The experience is worth the price - wins are a bonus!Disagree. You’re paying for the experience - wins and losses are just outcomes.
Lots of truth to this. So many great memories with family and friendsDisagree. You’re paying for the experience - wins and losses are just outcomes.
Go to one game per year now. The only drawback is the traffic leaving. But that is true to just about any big event. Went to hear Paul McCartney in Winston-Salem a couple of years ago. Went to see the play Hamilton in Columbia last month. Traffic was crazy. Hell, I live in a city of about 32,000. The traffic here can be unbearable at times. It will be that way long after I have taken the exit ramp in this road trip called "life".Agree. Unless you've just got that kind of money to burn. You could get single game tickets and go to a few games for the experience.
If the results are mediocre to poor all the time, that experience gets old after awhile. You want to see that there is progress and that you are not just going to a game to eat and talk to people.Disagree. You’re paying for the experience - wins and losses are just outcomes.
Sounds a lot like my childhood. I grew up listening to Georgia games on the radio since my dad was a UGA grad and we didn't have a TV. (I didn't become a Gamecock until going to college.) But anyway, lots of great memories with my family and college football. When ESPN360 became a thing, my siblings and I would watch games on the computer. Typically my dad would have the radio on in another part of the house and run in when something good happened, so we always knew a few seconds before the TV broadcast played that a good play was coming. We would listen to games in the yard while picking up pecans, working in the garden, shooting hoops, etc. Good times!I don't agree or disagree - it's about spending your disposable income on a recreational activity, so spend your money however you wish. But just be honest with yourself about your return on your happiness investment. Don't go just because it's what you've always done or because you feel obligated to "support your school" or team. Saturdays are precious, especially when you have kids. Kids' soccer games, camping trips, hunting and fishing experiences, church youth group activities, and tons of other worthwhile endeavors compete for those days. Spend your time and money on things you truly find valuable.
I have been a Gamecock fan for as long as I can remember, but I didn't grow up going to the games. I didn't know it at the time, but my parents didn't make a lot of money during my elementary school years, so they spent most of their weekends working their butts off remodeling our house or doing some kind of side gig to make a few extra bucks. It never occurred to me that we could go to a Carolina game any more than it would have occurred to me that we could go to Paris. I'd accompany them on their working Saturdays with my radio and thanks to Bob Fulton and Tommy Suggs, I never had to miss a game. By the time I was middle school age, their economic status started to improve and they began to have business acquaintances, some of whom had season tickets to either Carolina or Clemson games. As a result, my dad and I would occasionally catch a Carolina or Clemson game in person. I thought those were the best events ever and I'll never forget those experiences. But I'll also never forget the afternoon we caught about 40 bream and 9 or 10 bass in a farm pond with the game playing on a radio in the background, or the time my cub scout den went tent-camping at Paris Mountain State park, or the time we rode on a church bus up to Knoxville for the World's Fair, or a host of other great experiences that happened while South Carolina played a home game.
I've been in Gamecock gear since I was in diapers. I went to every home game from 1992 - 2005 and some away games in that window. Joined the original GamecockCentral in 2000. But after our 2008 loss at Clemson, I took all of my Gamecock gear - clothing, posters, etc - and put it on the driveway of the 2BR bungalow rental I shared with a classmate while in grad school at Texas - and I set it on fire and watched it burn.If the results are mediocre to poor all the time, that experience gets old after awhile. You want to see that there is progress and that you are not just going to a game to eat and talk to people.
What are the downsides of being a diehard fan?I've been in Gamecock gear since I was in diapers. I went to every home game from 1992 - 2005 and some away games in that window. Joined the original GamecockCentral in 2000. But after our 2008 loss at Clemson, I took all of my Gamecock gear - clothing, posters, etc - and put it on the driveway of the 2BR bungalow rental I shared with a classmate while in grad school at Texas - and I set it on fire and watched it burn.
I'm glad I live 1200 miles away and don't feel compelled to regularly go to games or buy season tickets. But I'm still a rabid fan living and dying with every play on TV and Gamecast. But I'm also glad that my children aren't being raised as rabid fans. In all objectiveness, I think my parents raising me as a die hard has more downside than upside. So it's a function of both distance and reflections on my own life.
Fair question and I think your musing partially answered it. Burning possessions in a driveway over a loss, as I have done, is not healthy, well adjusted behavior.What are the downsides of being a diehard fan?
Now I do have to say that I've never been so diehard that a loss would ruin my week or anything like that.
Man you have problems!Fair question and I think your musing partially answered it. Burning possessions in a driveway over a loss, as I have done, is not healthy, well adjusted behavior.
- In 2007, I reflexively vomited when we lost a Super Regional to Chapel Hill because I hate the Tar Heels so much.
- It took me 3 full years of going to grad school at Texas to buy and wear a burnt orange tee shirt because I had such a visceral hatred of the color. My parents literally removed orange crayons and markers from Crayola boxes when I was a kid and threw them away
- I have sworn off fandom forever probably 50 times, and every time fallen off the wagon in days. When we lost to Clemson 5-4 on back to back days in baseball earlier this spring, I angrily swore off the Gamecocks forever. Again. That lasted maybe 18 hours and I ordered 2 new Gamecock shirts
These are not pictures of healthy human behavior. I'm a massive golf fan, but I'm not invested in any particular player. I have favorite players, but if they win or miss the cut it doesn't affect me either way. I just love to watch world class golf.
I wish I had that type of relationship with watching the Gamecocks
Now I do have to say that I've never been so diehard that a loss would ruin my week or anything like that.