How do certain sports fans vote?

[traininthedistance]

Which fan base do you think is more Republican? Giants or Jets? 49ers or Raiders? Yankees or Mets?

Giants

Raiders

Yankees

I would actually guess that the Jets and Mets are more likely to be Republican.  If you take a look at the geographic distribution of Giants vs. Jets fans and Yankees vs. Mets fans (and the two splits are very similar), the Jets/Mets have more of a base in Long Island, whereas the Giants/Yankees dominate Manhattan, Westchester and north.  (New Jersey, where I grew up, is more of a mix, with the Giants and Yankees dominating but not by that much).  And LI seems to me more blue-collar and swingy than Manhattan/Westchester, which is solid liberal even in the rich parts. 

Also, for Giants vs. Jets another thing to keep in mind is that in addition to geography age is a factor.  The really old folks are Giants fans, because that's all there was.  A lot of the younger Boomers, a really conservative demographic, came of age when the Giants were horrible and the Jets had won more recently (SB III), so they're more likely to be Jets fans.  But then you have my generation, which grew up with the Bill Parcells glory years (or just past them) and became Giants fans- and we're one of the more liberal cohorts. 

Okay, maybe I'm assuming that Giants fans are more liberal because I'm a liberal and a Giants fan and I'm just projecting.  But I really think the analysis holds.

I think you're definitely right that the Raiders have more conservative fans, though.

...

I agree with the general sentiment that sports fans, in general, are going to be more conservative than the population at large, for many reasons.  Even hockey, which might be popular in the colder "blue" cities, because its fanbase is also much whiter than that of most sports.   And college sports fans are way, way, more conservative than pro sports fans, because of the urban/rural divide, appeals to "tradition", and historic base in the South.  The average football fan is definitely conservative, but the NFL is almost even, and found almost everywhere, whereas college football is probably about as Republican as golf, and as ignored in the Northeast as NASCAR.

[traininthedistance]

What about these teams?

Bruins or Patriots?

Red Wings or Tigers?

traininthedistance, do you think that most sports fans conservative because they tend to be white males or is it because of the jock culture in sports?

A little bit of both, but mainly the first.  Men follow sports more than women do; men are more conservative as a whole; that would be sufficient to account for much of the disparity right there.  There are cultural factors beyond that, though: a lot of sports, or at least sports as they're presented in the media, tend to be suffused with the sorts of values and behaviors (conventional masculinity, showy patriotism, military metaphors) more associated with conservatives. A lot of players tend to be really openly religious, as well.  On the flip side, you also definitely have some liberals who have negative associations with sports in general because they consider it conformist, consumerist, and (hopefully this is getting better over time) homophobic.  It's more complicated that just "jock culture", but "culture" in general is definitely a factor.

I have no idea on Bruins v. Patriots or Red Wings v. Tigers.  If I had to guess, I'd say that the Red Wings are more conservative than the Tigers because hockey's fan base is probably the whitest of the big four team sports, but I could be off base regarding hockey culture, about which I know little.  I'm not sure this analysis holds in New England, though, because that area of the country is just so white, and has a much more liberal white population, that any such effect would be minimal.

...

I'm also going to go out on a limb and say that the sports league whose American fanbase is most likely to be full of white liberals is the EPL.

[traininthedistance]

Okay, the Giants now definitely have the more liberal fanbase, now that the Jets have traded for Tim "who needs to complete 50 percent of your passes when you have Jesus" Tebow.  A lot of born-agains all over the country just became Jets fans, and I wouldn't be surprised if a few liberal Jets fans switched teams to Jersey/A.

Gianrs or Patriots?


Which team has the more liberal fan base out of the two?

I honestly have no idea!  New England is probably a little more liberal than the NY metro area, but the Pats also have a national fanbase because they've been so good for the past decade.  Both teams are going to have more conservative fanbases than the metro area as a whole, but I suspect without much concrete evidence that the disparity is greater for the Pats.

[traininthedistance]

Okay, the Giants now definitely have the more liberal fanbase, now that the Jets have traded for Tim "who needs to complete 50 percent of your passes when you have Jesus" Tebow.  A lot of born-agains all over the country just became Jets fans, and I wouldn't be surprised if a few liberal Jets fans switched teams to Jersey/A.

Gianrs or Patriots?


Which team has the more liberal fan base out of the two?

I honestly have no idea!  New England is probably a little more liberal than the NY metro area, but the Pats also have a national fanbase because they've been so good for the past decade.  Both teams are going to have more conservative fanbases than the metro area as a whole, but I suspect without much concrete evidence that the disparity is greater for the Pats.

http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/55918/tebow-time-hits-snag-in-new-york

Never mind what I just said!