Atl fans take offense to lofton's comments

[bc]

All teams have bandwagon fans especially with success. There is a consistent and passionate fan base here that remains with the team at all times. Do atlanta fans meet the team at the airport after every away game? (win or lose)

Since you are so equipped with stats, what are the differences in population between NO and Atlanta? Differences in per capita income as well? How do those figures affect the stats you're throwing out.

I think the major difference is that the team, the dome, the symbol worn are all strongly integrated with new orleans culture and means more than JUST a sports team. This was especially true after Katrina when so many came back to rebuild used the fleur de lis as a rallying symbol for the city and did everything possible to make sure the Saints stayed in NO. Overcoming adversity and loyalty to team and roots make saints fans who they are and why they are superior in the ranks of fandom.

[IonSen88]

Originally Posted by bc

All teams have bandwagon fans especially with success. There is a consistent and passionate fan base here that remains with the team at all times. Do atlanta fans meet the team at the airport after every away game? (win or lose)

Since you are so equipped with stats, what are the differences in population between NO and Atlanta? Differences in per capita income as well? How do those figures affect the stats you're throwing out.

I think the major difference is that the team, the dome, the symbol worn are all strongly integrated with new orleans culture and means more than JUST a sports team. This was especially true after Katrina when so many came back to rebuild used the fleur de lis as a rallying symbol for the city and did everything possible to make sure the Saints stayed in NO. Overcoming adversity and loyalty to team and roots make saints fans who they are and why they are superior in the ranks of fandom.

There's a consistent and passionate fan base for every team in the league; but a lot of the people the Saints call fans now, were not always there. Someone has to remind the fans of the Saints that the consistent and passionate fan base of the New Orleans Saints haven't always resulted in very high attendance numbers, or at the very least higher than ours.

Demographics doesn't really favor New Orleans either, man. The number differences in population between New Orleans and Atlanta (as of now) isn't that big. 344K (New Orleans, Louisiana) to 420K (Atlanta, Georgia). Essentially, the population of New Orleans, Louisiana plummeted after Hurricane Katrina. In fact, the numbers I submitted covered the 1990s where the population of New Orleans (497K) was higher than the population of Atlanta (394K) and the Georgia Dome on average still seated more fannies at 55,230.17 per game to New Orleans' 52,773.28 behinds per contest. The case was similar in the 2000s where the population in New Orleans still exceeded that of Atlanta. This argument of demographics primarily would apply in comparison to cities like New York or Chicago against cities like Atlanta or New Orleans...Not so much when it's between New Orleans and Atlanta.

The Falcons mean just as much to me as the Saints mean to anyone in New Orleans (or any other city for that matter). I'm a season ticket holder; my mood is swung and determined by the success or failure of the Falcons with each and every game; Atlanta has those kind of fans. To sit here and try to count them doesn't make much sense. What also makes no sense is that ANY Saints fan would call out our fanbase as if they're Green Bay or New York. They're not. My only point, by reminding this place of stuff like players having to buy postseason tickets to avoid blackouts - is not that Falcons fans are better, but that the fans of New Orleans has no business calling out fans of any other franchise. Period.

[girlySaint]

Originally Posted by IonSen88

4th and 1 from the 30.

Lame. A game that close? You stay until the fat lady sings. I mean, if you really care. After all, I thought we had won it in 2010 when Garrett Hartley shanked it. And I stayed until the bitter end even as Matt Bryant's kick went through the posts.

[girlySaint]

Originally Posted by Jprebel24

Bro I'm a saints fan i am putting up comments of fans from the fan forum "FALCOHOLIC" i put the reason they were upset then i put some of ATL FAN RESPONSE to the article I'm a saints fan

You just need to use the Quotes function or italics or something, it's a bit confusing otherwise.

[girlySaint]

Originally Posted by IonSen88

Demographics doesn't really favor New Orleans either, man. The number differences in population between New Orleans and Atlanta (as of now) isn't that big. 344K (New Orleans, Louisiana) to 420K (Atlanta, Georgia).

This is true of the cities themselves, but the Atlanta metro area is substantially larger than the New Orleans metro area. Like, 5 times as big if you go by Wikipedia numbers (~5 million to ~1 million). Obviously not everyone going to the games lives inside the cities themselves.

[IonSen88]

Originally Posted by girlySaint

Lame. A game that close? You stay until the fat lady sings. I mean, if you really care. After all, I thought we had won it in 2010 when Garrett Hartley shanked it. And I stayed until the bitter end even as Matt Bryant's kick went through the posts.

You stayed, but every fan didn't.

The way our fans displayed disgust in that call was leaving. Other cities might've booed; butwho are you to judge which one is right and which one is wrong?

