Sports

Face Off: Does Pittsburgh or Cleveland have better fans?

Cleveland fans have been through it all, from heartbreaking losses to miserable losing seasons.

The fans have even had a franchise taken away from their city.

But for some unknown reason the Cleveland fans always return the next year to cheer on their beloved teams.

When it comes to the rival city Pittsburgh, Cleveland fans are smart enough to realize that Pittsburgh has had many more successful teams throughout the years.

The last Cleveland team to win a championship were the Cleveland Browns in 1964.

Since that year, the Pirates have won two World Series, the Penguins have won three Stanley Cups and the Steelers have won a record six Super Bowls.

That being said, it doesn’t make Pittsburgh fans any better than Cleveland fans, it just makes them the luckier ones.

A true fan is one that sticks with his or her team through it all.

Cleveland fans can attest to this better than anyone.

They haven’t witnessed a championship in 47 years.

They have gone through famous heartbreaking losses such as Red Right 88, The Drive, The Fumble, The Move, The Shot, the blown save in the 1997 World Series and
the latest one being the departure of homegrown LeBron James to Miami.

Nobody can compete with the city of Cleveland, we are tough and we continue to come back year after year.

Every year the Steeler fan base continues to grow rapidly.

Yes, there are the die-hard fans who have been passed down from generation to generation, but I see more and more fans jumping on the Steeler bandwagon every
year just because they win.

While there are plenty of true Steeler fans, Steeler nation is getting run out of town by the huge group of fans jumping on the bandwagon.

This year marks the 19th straight losing seasons for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

I can almost guarantee if you ask a random Steeler fan what his or her favorite baseball team is, they will say someone other than the Pirates.

The fans can’t handle the consistent losing so they pick another team that is a winner, such as Boston or New York.

Pittsburgh obviously has much better teams than Cleveland, but Steeler fans are being overrun with a new generation of fair-weather fans, and Pirate fans are
giving up and rooting for other, better teams.

There are no bandwagon Browns fans, and Indians fans have stuck with them through the decades of losing.

So Pittsburgh, you beat Cleveland when it comes to victories, but you can’t beat us when it comes to the die-hard fans.

The city of Cleveland is hungry, loyal and we will always keep the faith.

The people of Pittsburgh take great pride in all their pro sports teams.

No matter where the teams are traveling, there’s bound to be a wave of black and gold following. With props such as the Terrible Towel and the Jolly Roger to
events such as the White Outs and the viewing of Playoff games on Mario’s big screen for the Penguin games, the fans are always there.

The people of Pittsburgh are the greatest sports fans in the world.

People bring up the argument that people in Pittsburgh are spoiled because of the teams‘ performances over the past couple decades, and the fans aren’t true
because it is easy to root for good teams.

But is that really a valid argument?

It’s not the fans’ fault that their team’s front offices actually know how to put a winning team together.

Now I know what you are thinking, what about the Pirates?

Even though the Pirates have just clinched their North American Professional Sports record of 19 consecutive losing seasons, the team still had a better
attendance record than eight other teams during the 2011 season.

In those eight teams appears the Cleveland Indians, who were contending for the division up until the middle of August.

The Pirates, who also had a pretty good year, fell out of the division race much earlier than the Indians did but still managed to have electric crowds in PNC
Park throughout the end of the summer.

While I am on the topic of losing, I would like to bring the pride and joy of Cleveland into the equation, the Browns.

The last time the Browns made the playoffs was 2002 when they reached the wild card round only to let a 10 point second half lead slip away to, you guessed it,
the Steelers.

Since then the Browns have recorded a 38-86 record and, in doing so, hiring as many coaches as the Steelers have Super Bowls.

The Browns so called “Dawg Pound” came in as fourth worst in attendance over the 2010 season.

How can you be considered good fans when you don’t even show up to your team’s games?

Getting away from attendance, last winter when LeBron James, an Akron native, made his return to Cleveland after he took his talents to South Beach, he was
welcomed with the a wave of boos from the Cavalier faithful.

This brings up the topic of Barry Bonds, who like Lebron left the Pirates after a loss in the NLCS and joined the San Francisco Giants.

Bonds played, many games back in the Burgh, but one game sticks out most in the fans mind.

While Bonds was making his historic run to the all-time home run record, the Giants visited PNC for a day-night double header.

Bonds played the first game and sat out the second.

Before the second game, the Pirates gave Bonds a video tribute on the Jumbotron followed by a standing ovation from the fans.

The people of Pittsburgh were not bitter because Bonds left for more money.

They were happy that a former Bucco was still having success in game.

Do you think the people of Cleveland would do such a thing for King James?

I could go on and on about this topic. But I think all of these facts prove that the people of Pittsburgh are in fact superior fans to those of Cleveland, and
rank up as some of the best sports fans in the world.