I grew up in NYC a Rangers fan.
I then moved to Lowell, Massachusetts, and became a Bruins fan. Even when the Rangers played the Bruins, I rooted for the Bruins. My loyalty was based on geography and my friendships with the people that I attended the games with as ticket holders. Then I came to Washington, DC, and attended Georgetown University and became a Caps fan. I went to lots of games as a student. I bought season tickets in 1993 for the Caps when I returned to the area and was forever re-hooked on Caps hockey. When my son and daughter came to games, they fell in love with the Caps. I didn’t try to get them to love Bruins hockey or Rangers hockey. 
I then bought the team in 1999. Whenever I am in the building and see a fan wearing another team’s jersey, I always ask "Where do you live?" It amazes me how many fans of competitive teams live in our area and don’t come to games except when we play that specific team. Probably that is what I dislike, that people don’t come for the love of the game. They just come to one, two or four games per year to cheer against us and for their team. This article is well done and addresses the issue. It has a strong point of view. What do you think? This is a complex issue because we as a team have lots of long distance fans as well. And I would expect when my children fly the coop, they will take their passion for the Caps with them as my son has on the campus at UPenn in Philadelphia. I see both sides of the issue. I have empathy but don’t hate on me because I want everyone to be a Caps fan that lives in the area. I am an evangelist for Caps hockey. It is who I am now.
Seems like a lot of people can relate and have similar situations!
GO CAPS!!
I understand the logic, but for me wherever I move I will always be a fan of hometown team where i grew up. I cannot root for anyone else.
Ted, disown him if he becomes a Pens fan.
“my son has on the campus at UPenn in Philadelphia. ”
Brooks Laich hates the pens with every thread in his body.
Go Caps!
I don’t think I could ever root for a team playing the Rangers, no matter where I lived. But if I move to Nashville, I’ll get season tickets and root for them – until they play the NYR.
Transplant fans buy a lot of tickets in small markets. The Panthers wouldn’t have had near a sell-out tonight if the Rangers weren’t in town.
I think hockey fans hold on to those sports allegiances more so than other fans.
I grew up in Philadelphia and I’m a huge/die-hard Flyers fan. but when I moved to the DC area in 1997, I went to Caps games out of ‘a love of the game’, hey, NHL hockey is NHL hockey. Over time, I grew to like the Caps, now I’ll wear my Flyers colors when the Flyers are in town, but I sport the Caps jersey when its anyone else.
And Ted, you ought to be pushing for people to be Caps fans, by your words here, your actions on the street, and by extension your team on the ice. That’s what sells the team and will bring them into the hearts of both the existing hockey fan and the casual sports fan.
Ted,
Terry Frei is the purest embodiment of incompetence, and this article is no different. I go to close to thirty Caps games a year, and while transplant fans can be obnoxious, it’s refreshing to see that their loyalties haven’t changed. It’s a fickle world we live in, but at least transplant fans have some semblance of character.
I can say from personal experience that this is a difficult issue. Although I have now lived in the Washington D.C. area for close to 40 years I am a native of Minnesota and I am still a Viking and Twins fan. However, when the Caps came into existance I became a Caps fan although when they played the NorthStars I would be neutral, I would hope it would be a tie and it was amazing at how many times it ended in a tie. When the Caps play the Wild now there is no question who I cheer for since I have no emotional ties to the Wild. If by chance I move someplace else I would still be a Caps fan, I have too much emotional investment in the Caps to ever be a “fan” of another team.
I am a former Caps season ticket holder who recently moved to Atlanta. I have the NHL Center Ice Package, watch every game the Caps play, and only go to Phillips Arena four times a year. Guess what four games?
LETS GO CAPS!
More than you know it is a seriouse problem. I am a season ticket holder and go to every game and have always loved the Caps (but I grew up here)I’ve spoken to a lot of fans and season ticket holder about the overwhelming Pittsburg and Buffalo fans. you would be suprised to find that many Caps fans dont come to those games because of how obnoxous the other teams fans are, they actually give thier tickets away or sell them (even to apposing team fans) so how can it get better if the ticket holders dont show up? I’m really not looking to get something for nothing but if every year you gave out caps jerseys to season ticket holders on the night of one of those games some of that would go away. but it would only help with seson tickets to offset the $$(a jersey which would promote the team and be seen at every game) not a sermon just a thought
Ted-
My father grew up in The Bronx and was a Rangers fan his whole life. He’s told me over and over again how he and his buddies from CCNY would pay 50 cents for upper teir seats at the OLD MSG. He moved to the DC area in 1967 and continued to root for the Rangers until 1974 when the Caps came. He and I have been loyal Caps fans ever since. If the Caps had a history of championships, I bet you more and more transplants would switch over to the Caps-maybe someday.