[IonSen88]

Originally Posted by girlySaint

This is true of the cities themselves, but the Atlanta metro area is substantially larger than the New Orleans metro area. Like, 5 times as big if you go by Wikipedia numbers (~5 million to ~1 million). Obviously not everyone going to the games lives inside the cities themselves.

And the reason that everyone from the city doesn't attend the games is another reason why comparing the demographics of the cities just doesn't apply here. Atlanta draws from the Southeast region and the Saints draw from the Gulf coast region. As evident on our message board, we have season ticket holders in Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama and Florida. I practically live in FL (Albany, GA).

Because our teams draw from regions and not cities, evaluating population holds no water.

[girlySaint]

Originally Posted by IonSen88

You stayed but every fan didn't.

The way our fans displayed disgust in that call was leaving. Other cities might've booed; but who are you to judge which one is right and which one is wrong?

"Who are you to judge...?" Relax. I'm not judging their worth as a person. I just think it's lame. And I would think it's lame if/when Saints fans do it too. Or other fans of other teams. And for all I know, most of the people who had emptied their seats could/might have done so when the Falcons were down 10 with 5 minutes left or whatever it was. Who knows. I just didn't happen to notice it until the end.

[IonSen88]

Originally Posted by girlySaint

"Who are you to judge...?" Relax. I'm not judging their worth as a person. I just think it's lame. And I would think it's lame if/when Saints fans do it too. Or other fans of other teams. And for all I know, most of the people who had emptied their seats could/might have done so when the Falcons were down 10 with 5 minutes left or whatever it was. Who knows. I just didn't happen to notice it until the end.

I thought the judgement was clear that you weren't judging them as a person; you don't know them. It just seemed to me that you were judging them as fans.

[girlySaint]

Originally Posted by IonSen88

And the reason that everyone from the city doesn't attend the games is another reason why comparing the demographics of the cities just doesn't apply here. Atlanta draws from the Southeast region and the Saints draw from the Gulf coast region. As evident on our message board, we have season ticket holders in Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama and Florida. I practically live in FL (Albany, GA).

Because our teams draw from regions and not cities, evaluating population holds no water.

I think it holds some water - I'm talking metro area, not region. Having a fan base that spans a certain region isn't necessarily reflected in game attendance. Proximity has a lot to do with the decision to come to a game. I have season tickets, live in Baton Rouge, and drive over an hour to attend every home game, and it takes up most of my day. I'll leave my house at 9:30 a.m. for a noon game and not get home until 5 p.m. That's a luxury and a lot of people that live far away from New Orleans can't do that. I don't expect people from Mississippi and Alabama to come to games every week. I don't even expect people who live in Central or North Louisiana to be able to come every week. It takes up too much time. People are more likely to go, and go regularly, when they live in close proximity. And there are a lot more people close to Atlanta and the Georgia Dome than there are people close to New Orleans and the Superdome.

Now, the one thing I can buy from your argument is that it can get to a point where it doesn't matter what the population is. Obviously you can look at Green Bay and see they don't have attendance problems and they're pretty small. And the Saints have sold out season tickets for 6 years now, without the New Orleans population getting any bigger.

So you can see that a shift happened. You can call it bandwagon. You can call it whatever you like. I personally think New Orleans as a whole was just sort of lax about showing support through attendance until they almost lost the team. That is when the first season sellout happened - not after the Saints started winning games, but when the message was sent that NO might lose them and the fans needed to make a good showing in the 2006 season.

The same thing recently happened with the Hornets in the offseason; attendance has often been poor. But the community was basically sent the message that we really needed to sell 10,000 season tickets, and the team's future in the city could be in question. The city came through and they met their goal of selling those tickets.

[Jprebel24]

I'm gonna say this i lived i'n ATL for 5 years i went to every saints vs falcans games and i can say this with 100 percent accuracy their were more saints fans then falcans period !! Also our team the saints won everyone of those games. The next thing i wanna say i'n 3 of those 5 games the falcon fans that were their were gone by the end of the 3rd quarter. So I'm not sure were your getting your facts I'm sitting here listening to WWL radio and lofton has been all over the local airways saying he cannot wait to play with a real winner a team that has a shot at a SB and finaly play for a real homefield advantage ?? I wonder what he meant by that if u really think about that statement u will know what he is talking about lol who dat

[IonSen88]

Originally Posted by girlySaint

I think it holds some water - I'm talking metro area, not region. Having a fan base that spans a certain region isn't necessarily reflected in game attendance. Proximity has a lot to do with the decision to come to a game. I have season tickets, live in Baton Rouge, and drive over an hour to attend every home game, and it takes up most of my day. I'll leave my house at 9:30 a.m. for a noon game and not get home until 5 p.m. That's a luxury and a lot of people that live far away from New Orleans can't do that. I don't expect people from Mississippi and Alabama to come to games every week. I don't even expect people who live in Central or North Louisiana to be able to come every week. It takes up too much time. People are more likely to go, and go regularly, when they live in close proximity. And there are a lot more people close to Atlanta and the Georgia Dome than there are people close to New Orleans and the Superdome.

