Loyalty. Is it unethical to move loyalty to another sports team just because the current team you're rooting for isn't doing well?

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There is an intriguing (if not very philosophical) question here what leads otherwise sensible people, such as myself, to attach themselves so strongly to sports teams. I don't really know the answer to that question. But it doesn't seem very plausible that such attachment is in any way deserved or that past attachment creates an obligation to the team. If not, then, one might say, there can't be any moral bar to shifting attachment for any reason one wishes. Sports franchises are businesses, and one increasingly hears fans described as consumers of sports-product. If so, couldn't one argue that shifting one's allegiance is simply a matter of choosing a good product over a bad one? So Yankees versus Red Sox is like Walmart versus Target.

Actually, however, I'm not very sympathetic to that line. Being a "fan" of a team isn't, I think, like being a K-mart shopper. Whatever the source of one's allegiance, I don't think it's comparable to low prices or good selection. That's just an intuition, really, but one I think most "fans" would have. The other intuition I think many people would share is that someone who "moved loyalty" under suchcircumstances didn't have a whole lot of "loyalty" to move in the firstplace: Hence the derogatory phrase "fair weather fan", comparable to "fair weather friend". But then the question is whether or why "loyalty" is an appropriate description. But let's suppose it is. Then one might suggest that "moving loyalty" so easily, although it does not violate any duty one has to one's old team, does in some sense violate a duty one has to oneself.

But I'm getting way beyond anything I've seriously thought about here, so perhaps it is time to stop.

Most fans of the New Orleans Saints (football team) remained loyal to 'dem Saints even though the Saints were almost always a losing team. Loyalty in The Big Easy for the Saints was fierce. But now that Katrina has destroyed much of New Orleans, the team's owner, car franchise hot shot Benson has decided to move the team to San Antonio or California permanently -- at precsiely the time when New Orleans dramatically needs the team to stay, for both financial and spiritual reasons. For all the loyalty shown to the Saints by the N.O. community, Benson returns a kick in the testicles.

Update February 14, 2006: Benson seems to have come around. But the Hornets -- who have been playing in Oklahoma City (Oklahoma????), except for 3 games in New Orleans this season -- are now the culprits. They plan to play all of six games in N.O. next season, and N.O. might get the NBA all-star game as compensation. Big deal.

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