Miami Dolphins fans rank 14th in new NFL fan base study. http://phinphanatic.com/2017/06/21/miami-dolphins-fans-rank-14th-new-nfl-fan-base-study/
Obviously we disagree with this but I guess I could see from a typical fan standpoint. If we get back to the playoffs this year we'll keep finding new fans. For the typical sports fan, there hasn't been too much to be a fan of until last year. As Dolphin maniac fans we feel differently of course.
makes sense for what has been a mediocre franchise for 20 years. The Dolphins fans that knew of their history through Marino, are close to their 40's and plus. Those before went to the Cowboys and Pats, I get it. I will say this, I see more and more Phins fans than I did a year ago. And I've been looking for items on Offer Up for my Man Cave, and offers have been firm or have been going quicker than I expected. Miami is a football town. If they win, the loyalties to the outside teams will fade fast
I keep hearing that Miami is a football town. But I lived there for three years (In Doral but worked in South Beach) and never saw it as one (2011-2014). I didn't see tons of kids wearing Dolphins apparel when walking around malls. I didn't see Dolphins stuff all over like you do Pats, GB and Steelers stuff. When I would go to the big Bokampers in Miramar it was barely even 50% Dolphins fans during an away game ( I get that during a hime game most would be at stadium). So where's the part of Miami that's the Dolphins town because I could never seem to come across it. I really think there just aren't that many Dolphins fans. I sooooooo want to be wrong. I now live in Naples which is like 90 minutes from the stadium Still should be and is actually considered Dolphins country. But rarely do I see any Dolphins fans at a sports bar on football Sunday. It's all Steelers, Green Bay, Patriots, Lions and some Vikings (SW Florida doesn't really get the NE but the MW of the country who move down here). Think really old well to do white people. They are really nice but again, NO ONE is a Dolphins fan. I've even tried to start a SW Florida Dolphins fan club and like get zero freaking interest.
I meant it was a football town, not a Phins town. I think the chemical make up of this town is more toward football. Hockey and Baseball are a joke and basketball is trendy.
This is a completely STUPID article! I was stationed at Fort Leavenworth, KS and went to a couple of Kansas City Chiefs games. For those of you who have never been to Arrowhead Stadium, it is always a PACKED house and it's one of the loudest stadiums I've ever been in...and for this article to say that Kansas City ranks dead last? Idiotic article and I'm stupider now for even reading it.
Their methodology you can get here: https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/esma/2017/06/17/nfl-fan-base-and-brand-rankings-2017/ https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/esma/files/2014/03/AMP-Fan-Equity.pdf That first link also has the rankings for all teams. Long story short, they have 3 component measures: "fan equity", "social equity" and "road equity". "fan equity" is explained in detail in that 2nd link and basically comes down to comparing revenue for the team when it plays at home relative to the predicted revenue from a mathematical equation that best predicts revenue across the league given certain factors like win%, whether the team made the playoffs or not, local population size for that market etc.. So basically "fan equity" is just comparing how far above or below the mean you are in revenue at home once you adjust by win% and local population size, etc... "road equity" is the same as "fan equity" except it's how much revenue that team attracts when it plays on the road relative to league averages after adjusting for the same factors. "social equity" uses the same approach but with measures that they don't specify for how much fans participate in social media communities (e.g. this message board). The overall ranking just averages the rankings for those three. So NONE of those component measures have anything to do with how intense fans are in a stadium. And in that sense I agree this isn't a good measure of a fan base. On the other hand for the components they include the methodology is justifiable.
Thank you. Your post saved me the time. Chiefs fans are hardcore. Dead last? Means the methodology is crap or they've misrepresented what this actually assesses.
It doesn't factor in the quality of the fans though, just sheer numbers. Chiefs having the loudest stadium means far more to me than merchandise purchased (Chiefs don't have much of a following outside of the Kansas or Missouri area obviously). These metrics are measuring quantity, not quality.
Rolling my eyes...yea, I read one line and dismissed the article all together. Really? I read the entire article and as it was pointed out, it focused on quantity and not quality. Hell, if you want to use quantity as the factor as to who has the best of anything, then our nation's military is behind North Korea, South Korea, Vietnam, India, China and Russia. Anyone here want to bet any of those nations have a higher QUALITY military than we do? Same thing with this stupid fan base. Just because you have more fans, doesn't mean you have a better fan base.
I think it's about right. You know that the Cowboys, Pats, and Green Bay are going to be towards the top every time.....and you also know that Floridians aren't going to hop a flight to Buffalo in December very often. But hey, Buffalo fans coming to South Beach for 87 degree weather at Thanksgiving? That happens a lot more with the Northern teams naturally. I do question the results though because Miami still has a massive global fan base from the 70's. When I go to Panthers/Miami games, it's about 35-40% aqua and orange in the stands. And here's the kicker- we have hundreds of millions of fans in Europe since we've been the home team there for so many years. For that reason alone, we are #1 by a country mile....just not solely in the US.
Hundreds of millions of fans in Europe? Dude, I'm in but I ain't that in. I don't know that you can really compare it to college football fandom. That;s one where there are never any ship jumpers. It's ride or die with your team all in all your life. The NFL to a certain extent allows for ship jumping. "Used to be a ZYX fan but now I'm a Pats fan blah blah blah". You watch now though with all of these teams moving to new towns, that's going to hurt general NFL fandom for some people big time. If we put together a decade of consistent winning, we'll see a huge increase in fandom. Just look at the fantasy football rankings and find who the Dolphin is that's going to galvanize and augment the fan base. Right now it's tied at Ajayi and Landry. T-hill whether we like him or not is currently between #12 and #15 qb. Having a QB like that equals a lot of work to sell out stadium. We never had a problem selling tickets with Dan.
