Philadelphia Phillies Fans: Two Studies and Two Vastly Different Results

So last week the brilliant minds at sports magazine extraordinaire GQ released their highly scientific list of the worst fans in sports and Phillies and Eagles fans came out on top...or bottom, I guess? 

GQ no doubt conducted rigorous testing and extensive surveying and spent hundreds of man-hours in an effort to clearly define and pinpoint exactly who were the worst fans in all of professional sports…or they just made it up based on whatever seemed like it would get the most press and seemed like it could possibly be true. 

It’s not clear which of these two things happened and GQ makes no effort to explain.  But one thing is for sure, when you are looking for relevant and important fact-based sports information, GQ is where you turn.  It really is what they are best known for.

Meanwhile, this week, Brand Keys, a company focused on consumer research and engagement metrics, conducted a market research study (Wikipedia it GQ) on fans and their sports teams.  The results were first released by some obscure news outlet called Bloomberg (???) who I’m sure were so desperate for news they were the only ones who Brand Keys could get to listen to their study. 

Apparently, this Bloomberg thing is nowhere near the intellectual propertyof mega-news outlet GQ, especially when it comes to sports.  These results, according to this Bloomberger, showed that the Phillies were No. 1 in fan loyalty for Major League Baseball and the Flyers, Philadelphia’s pro hockey team, were No. 2 for the NHL.  Way to go savages!

Is there perhaps a correlation between the two studies?  It’s hard to tell because in reality, the GQ piece doesn’t appear to have any actual data to back it up.  Apparently, GQ just took some sensationalist headlines to determine its’ results.   I wonder if they’re hiring.

Don’t get me wrong, all the headlines are actually related to real stories, but as we all know most news outlets these days tend to gravitate towards the negative.  After all, that’s what people like to read, right?  I mean, who cares about the story of two 13 year-old Phillies fans who sold their $5,500 a piece 2009 World Series Tickets (Diamond Club!!!) to donate to a local school when you have a juicy piece about some moron who vomited on a girl.  And of course, GQ makes the completely accurate assumption that most fans are of the latter variety…because why wouldn’t they?

However, Brand Keys, who bill themselves as “The World Leader in Customer Loyalty and Engagement Metrics”, actually put the work in (give them a call GQ and I’m sure they’ll give you some instructions).  Their results are actually backed with something called data?  Who’d a thunk it?  Apparently, there were polls of sports fans in every major U.S. city and an associated survey and moderators and complicated math…you know, work.

So I guess, the end result would be that Philadelphia now holds the duopoly of worst and most loyal sports fans.  You know, I’ll take that over best and most traitorous any day of the week.