Baseball’s annual Opening Day, for many fans, is a day of hope; anything can happen, and every team has a chance at bringing home a coveted World Series win. Some teams, however, have picked up a big win before their season has even started, in the form of the 24th annual Sports Fan Loyalty Index from Brand Keys. The rankings came from interviews with 250 baseball fans in each MLB team’s local market.
“Yogi Berra said, ‘If the fans don’t want to come out to the ballpark, no one can stop them,’” noted Robert Passikoff, founder and president of Brand Keys, Inc. “Teams may not be able to manage that, but they can manage fan loyalty. Our survey was designed to help the managers of sports teams identify precise fan loyalty rankings in their home and national markets and provide metrics that correlate very highly with TV viewership and the purchase of licensed merchandise.”
The driving factors of fan loyalty, according to the survey, are authenticity, fan bonding (how appreciated fans feel both in and out of the game day experience), history/tradition, and, most importantly, pure entertainment, in terms of the excitement level of the team’s playing style. While having a winning team is an advantage, Passikoff noted “win/loss ratios govern only about 20% of fan loyalty.”
“Because overall league and team rankings correlate very highly with game viewership and merchandise sales,” said Passikoff, “and since rankings can be influenced depending upon how loyalty drivers are managed, it's critical that team marketers do accurate scouting regarding the strategic ball they intend to pitch to fans. All teams benefit from increased fan loyalty levels, particularly America's ‘National Pastime.’ Teams need to create strong emotional connections to succeed with their fans.”
The top five teams in the survey, in descending order, are the St. Louis Cardinals, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, Detroit Tigers, and Washington Nationals. The Cardinals were likely aided by a strong showing in the “history & tradition” category—the team has won 11 World Series titles since its inaugural season in 1882.
On the other end of the rankings, the bottom five teams are the Houston Astros, San Diego Padres, Colorado Rockies, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Seattle Mariners.