Off by an order of magnitude at least. Most over there don't even know the basics of the sport. Better estimate is ~20 million fans based on this from 2015: http://i.imgur.com/dJk5uxV.jpg And btw.. even that 20 mil seems WAY too high for me (I lived in Germany for many years), but everything depends on how you phrase questions in a poll, and I can see that many people being interested in the nothing more than the Super Bowl and saying they're a "fan" just like many here in the US won't watch any soccer except the World Cup yet say they're a "fan" of soccer. In any case, from personal experience almost no one even knows the basics of American football over there.
You're right, I probably should have said "tens of millions of fans in Europe". The London games are always a sellout though and we're the only team that seems compelled to keep going back. I'm met a few folks on another forum who became a Dolphin fan from those games, and their sentiment was that everyone over there loves he Dolphins. How true is that? I have no idea- but we probably have more fans overseas than a team like Cleveland has in the entire US. That obviously wasn't taken into account in the poll though.
I think the GB Dolphin love comes from Miami being a fairly big tourist attraction, Miami is sexy, especially if your from GB, it's like the antithesis of much of GB, where it's cloudy and rainy a lot, and people are walking around in trench coats for much of the year, and everybody is walking around practically naked in Miami baking in the hot sun. It also doesn't hurt that we were in the first London game if I remember right, and have played over there as much or maybe even more than any other team. We also have to take into account that we are the nemesis of the Pats, who they still refer to as the "rebellious rabble", lol, JK.
I'm in the UK and I started following the Dolphins in 1990 when I got into American Football. I didn't know anything about the teams or their histories but I liked whales and dolphins so here's my team I thought. I've never known any success, bar the odd divisional title. Nearest we've come to success in my time was the '95 divisional play off against the Chargers, with the late missed field goal by Stoyanovich. Still never wished I'd picked any other team though and will be wearing the aqua and coral with pride again at Wembley in October.
I did some research a while back. I think we're tied for second most frequent London team. Some team has done it 6 times. I can't remember who though. I know we were the first and they had that 50 foot tall JT robot going through London. We've also laid a couple big eggs in London and not been impressive there I think yet so I'm confused who saw those games and wanted to be a fan honestly. This year's game against the Saints will be a full blown shootout. But unlike the Saints, we'll actually have some defense.
Honestly, I'm kind of impressed with the fact we are even ranked 14th. We haven't won a Super Bowl in 44 years, even been to a Super Bowl in 32 years and the wilderness this franchise has been in for 17 years. All things considered I'll take 14th at this point. As far as fans from other teams here you have to remember Florida is made up of transplants from just about every where else. Only natural they bring their team with them. And no. I didn't bother with the article. LOL.
I will say this, going to a Phins game is a pain in the butt for fans here. I don't mind the struggle, I am a huge fan, not afraid of the heat, and willing to make a day of it. However, between parking, traffic off the pike or univ dr, the heat and rain, and prices, I am not sure what to think of rankings. They make it easy now to just stay home. TV's are cheaper, meals are cooked, NFL Redzone and football packages and fantasy football are all things that would make anyone want to stay home. We live in a multi-tasked society. Most people are loking down on their phones between plays anyway. And at home even more, as we usually have the bottom of the barrel announcers. Winning big will create a huge fanbase. It's sexy to support a great team. And this will happen, just get ready. People usually say something sarcastic when I wear my Dolphins gear out. And I have a lot of gear. They insult my man cave. But if Miami starts winning again, there will be a huge fanbase. Last year I saw more Dolphin fans outside the stadium more than anytime
There is a significant amount of Dolphins fans around here. If I'm wearing a Dolphins hat or shirt out I always hear Go Phins multiple times. I also offer it back when I see others wearing Dolphins gear. I only wish we weren't sentenced to being in the Jaguars "home" market here per NFL "rules". Almost NO Jags fans around here and we have to watch their stupid games most of the time. Central Florida. Go figure.
It did! What with the final being played at Joe Robbie and everything. I was absolutely gutted for about week afterwards. Now I'd just be .. 'Meh, typical Dolphins.'
That was the 94 season no? Yes I know it actually occurred in 1995. I live in San Diego. Let's say me and a few of my lifelong friends exchanged some heated words that day. I really did feel that was our year.
Agree that we are best supported team in U.K. By a mile, it's not even close. I wouldn't doubt Europe as a whole either. Been lucky enough to see fins in London twice and it's been like a home game each time; I'd say 50k fins at jets game with probably 10k jets at most. Vs raiders there were more raiders fans than jets had, raiders do have a good support here, but still significantly outnumbered by fins. Can't wait for the saints game here in October gonna be another takeover.
Any ideas as to why the Fins are so popular over there? Was it because it being available over there coincided with Marino?
Yes I think that was exactly it. Network TV started showing games just as Marino started with us and people caught the bug. Over here you don't switch teams, your team is your team thru thick and thin.
I imagine that 49ers and broncos will be well supported, but neither of them have been across to play here to really cement that bond and grow the fan base. Bills seem to have a smallish but very hardcore support. To be expected I guess as perennial SB losers.