Thursday, October 19, 2006

Loyalty of Titans Fans Can't Be Quantified

A recent* study of NFL fan loyalty by bizjournals.com suggests that Titans fans rank 28th out of 32 in loyalty to their team. The study rewards fans who show up even when their team and the weather in their city is lousy. The Cleveland Browns and Kansas City Chiefs rank first and second respectively.

Titans fans' poor performance is largely due to one stat, attendance fluctuation, which is intended to separate the faithful from the fair-weather. Attendance fluctuation measures the difference between the best and worst seasonal attendance in the past ten years. Seasonal attendance is measured in percent of seats filled. Attendance fluctuation for the Titans is 55.1%, far greater than that of any other team. This is due entirely to the one season the Titans spent in Memphis before moving to Nashville. Memphis fans, who had long lobbied for a team of their own, were not eager to support a lame duck team that would soon relocate to a rival city. Attendance figures in Memphis were some of the worst in league history. Nashville fans, by contrast, have faithfully filled seats even during the worst of times (the past three seasons).

So don't let anyone tell you that you don't support your bad football team. Titans fans are simply victims of a statistical anomaly.

OK, the study was published on September 4 and I'm about 50 days late. But the study was a topic of conversation today on ESPN Radio.

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