Will Chicago’s worst sports year ruin future fandom?

Posted by author January 29, 2025 Sports

Spread the love

The future of Chicago sports fandom looks pretty bleak from my vantage point: driving carpool and listening to backseat color commentary from sports-obsessed 7-year-olds.

“These [Chicago] coaches literally suck,” Graham said.

“Almost all of them got fired, except the Bulls one. He’s the only one who stayed,” Reilly added.

These boys love sports. They spend car rides watching highlights: top-10 catches, most awesome goals, top-10 Hail Marys. They can’t get enough. But, I never hear them talk about Chicago players or teams. That’s because their allegiance isn’t to a team, it’s to a superstar. Graham, Reilly and Noah are from Chicago — and yet, they identify as Baltimore Ravens fans for one reason. They love the star quarterback: NFL MVP Lamar Jackson.

Their devotion to a playmaker follows a trend observed in Generation Z (persons born between 1997 and 2012) — who are less likely than their elders to be sports fans at all. A recent study found that less than a quarter of Gen Z call themselves passionate sports fans. More than 27% said they disliked sports altogether.

There wasn’t much to like in Chicago sports last year: 2024 was the worst year collectively in the city’s history. Chicago’s big five sport franchises — the Bears, Blackhawks, Bulls, White Sox and Cubs — lost roughly two-thirds of their games combined. And the two years before weren’t much better: Both 2022 and 2023 rank in the top-5 worst seasons for Chicago sports.

Worst sport year 2024 — There’s been a lot of bad years in Chicago sports, but none as bad as 2024. White Sox and Cubs fans express their dissatisfaction during games in 1983, above; 2008, right; and 2024.

Research shows that 69% of avid sports followers became fans by the age of 10. That means the long-term consequences of a string of bad seasons may be felt for generations.

Cheryl Raye-Stout has been a Chicago sports reporter for over 40 years. She said it’s personal for fans: “When I hear fans, they always say, ‘we.’ They don’t say ‘the Bulls’ — they say ‘our Bulls,’ ‘our team. It’s ‘us.’ ”

A sense of community and connection is always there in sports, Raye-Stout said, “because usually you become a fan because of your family. Somebody (has) taken you to a game. Somebody sat and watched sports with you.”

I grew up in Chicago in the 1990s: the Golden Age of Michael Jordan. So many of my core memories involve watching the Bulls dominate over six championships in eight years, alongside family and friends. Back then, according to social science research group SSRS/Luker, nearly half of all 12- to 17-year-olds polled were avid sports fans. Twenty-five years later, youth fandom has dropped more than 20%.

Bulls fans parade the streets in response to the NBA championship game against the Suns — In 1993, Chicago Bulls fans parade the streets in response to the sixth NBA championship game win against the Phoenix Suns.

Fandom was once location-based. If you grew up in a city with a major sports team, your loyalty was automatic. If your parents were die-hard fans, that devotion was passed down — whether the team was good or not. And for most people, the gateway was television.

But kids today have never known a world without smartphones and social media. They are used to instant gratification — no commercials, just highlights — and countless distractions. And media executives are very aware of what they’re up against.

“We’re navigating through a storm,” said Jimmy Pitaro, president of ESPN, during a press conference. “People are cutting the cord at a higher clip than they have in the past.”

To make matters worse, it’s harder than ever to watch Chicago sports on TV. In October, about a million Comcast customers lost their ability to watch the Blackhawks, Bulls and White Sox. That’s because team ownership launched the new Chicago Sports Network (CHSN) without a carriage agreement, a contract between a content provider and a distributor. Now, fans must purchase CHSN’s app and streaming package, or, install an antenna to view what used to be included in their cable packages.

While more and more subscribers cut the cord, newsrooms continue to make cuts — leaving fewer reporters to communicate what’s happening on and off the field.

Portrait of Hal Totten sports reporter — Hal Totten, sportswriter and White Sox and Cubs games broadcaster, sits with other reporters at the announcers’ table in Comiskey Park in 1927.

Professional teams and players have more control than ever over their own narratives by having their own production teams. Raye-Stouts said, when that access is restricted, fans lose their consumer advocate.

“We’re supposed to be able to tell the story — good or bad—what needs to be fixed and what goes right,” she said.

And when those teams fail to produce content that generates clicks, likes and highlights — they fail to capture the hearts of would-be lifelong fans.

“If you don’t give (kids) something that they want, you don’t just lose them now,” Raye-Stout said. “You almost lose them forever.”

Katie O’Brien is a producer in the Chicago area.