Now, the one thing I can buy from your argument is that it can get to a point where it doesn't matter what the population is. Obviously you can look at Green Bay and see they don't have attendance problems and they're pretty small. And the Saints have sold out season tickets for 6 years now, without the New Orleans population getting any bigger.

So you can see that a shift happened. You can call it bandwagon. You can call it whatever you like. I personally think New Orleans as a whole was just sort of lax about showing support through attendance until they almost lost the team. That is when the first season sellout happened - not after the Saints started winning games, but when the message was sent that NO might lose them and the fans needed to make a good showing in the 2006 season.

The same thing recently happened with the Hornets in the offseason; attendance has often been poor. But the community was basically sent the message that we really needed to sell 10,000 season tickets, and the team's future in the city could be in question. The city came through and they met their goal of selling those tickets.

I'm having a difficult time understanding the essence of why population really has come into question here. Atlanta and New Orleans both sellout so where they draw from really is irrelevant. Whether our fans come from Gwinnett or whether your fans come from a nearby ward doesn't really make a legitimate stance to me.

The Population of Atlanta and New Orleans over the years have been similar; the population of our metropolitan area over the years have been overly one-sided; I get that. I'm just not buying that as to why for years their attendance hasn't been as high as ours; especially considering that the SuperDome is filled now.

[IonSen88]

Originally Posted by Jprebel24

I'm gonna say this i lived i'n ATL for 5 years i went to every saints vs falcans games and i can say this with 100 percent accuracy their were more saints fans then falcans period !! Also our team the saints won everyone of those games. The next thing i wanna say i'n 3 of those 5 games the falcon fans that were their were gone by the end of the 3rd quarter. So I'm not sure were your getting your facts I'm sitting here listening to WWL radio and lofton has been all over the local airways saying he cannot wait to play with a real winner a team that has a shot at a SB and finaly play for a real homefield advantage ?? I wonder what he meant by that if u really think about that statement u will know what he is talking about lol who dat

Forget the fact that you're lying or it's practically numerically impossible; forget that your erroneous typing makes it a little difficult to read, forget that you've already indicated that you struggle counting to 5 even (because Atlanta has never lost 5 straight home games to New Orleans). I just don't believe that there were more Saints fans than Falcons fans at any point at the Georgia Dome, in Atlanta or Georgia in general and if it was, I certainly wouldn't trust you to count them.

[bc]

Originally Posted by IonSen88

I'm having a difficult time understanding the essence of why population really has come into question here. Atlanta and New Orleans both sellout so where they draw from really is irrelevant. Whether our fans come from Gwinnett or whether your fans come from a nearby ward doesn't really make a legitimate stance to me.

The Population of Atlanta and New Orleans over the years have been similar; the population of our metropolitan area over the years have been overly one-sided; I get that. I'm just not buying that as to why for years their attendance hasn't been as high as ours; especially considering that the SuperDome is filled now.

Actually, the population of the metro area of atl vs new orleans is drastically different over the past decade meaning about 1mil vs 5mil ppl which has everything to do with attendance. Most ticketholders are going to come from the nearby surrounding metro area and having 5x more people will make it much easier to fill a stadium everything else being equal.

[IonSen88]

Originally Posted by bc

Actually, the population of the metro area of atl vs new orleans is drastically different over the past decade meaning about 1mil vs 5mil ppl which has everything to do with attendance. Most ticketholders are going to come from the nearby surrounding metro area and having 5x more people will make it much easier to fill a stadium everything else being equal.

The degree of difficulty really isn't what's at question here. What's at question is being inconsistent and fickle in nature at supporting the New Orleans Saints. The population or degree of difficulty argument really could be seen if you guys continued to struggle at supporting them. That isn't the case. The same disparity between our metropolitan populations have exist for quite some time, but what has changed is the Saints' fluctuating attendance.

As previously stated by your fellow who dat, the fan base of New Orleans became laxed in their support; Atlanta at one point was as well. I'm not saying our fans are better, but they're certainly not worse. For both cities, the support our franchises have received from us over the years far exceed the product on the field.

What really has happened here is the bandwagon fans have only seen the SuperDome since 2006 (which has practically been filled to the brim) and have a vague understanding of the complete picture. I couldn't lie and say the people of New Orleans does not have the SuperDome rocking at this point; it would be unjust for me to dispute it but you guys can't sit here and declare that it's been hard selling out because of population when that place is packed now with essentially the same demographics.

By the way man, our metropolitan area is much larger in length as well so naturally you can expect a much higher population to begin with.