It almost nauseates me to say this but I grew up in southern PA watching the Flyers. After attending GWU, I moved a few blocks north of the then-MCI Center and that is when I became a fan of a real team – the Washington Capitals. I have been hooked on the Caps and hockey since.
Unsuspected one day, Audrius Z. called me [having recognized that my last name is Lithuanian] and convinced me to buy season tickets. You should thank him because I plan to continue to buy season tickets.
I love this game and I love our team.
Unfortunately, the DC area has a lot of people from elsewhere who carry their initial teams with them. I have to say I would do the same. If I moved out of the DC area, I’d take my love of the Caps and Redskins with me and would never change. But perhaps the teams in my new location would become second favorite teams.
I grew up a Caps fan…but I have several friends who came to the area from the mid-west who are Wings fans…but when we all go to games (unless the squid-heads are in town) they’re Caps fans. I keep trying to convert them all the way…but that Detroit nonsense has infected them too deeply, and they can’t get it out. As long as they root for the right team the other 81 games…I guess we’re cool. (We just make sure not to discuss the 98 Finals).
I understand where you are coming from.
I am a Devils fan and have been since I was a kid, despite growing up in the area and even though my Dad is a die hard Caps fan.
I grew up going to Caps games (and only really watching them, before the days of Center Ice) and they are absolutely my 2nd favorite team. I have seen them play live more games then any other NHL team. I have one of the 6-pack plans this season (and have gone to at least 5 additional games), and I wear a Caps jersey and cheer them on as long as they aren’t playing the Devils.
I don’t understand why fans of other teams who live in the area don’t attend Caps games though. No matter where I live in my life I will always go to any hockey game I can because I love the sport. I make it up to NJ a few times a year, but I regualry go to DC and Philly regularly to see games because it is hockey and I love it.
Funny, I am one of those transplanted fans. I am a huge caps fan, ex-partial plan ticket holder, living in NJ.
Thank god for NHL Center Ice and the internet allowing me to feel as a part of the Caps community.
My 2 daughters (5&8) are both Caps fans (little choice as they see 82 caps games a year, and on our last 2 visits to DC, I took them to VC to see the Caps. Actually we got to meet the players after the game and OV signed their jerseys.
As an Iranian-American, I didnt grow up with hockey, I was introduced to it in college. I guess i must have had some Canadian relative 6 generations ago, because from my first game in 1985 Hockey I was hooked. I play the game regularly, and follow the Caps even though I live in NY metro area.
to me the idea of becoming a Rangers or Devils fan is unthinkable to me!!!
I hope the Caps make the playoffs this year. I cant wait to see the playoff with my kids for the first time…..
I grew up in the Bronx, NY and my dad was a die-hard Ranger fan. My parents first date was to a Ranger game. My dad took me to my first hockey game at MSG when I was about seven (and my mother made me wear a dress). Mostly, we watched on local TV as we could not afford Ranger tickets. After I moved down here (pre-Internet), my father was my only source of Rangers news. I did not switch to becoming a Caps fan until after my father passed away. I could never have been able to tell him that I was no longer a fan of his beloved Rangers. I am now a Caps season ticket holder (went to see the Caps play the Rangers and fell in love with how Peter Bondra played hockey). I can only imagine what my dad is thinking up in heaven when he sees me at Caps games rooting against the Rangers.
I grew up in NY too, and was a loyal Mets, Giants and Rangers fan. (I probably would have liked the Yankees except that Dad was and is a die-hard RedSox fan so that wouldn’t work out.)
When I moved here to DC in 1985, I didn’t switch to the Caps right away, but I still had season tickets since I got here. When the Rangers traded my favorite player at the time, Kelly Miller, to the Caps, switching seemed to make sense.
I didn’t really switch for baseball since there wasn’t any in DC, and since I could only see the O’s locally, I sort of rooted for them.
With football, I am stil a True Blue Giants fan since there’s no way to get tickets for the ‘Skins.
Even if I eventually relocate, I suspect I will be a Caps fan through and through. I’ve been through too many wars not to be.
But let’s get us a Cup soon!
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If Capitals start winning a lot then many of those fans will convert. I have a few friends who are fans of Detroit and NYR and always rooting against Caps. However this year they love Caps and are passionate about them making the playoffs. A few years of success for the Caps and those people will become Caps fans.
However I have to admit that if I moved somewhere else (Pitts, NY, Detroit etc) I would still remain a Cap fan. But that’s just me:).
Also, I think I broke my record on the # of games I visited in a single season and the # of people who I brought to their first hockey game. They all loved the experience and some feel obligated to inform me how Caps played last night when they see me at work:). Good stuff!!!