Being a college sports fan for most of my life I have seen hundreds, perhaps thousands of events live. Living in a transient tourist city like Charleston with so many transplants it is very easy to see opposing fans visiting and taking over an arena.
What I have seen:
Dayton, St. Bonaventure, West Virginia at the Charleston Classic. All of those teams have taken 2/3 or more of our arena here. Dayton has played in that event multiple times and it has felt like a Dayton home game. Last year against Houston 95% of the crowd was rooting for them.
North Carolina against Charleston in 2021. Legit 1/3 of the crowd or more was rooting for UNC that night. Including folks in suits sitting next to me. Felt like a neutral site game there was so many fans even though it was Charleston’s home game.
Texas baseball against Charleston in 2022. Legit close to half the crowd was rooting for Texas in like a 1,500 seat stadium. Kind of incredible to see, even with a national fan base like that halfway across the country.
Illini fans always take over when they play at Northwestern for basketball, although NU has jacked up a lot of the prices for that game as a result. Plenty of other Big Ten teams have that rep of taking over Northwestern’s football stadium - Ohio State, Michigan, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Iowa, etc.
All the Chicago pro sports teams other than the White Sox have pretty heavy reputations of taking over stadiums whenever they’re halfway decent and it’s a location with a lot of transplants (e.g. Phoenix, the Florida markets, anything in Las Vegas, Atlanta, Nashville, etc.).
(04-15-2024 08:42 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote: [ -> ]Illini fans always take over when they play at Northwestern for basketball, although NU has jacked up a lot of the prices for that game as a result. Plenty of other Big Ten teams have that rep of taking over Northwestern’s football stadium - Ohio State, Michigan, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Iowa, etc.
All the Chicago pro sports teams other than the White Sox have pretty heavy reputations of taking over stadiums whenever they’re halfway decent and it’s a location with a lot of transplants (e.g. Phoenix, the Florida markets, anything in Las Vegas, Atlanta, Nashville, etc.).
I've been to a number of Georgia-Georgia Tech football games in Atlanta and most years, Georgia fans are 50-60%. Also been to a number of Texas-Rice or Texas-Houston football games in Houston. Texas-Rice basketball was similar. Texas fans are usually 50-60%.
And yes, Chicago Cubs' fans travel. At Cincinnati's old Riverfront stadium I went to a game that was probably 25% Cubs fans. Cardinals and Mets fans travel pretty well to Atlanta and Houston, but more like 15-20%.
Indiana State at Hinkle Fieldhouse. That place holds 9100, at least 8800 were Indiana St fans. In the UGA-SHU semifinal after Indiana St's game, there were only 300-400 people remaining in the 2nd half, and half of those were leftover Indiana St fans.
That said, it was a unique circumstance with Indiana St being 80 miles from Indy, and UGA/SHU/Utah being faraway.
Otherwise, it was the Nebraska @ Notre Dame game I attended in 2000. This was at the prime of Nebraska's popularity and Nebraska was ranked #1 in the country. The stadium was 2/3 Nebraska fans. I wish smart phones existed back then -- I just remember people walking in/out of the stadium with some sort of "walkie" that had an antenna where they could watch a blurred feed of NBC. Can't recall what the device was called.
Hawaii versus Long Beach State in the 2022 men's volleyball national championship match at Pauley Pavilion. Although the 49ers should have had a big advantage in fan support given LBSU's proximity to UCLA, at least as many Warrior fans were in attendance and they were louder and more visible from beginning to end as they rooted Hawaii on to its second straight title.
As a general matter, there are so many Hawaii transplants living in California that it's not unusual for UH fans to take over Big West games or matches there, especially in traditionally lightly-attended sports like men's volleyball and women's basketball. I was recently watching a UH baseball game being played at Cal State Bakersfield on ESPN+ and the announcers commented multiple times on the fact that Hawaii fans were making most of the noise in a tight game that UH eventually pulled out.
For basically the same reason -- the large number of Hawaii transplants in Las Vegas -- the Big West men's and women's basketball tournament games in Henderson are almost like UH home games. The school's marching band and cheerleaders and dance teams all raise money throughout basketball season to cover the cost of traveling to the tournament, and UH fans typically make up half or more of the attendees.
(04-15-2024 08:42 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote: [ -> ]Illini fans always take over when they play at Northwestern for basketball, although NU has jacked up a lot of the prices for that game as a result. Plenty of other Big Ten teams have that rep of taking over Northwestern’s football stadium - Ohio State, Michigan, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Iowa, etc.
All the Chicago pro sports teams other than the White Sox have pretty heavy reputations of taking over stadiums whenever they’re halfway decent and it’s a location with a lot of transplants (e.g. Phoenix, the Florida markets, anything in Las Vegas, Atlanta, Nashville, etc.).
I've been to a number of Georgia-Georgia Tech football games in Atlanta and most years, Georgia fans are 50-60%. Also been to a number of Texas-Rice or Texas-Houston football games in Houston. Texas-Rice basketball was similar. Texas fans are usually 50-60%.
And yes, Chicago Cubs' fans travel. At Cincinnati's old Riverfront stadium I went to a game that was probably 25% Cubs fans. Cardinals and Mets fans travel pretty well to Atlanta and Houston, but more like 15-20%.
...never attended a game in Atlanta back in the day when Auburn and Tech played yearly, but have heard Auburn had a big portion of Grant Field on average, especially in the early 80s - Dye - Bo era...
(04-15-2024 08:42 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote: [ -> ]Illini fans always take over when they play at Northwestern for basketball, although NU has jacked up a lot of the prices for that game as a result. Plenty of other Big Ten teams have that rep of taking over Northwestern’s football stadium - Ohio State, Michigan, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Iowa, etc.
All the Chicago pro sports teams other than the White Sox have pretty heavy reputations of taking over stadiums whenever they’re halfway decent and it’s a location with a lot of transplants (e.g. Phoenix, the Florida markets, anything in Las Vegas, Atlanta, Nashville, etc.).
I've been to a number of Georgia-Georgia Tech football games in Atlanta and most years, Georgia fans are 50-60%. Also been to a number of Texas-Rice or Texas-Houston football games in Houston. Texas-Rice basketball was similar. Texas fans are usually 50-60%.
And yes, Chicago Cubs' fans travel. At Cincinnati's old Riverfront stadium I went to a game that was probably 25% Cubs fans. Cardinals and Mets fans travel pretty well to Atlanta and Houston, but more like 15-20%.
...never attended a game in Atlanta back in the day when Auburn and Tech played yearly, but have heard Auburn had a big portion of Grant Field on average, especially in the early 80s - Dye - Bo era...
Didn't attend any of the UGA-ND games either, but the last UGA @ ND game I was told that UGA fans outnumbered ND fans and ND was furious!!
When Vanderbilt hosts Georgia, Auburn, Florida, Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee in football ... it's brutal. Probably 80 percent of the fans are non-Commodore fans. These folks enjoy visiting Nashville and they know they will likely see a win on the field.
Even South Carolina. They never have a ton of road fans unless it is a Clemson road game when they are good, but Vandy? Usually half the stadium is Gamecock fans.
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