In news that should surprise nobody, the Washington Wizards don't seem to have a lot of popularity around town. They aren't drawing well, and the rest of the city seems to have flocked to the Capitals. To suggest that Washington D.C. does not collectively care about the Wizards is suggesting the obvious.
And yet, somehow, TBD's "The List" feature messes up the argument. "The List" is an offbeat thing where one of TBD's editors lists a bunch of reasons to prove some sort of narrow point. Today, Jenny Rogers tackled the subject of the Wizards, using the logic of "this is why we don't invest ourselves in this team." In sports jargon, this is known as being a "bandwagon fan," but we'll set that aside for a second.
Onto the list and why it has problems:
REASON 1: Nobody shows up to games.
THE PROOF: More people got tickets to tapings of "D.C. Antiques Roadshow" episodes than an average Wizards game.
PROBLEM WITH THIS LOGIC: There are many more Wizards home games than tapings of a TV show that doesn't come around every year.
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REASON 2: Local stores don't carry Wizards jerseys.
THE PROOF: A conversation with a Sports Authority Rep in Vienna reveals that they only sell John Wall jerseys.
PROBLEM WITH THIS LOGIC: Who else would you market on this team?
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REASON 3: Local stores don't sell other Wizards apparel.
THE PROOF: The same as reason 2
PROBLEM WITH THIS LOGIC: The team is changing their colors, and their logo is awful anyway.
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REASON 4: Sports bar patrons prefer watching other teams.
THE PROOF: The Pour House manager says he gets more requests for Celtics and Lakers games than Wizards games.
PROBLEM WITH THIS LOGIC: Washington D.C. is a town full of transplants from other big metropolitan areas such as Boston and Los Angeles. Also, those teams have lots of bandwagoners.
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REASON 5: The president doesn't care.
THE PROOF: Barack Obama attended an Oregon State-Howard game, but didn't attend the Wizards-Heat game.
PROBLEM WITH THIS LOGIC: Flip Saunders isn't Obama's brother-in-law.
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REASON 6: People don't search for the Wizards on Google.
THE PROOF: There are more searches for UFC, WWE, the Phillies, the Eagles, Giants, Knicks, Manchester United and Arsenal.
PROBLEM WITH THIS LOGIC: It's a transplant town, remember? Also, lots of people care about UFC and WWE.
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REASON 7: Gilbert Arenas' fiancee being pregnant didn't get much feedback on Media Takeout.
THE PROOF: Commenters said they didn't care.
PROBLEM WITH THIS LOGIC: Sports fans don't care about celebrity gossip, it's Gilbert Arenas, who just got traded, and this city is fatigued with Arenas anyway. But otherwise, right on point.