About 25 years ago, I wrote a column "In Praise of Fairweather Fans". Unfortunately, I can no longer find it; otherwise I would just link to it.
With the way the Trono Blue Jays are playing these days, Blue Jay fans are coming out of the woodwork. Like many fans, I love watching their games when they win. And when they are losing, I start checking to see what else is on tv or start spending more time on the internet or (gasp!) reading a book.
We are Jays fans, but we are certainly anything but die-hard fans. We watch more, and we buy more memorabilia for our children, grandchildren, and great grandchild when the Jays are winning.
Actually, I don't have all that much respect for die-hard fans. I see no reason to support mediocrity or worse. I think all fans should be fairweather fans. [Dare I say, unlike Trono Maple Laugh Leaf fans who seem to keep going to Leaf games no matter what!].
Furthermore, die-hard fans owe a huge vote of thanks to the bandwagon jumpers. We are the ones who provide the big incentive for teams to get better; we are the ones who provide the big incentive for teams to win. Without us, the teams would have markedly diminished incentive to improve, to win.
I see very little value in being loyal to a team. If they don't produce, there is no good reason to support them. I feel the same way about nearly all producers of goods and services: if they don't produce high quality goods and services at reasonable prices, I'm less interested in patronizing them. If I were a loyal fan or loyal customer, they don't have to pay attention to me.
With these thoughts in mind, I was thrilled to see this sign outside one of our favourite restaurants, The Blu Duby, yesterday:
I love their honesty and I love their implied understanding of the basic economics tenet, "People respond to incentives."