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No matter what sporting event you’re at, there are always those SUPER hardcore fans . . . and apparently, a LOT of them participated in this latest poll, because the results are wild. Ticketmaster conducted a survey on fan behavior at sporting events, and they asked 1,000 fans how they thought THEIR behaviors impacted games.
For starters, more than 90% of NFL fans say the crowd in the stadium can “sometimes or always influence the outcome of the game.” That isn’t surprising, in a lot of cases, teams can benefit from home field advantage. But then it goes a little off the rails. More than 50% of fans say “cheers and chanting” influence the outcome of the game . . . and nearly 40% say a combination of “cheers, face paint, costumes, and dancing” are “most likely to influence the outcome of the game.” FOUR TIMES more men than women say “dancing and costumes” can influence the outcome of a game. Elsewhere in the poll, 40% of NFL fans say they are superstitious . . . and 30% believe THEIR game day rituals and superstitions can influence the outcome.
Of those rituals, the most popular are: Wearing a lucky piece of clothing (20%) . . . and tailgating (18%). Most fans say that tailgates are most likely to increase the energy in the stadium, but one in 10 say that people’s “outfits” are most likely to increase energy.
30% percent of fans would give up a free trip to Tahiti to go see their team play in the Super Bowl. It’s unclear why ‘Tahiti’ was chosen.
10% of Millennials would be willing to give up their job to see their team play in the Super Bowl . . .
And 13% would give up their HAND. (We wonder…..are the people who are willing to give up their hand almost surely from Cleveland? Seriously. No one is doing that in New England. If they don’t get tickets one year, they’ll just try again the next.)
Finally, 34% of fans say they are “very likely” to see their team play even if they have a losing record late in the season. And WOMEN are more likely than men, by a 5% margin. Which basically means women are more LOYAL fans.
(For more results, hit up TheWrap.com.)