1 minute ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

I disagree.  Did your friends ever take you to an adult entertainment club for your 18th birthday?  Some clubs are better than others.  Some are chains with multiple locations while others may only be a single location.  They also have branding for their names.  They sell “entertainment” and some clubs have higher quality entertainment than others.

Spearmint Rhino for example

9 hours ago, bobbydanks said:

Having loyalty to things that are incapable of having loyalty back to you is a crazy concept that if I had loyalty to any philosopher i'd probably quote their wrong opinion about it instead of having my own. 

And yet, here you are.

13 hours ago, Tony said:

This is wrong on a lot of levels.

- I have a closer relationship with my dad because of sports. It’s something we can always talk about with each other. I have many friends who aren’t as close with their fathers as I am, because they don’t seem to have a lot to talk about. I also have really good memories with him around 2005 and the Hawks Stanley Cup run. 
 

- I’ve been in a fantasy football league with 11 guys I went to high school with. I probably wouldn’t be in contact with probably 8 of those guys at this point in my life, but the fantasy league keeps us in touch and the main reason we’ve kept it going all these years. 
 

- I’ve won a good deal of money from said fantasy league, because I stay up on the NFL, so there literally is an ROI associated with that

- Sports are communal. When the Hawks went through their from 2010-2015, the city was buzzing, especially during the playoffs. It was awesome going to the bars to watch those games with a packed house and everyone invested. It also brings us together. The country is incredibly divided politically where everyone thinks the other side is the “enemy.” But when you’re the fan of the same team, that stuff goes away and you’re on the same side/team. 
 

- The actual payoff to your team winning can’t be matched by much. The Blackhawks went through a huge sexual assault scandal and it turned me off of the team for a while. But the memories I have of celebrating those cup wins didn’t change. Same with the 2005 White Sox. It became clear over time that team had a horseshoe up its collective ass given their lack of success in future seasons, but that doesn’t change the way I celebrated with friends and family in 2005. 
 

I could keep going, but yeah…you’re wrong

And you got to meet me through sports so I mean how could you not love them.

9 hours ago, TaylorStSox said:

The communal benefits have nothing to do with a tangible ROI. Sports owe you nothing and your loyalty to a specific entity owes you nothing. By nature, following sports and expecting a return is objectively irrational and stupid.

You seem like a lot of fun.

13 hours ago, Tony said:

This is wrong on a lot of levels.

- I have a closer relationship with my dad because of sports. It’s something we can always talk about with each other. I have many friends who aren’t as close with their fathers as I am, because they don’t seem to have a lot to talk about. I also have really good memories with him around 2005 and the Hawks Stanley Cup run. 
 

- I’ve been in a fantasy football league with 11 guys I went to high school with. I probably wouldn’t be in contact with probably 8 of those guys at this point in my life, but the fantasy league keeps us in touch and the main reason we’ve kept it going all these years. 
 

- I’ve won a good deal of money from said fantasy league, because I stay up on the NFL, so there literally is an ROI associated with that

- Sports are communal. When the Hawks went through their from 2010-2015, the city was buzzing, especially during the playoffs. It was awesome going to the bars to watch those games with a packed house and everyone invested. It also brings us together. The country is incredibly divided politically where everyone thinks the other side is the “enemy.” But when you’re the fan of the same team, that stuff goes away and you’re on the same side/team. 
 

- The actual payoff to your team winning can’t be matched by much. The Blackhawks went through a huge sexual assault scandal and it turned me off of the team for a while. But the memories I have of celebrating those cup wins didn’t change. Same with the 2005 White Sox. It became clear over time that team had a horseshoe up its collective ass given their lack of success in future seasons, but that doesn’t change the way I celebrated with friends and family in 2005. 
 

I could keep going, but yeah…you’re wrong

I was at a state wide convention earlier this week for other like board members.  I ended up randomly sat next to someone at a social-business event who was previously a basketball coach in the town where I got my start in broadcasting. We spent hours talking about friends in common, games in common, and different memories and experiences.  Sports is a way that even if you have never met a person you both own a set of shared experiences that can make you instant old friends. 

46 minutes ago, Rowand44 said:

And you got to meet me through sports so I mean how could you not love them.

You seem like a lot of fun.

I thought about the trip we took about a half hour after I wrote that. 

5 of us, from this board, met up in Cincinnati in 2006 to watch the Sox for the weekend. Was a great trip. Sports is what brought us there. 

For me, it's purely the memories and nostalgia with my dad and friends from childhood. And the investment I've made following the team. I've lived in Michigan for almost 10 years now surrounded by Tigers fans. I have no desire to jump on the bandwagon.

 

But I will say, after not watching much Sox baseball over the last couple years, I have paid more attention to the league in general. It's help to broaden my understanding of the game and appreciate the sport even more.

ROI on a sport you enjoy is rarely gonna be tangible in the way it’s being argued here 

7 minutes ago, Kyyle23 said:

ROI on a sport you enjoy is rarely gonna be tangible in the way it’s being argued here 

Hence it being "irrational"

1 hour ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

Did your friends ever take you to an adult entertainment club for your 18th birthday?  Some clubs are better than others.  Some are chains with multiple locations while others may only be a single location.  They also have branding for their names.  They sell “entertainment” and some clubs have higher quality entertainment than others.

The White Sox provide sports as a form of entertainment instead.

 

1 hour ago, caulfield12 said:

Lots of examples outside of Gran Torino of fathers/grandfathers passing their tools down…Stanley, for example.

Are we really comparing strip clubs and tools to being emotionally invested in a sports team?

2 minutes ago, Snopek said:

 

Are we really comparing strip clubs and tools to being emotionally invested in a sports team?

Those two are probably related.  A strip club mention reminded him of his favorite tool... his own.

Honestly, picking your favorite sports team as a kid is so arbitrary. Sometimes it's because a father or other relative was a fan and you grew up watching the games with them. Sometimes it's something completely random.

I know a guy who became a Vikings fan because his family was all Packers fans and he wanted to be different. So he walked into the room while a game was on and asked who the other team was. It happened to be the Vikings so he became a Vikings fan.

I myself only became a Sox fan because my best friend was a Cubs fan and when we played MLB on my Nintendo and had to pick teams I wanted to pick a "home" team and he chose the Cubs. So the Sox were the only next logical choice. I started asking my parents to buy me Sox shirts and hats after that. Neither of them were into sports at all.

From then on it just became a life-time of emotional (and monetary) investment.