Confessions of a Sports Fanatic: Traveling Far and Wide for Your Team

00;00;07;25 - 00;00;43;09
Mark Conrad
Hello and welcome to the Sports Business Podcast with Prof C, the podcast that explores the world of professional, collegiate, amateur, and Olympic sports. I’m Mark Conrad, or Prof. C from Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business, where I serve as Professor of Law and Ethics and the Director of the Sports Business Initiative. The word “fan” is short for “fanatic” and there is good reason why the term has become a moniker for sports enthusiasts.

00;00;43;11 - 00;01;14;17
Mark Conrad
Sports fans show undivided loyalty, emotional and social connection, family values and passionate behavior regarding the teams they value. Add to this a willingness to spend lots of time and gobs of money for their passion and go through extreme peaks and valleys based on the successes or failures of their teams. Some fans wait years, make that decades, for their teams to attain championships;

00;01;14;19 - 00;01;41;29
Mark Conrad
others seem to be entitled to glory as a birthright. Examples of the former: Boston Red Sox fans who waited 86 years for a championship; Chicago Cubs fans who waited over a century. The recent NBA finals are a case in point with New York Knicks fans transforming the nation’s largest city to a fan festival after 53 years of futility.

00;01;42;01 - 00;02;13;18
Mark Conrad
Anyone that roots for a team displays at least some of these fan characteristics. Personally, my sports religion is the New York Rangers. A fan since 1971, I witnessed heartache after heartache – a key injury here, a bad trade there, a superior team beating a good Ranger team time and time again. But deliverance came on June 14, 1994 when my team won the Stanley Cup.

00;02;13;21 - 00;02;43;02
Mark Conrad
I remember walking – no dancing - my way in my Upper East Side Manhattan neighborhood trying to process what was heretofore an abstract concept – my team winning the iconic hockey trophy. 
 An example of my devotion came the following year when I got married to my wife of 30 years plus with a wedding cake modeled after the Stanley Cup. Not only did I kiss the bride, I kissed the cake,

00;02;43;05 - 00;03;09;24
Mark Conrad
as it is tradition for players to kiss the Cup when they win. While I may have eased a bit of fanaticism in my older age, my loyalty continues now as a sports tourist. I’m not the kind of guy that dreams of seeing the fountains of Rome or the Champs-Élysées, I’m the guy who dreams of going to every NHL arena and seeing the Rangers play a game there.

00;03;09;26 - 00;03;52;25
Mark Conrad
Yes, a fanatic tourist. I have already hit five locations and I’m still less than one-sixth of my way there. 
 But I already have some memorable experiences. Watching the very first NY Rangers game against the newly-minted Utah hockey team as it was known at the time; eating Detroit-style pizza at the Little Caesar’s arena while watching a Rangers - Red Wings game. Waiting outside a rainy Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio before a Rangers - Blue Jackets game; enduring a one-day trip to DC and back to see the Capitals and Rangers play –

00;03;52;27 - 00;04;18;02
Mark Conrad
a trip that was not only memorable for a Rangers comeback win, but more notable for the trip back. It was not half the fun. The trip back featured a passenger cursing at a Greyhound bus driver during a rest stop, resulting in the driver refusing to continue driving leaving us passengers stuck in Baltimore at 1 AM. On Christmas Eve no less.

00;04;18;04 - 00;04;49;05
Mark Conrad
Ultimately, the bus left 90 minutes later, I got back to New York in one piece and can chalk up this experience to my sports fan travelogue. Many of you know that my commentaries have often been critical of aspects of the sports industry. And there is much to criticize. But deep down, I remain a fan – despite being disgusted by some aspects of the greed, cynicism, and hypocrisy that is a part of the sports environment today.

00;04;49;08 - 00;05;16;20
Mark Conrad
But I morphed into a specific type of fan – one looking for a travel journey to show my loyalty. I prefer breathing the air of the Canadian prairie cities of Calgary and Edmonton when the Rangers play there rather than seeing the Fjords of Norway. I don’t care to sun on a Florida beach – rather, I would like to hold my ears to the deafening thunder effects when the Rangers play in Tampa.

00;05;16;22 - 00;05;42;26
Mark Conrad
The yellow brick road of my sports fan travel experiences lead to Montreal. Yes, the veritable Temple of Hockey. I attended the last Rangers – Canadiens game at the Forum, the iconic, even quasi-religious locale where the spirits of the great players haunt the rafters. I also attended the very first game at the Bell Centre – again watching the Rangers play.

00;05;42;28 - 00;06;14;13
Mark Conrad
Yes, I do have other interests – the arts, reading, and engaging in recreational sports as best as my 68-year-old body can. Despite my misgivings about various aspects of the sports industry, there is that primordial instinct or affliction of being a sports fanatic of my team. I will end this commentary with an invitation. Any one wish to tell me how far your sports fan loyalty goes?

00;06;14;15 - 00;06;45;26
Mark Conrad
Would you go to the four corners of arenas, relationships, and dollars to support your team and what you would sacrifice if you were making a deal with the devil to get your team to win a championship? Financially, emotionally and logistically? If you wish to respond – and I’ll keep your identity private if you wish, please e-mail me at [email protected]. That’s C-O-N-R-A-D at Fordham dot E-D-U.

00;06;45;28 - 00;07;00;19
Mark Conrad
I would feature the most shocking, humorous, intense or intricate responses on a future episode. For the Sports Business Podcast at Fordham’s Gabelli School of Business, I’m Mark Conrad, or Prof. C. Have a good day!