Milwaukee Sports fans

It is an interesting bunch that enjoy their sports in Milwaukee. Yeah, most of them claim to be Packer or Bucks or Brewers fans, but are they really?

Last night was an interesting case. I went out to have a couple beers under the guise of caring about the UWM basketball game. I watched it. I was more interested in my beer than the game. But I found it interesting how many Panther fans there suddenly were. People were cheering and jeering the team like crazy. I was willing to bet that the majority of them didn't go to UWM (who would? go to a real school) and hadn't seen them play until they were on TV last weekend. But now they were living vicariously through this local basketball team. And for you true Panther fans, your team had a great season. Congrats.

Which isn't bad. The bars got another night of good business out of it. But where will all these people be next year? I see the same thing with the Brewers year in and year out. Opening Day will see Miller Park filled to the rafters. But the next day, there may be 15000. May. For the record, I used to have season tickets and I usually attend at least 15 games. I watch as somehow the Brewers manage to make it interesting during the season and put together a nice winning streak. Suddenly everyone is a big Brewers fan again and the stadium is filling up. But as soon as the streak is over, so is the attendance.

I have come to accept this. This is how it is across the state with sports. Even with the Packers. You can tell how many people care about the team by who goes out to watch them in a bar. When the Packers are playing bad, no one is going out. When they are doing well, it is like watching cockroaches come crawling out of nowhere into the bar to watch the game. Think I am kidding? When Ray Rhodes was coaching the Packers a couple years back, there was no one in the bar on a Sunday during the month of December. No one. True fans are there to watch their team. Others suddenly are out shopping.

So tonight, I will go to a friends house to watch the Badger game. I will be wearing my hockey jersey. Badgers vs Wolverines in the NCAA tournament that I care about. Puck drops at 7:30. Somehow, I need to get my hands on the remote.