pistons-Celtics game, and i thought to myself ...wow...check out Van Gundy trying to be profound!
The truth is, well, it's true. Imagine for a moment, that your (home) team has blown a huge lead, and now find themselves facing utter defeat, as well as humiliation for blowing the lead to begin with. How do YOU react as a fan? Doesn't it make more sense to cheer your team on in spite of the uphill battle? Why does the home crowd tend to get quiet when the visiting team mounts a comeback? Why don't they just cheer louder, or nastier, or happier? I just want to know...
When the Arizona Diamondbacks won the world series, everyone in Phoenix tried to be a fan...but 2 years later, when they stunk like pure unadulterated stink...they had almost zero fan support. The games were like ghost towns. Today, with them once again being one of the hottest teams in baseball, here come the fair-weather fans again. Now, if those fans had stayed and cheered their team through the rough patches, maybe they would've done better sooner. I'm not a Diamondback fan, but i live in AZ, so i used them as an example.
Part of the advantage to playing at home is the home crowd...or so i thought. Any real sports fan should know this. players just feel more comfortable at home, playing in their own place, and in fron of the fans tat supposedly love them. Well if the fans know this (and they should), then just imagine the crowd giving the home team an emotional boost when they're doing bad...and not just when they do good.
