The Home Field Disadvantage

By Jeff Munn

This past weekend, Phoenix sports fans, or to be more specific, sports fans who live in Phoenix, got to experience what Archie Bradley is talking about.

Both the Cardinals’ home preseason opener and the D-backs’ weekend series with the Cubs drew huge crowds, and a significant percentage of those in attendance were cheering for the visiting team.

In one case, the Oakland Raiders, love them or hate them, are one of the signature brands of the NFL. Being a fan of the Raiders often doesn’t have much to do with Oakland, and of course, in three years, it won’t have ANYTHING to do with Oakland. People love the Raiders because of their history. They’re also coming off a playoff season last year, and as we all know, a team’s colors are a much more comfortable fit when the team is winning. 

Then there’s the Cubs, and that’s a whole different deal.

Before there’s any more complaining about people who live here showing up in Cubs’ gear, take a moment to think about what the jersey, or cap, represents.

We’ve known for a long time that lots of people who live here used to live in Chicago, and if they didn’t their parents and grandparents and great-grandparents did. Seeing the Cubs, even at a time when it’s trendy to love baseball’s defending World Champs, is so much more than watching a baseball team.

It’s seeing a piece of your childhood. It’s a reminder of a time when the Cubs really were the biggest thing in your life, before work, a mortgage, the kids’ braces and car repairs took over the priority list.

Remember last November when the Cubs won it all? Did you notice how many people of all ages were brought to tears?

Yes, Phoenix is where all those Cubs fans live now, but to them, the Cubs mean home, and home means a lot more than just a place to sleep.

It’s hard for Phoenix teams to appreciate that, because the reverse, someone moving from Phoenix to another city, happens so infrequently.

Cubs fans have ALWAYS turned out in larger numbers at Chase Field than fans of the Mets, Phillies, or any other National League team. Still, there are more Philadelphia natives living here than the other way around.

Same thing with the Dodgers. Sorry, but people do leave L.A., and often times they come here. Just like Cubs fans, Dodger fans have always turned out in larger numbers at Chase Field, good season or bad.

So should Phoenix players demand more of their own fans? It’s 100% okay. The number of people who were born and raised here keeps going up and up, and they don’t have memories of the old neighborhood in the Midwest, or East Coast, and for them, the DBacks, Suns, Cardinals and Coyotes are THEIR teams.

But making fans of the other teams feel as if they’re violating a city ordinance? That doesn’t seem right either. Especially when you consider that the money those Cub, Met, Raider, Cowboy, Laker and Celtic fans spend at the game affects the home team’s bottom line the same as anybody else’s hard-earned cash does. Sure, they may have gotten the tickets for free, but they didn’t get that hot dog, cold drink and parking space for nothing.

The simple answer to all this is winning. In 2007, the D-backs swept the Cubs in the NL Division Series, and while there were Cub fans in attendance, they were clearly outnumbered. All those tickets that fans usually find on resale sites just weren’t for sale.

Thankfully, fans at both University of Phoenix Stadium and Chase Field seemed to co-exist with those rooting for the enemy this weekend just fine. These are just games after all.

There are a ton of perks to living here, but there are also things we must endure that other cities don’t have to. 110-degree days. Rattlesnakes. Unending freeway construction. And, cheers for the other team at our games. Like the heat, it’s something we have to accept as an unpleasant reality, and also like the heat, complaining about it won’t make it go away.