Who roots for whom where: MLS fan bases

Why this baseball map, showing the claimed territories of the various MLB teams on this futbol blog? Glad you asked. Jen and I got this intriguing email from a Portland Timbers fan, Rich – who is known to Portland Timbers fan message boards as MannyJello, about the team’s pending entry into MLS with the start of the 2011 season. He’s interested in replicating this in a mural on his wall, except with the MLS teams and their fan base territories.

This is great.

But. He’s new to MLS and he’s got some questions about where one might actually put the territories for the various teams in the league.

Specifically he asks the following:

If you had to take a stab at creating a map separating Galaxy support from Chivas support, how would you separate them? Do either team’s fan base spread far into Mexico, if at all? Also, how far into California and the surrounding states would you say the Galaxy support is spread?

Being a complete newbie to the MLS, if you have any other advice regarding the geographic boundary lines for supporters throughout the MLS, I’m all ears. A few questions I have are:

· Where does San Jose support start/stop in No Cal?

· Any idea how Real Salt Lake and Colorado support is demarcated?

· Dallas/Houston as well?

· Kansas City/Chicago/Columbus supporters?

· How far east does Columbus support exist, especially now that Philadelphia has a team?

· How far south does DC United fan support spread?

- How far east does Vancouver love spread?

- How far west does Toronto love spread, and does any of it leak into the US (Detroit or Buffalo areas)?

- With Montreal about to join the league, where does the Toronto/Montreal divide exist? Where does Ottawa stand?

So I thought we should crowdsource the answers to these questions, especially since I think a lot of this is up for debate. So let’s get debating. I’ll start.

*Galaxy vs Chivas USA – I’m pretty sure that there is no CUSA fan base in the United States, at least not judging by their attendance or the fact that not so long ago one of their bigger supporters clubs ditched a CUSA home game to catch grown-up Chivas in an international friendly. In Oakland.

But to take the question on face value I’d say most of CUSA’s fan base is concentrated in southern LA county and northern OC County with some intrigued fans as far south as San Diego looking at CUSA because they have the name “Chivas” attached.

The Galaxy, being an MLS original, have a fan base the stretches across SoCal and reaches as far west as Las Vegas, though I bet those folks are now splitting loyalty with Real Salt Lake.

*San Jose can claim the entire Bay Area and probably gets folks from as far south as Monterey and as far north as Sacramento.

*RSL gets all of Utah and probably up to Boise and is probably claiming parts of Nevada just for kicks.

*Colorado’s fan base is so paltry it doesn’t even reach from Denver to its actual stadium in Commerce City. Except on July 4th.

*Dallas gets about 15 miles north from downtown to North Dallas. Too bad their home pitch is 40 miles north.

*Houston gets the rest of the state and probably parts of Arkansas and Louisiana just for good measure.

*KC still gets all of MO plus the half of Kansas with people in it, despite what AC St. Louis says.

*Chicago gets everything from the Wisconsin border with Minnesota to Indianapolis.

*Columbus gets Ohio. Maybe some of Michigan. Maybe. No one in Western PA could with any self-respect root for a team from Ohio or from Eastern PA.

*DC gets from Baltimore to Atlanta.

*I’ve got nothing to say about Canadian teams because of Canadian treachery during the War of 1812. That and they are undercutting our glorious pharmaceutical industry with their reasonable drug prices and socialized medicine. They are dead to me.

Even though I’m sure that everything I said is the gospel truth, I’m opening up the floor to everyone else. In the comments, tell us where you think the territories are for the various teams MannyJello is asking about.

Some Related Galaxy Posts:

Category: 2010 Season, MLS News, The Lighter Side