YES
By Jon Mael
People have lives these days, and if there is nothing left to see in a blowout or a bad loss, then a fan should be able to leave as he pleases.
Two years ago, I was selling hot chocolate at a freezing Patriots game in the snow. The Pats beat the Titans 59-0 that night, and I was forced to stay for the duration of the blowout.
The problem was that, for the second half, I had no one to sell hot chocolate to. This phenomenon can be explained easily: the fans are logical. Imagine if you were forced to watch your backup quarterback and practice squad defense play 20 meaningless minutes; you’d be pissed, too.
The highway after games is a nightmare, and if you are like me and hate sitting in three hours of traffic for a normally 30-minute car ride, you want to get out of the place early. This rule even applies for close games.
You can still tell everyone you were there, and if something amazing happens, you can say you stayed until the end. No one will ever know. It doesn’t matter how early you leave; spending your hardearned money on a ticket shows just as much support to a team as some loser that stays for the whole game.
Leaving early is just a smart fan doing something better with his free time than sitting in hours of traffic. If teams really wanted to keep this phenomenon from occurring, they should build bigger parking lots and widen the roads leading from their arenas and stadiums.
NO
By Frana Burtness-Adams
Do you count down the days until the Red Sox hit the field? Have you watched the ESPN preview for the upcoming Celtics season? Were you at the Bruins’ side before they won the Stanley Cup? Do you get in arguments or discussions in July about how Tom Brady will have his best season yet?
If one, or all, of these descriptions sound like you, you are probably one of the thousands of fanatics that Boston sports are known for. But, what is the test of a true, die-hard Boston fan? Not leaving games early!
A fan is someone who watches and supports his or her team. How can you call yourself a true, die-hard fan when the Patriots are losing to Miami and you leave the stadium? If the Bruins pull Tim Thomas and Danny Briere scores two goals in one minute, would you walk out of the sporting event shaking your head and cursing your team? The majority of people would leave, but still call themselves a fan. Leaving the game when your team is losing makes you a terrible fan.
Cold weather, it’s getting late, your children are getting tired, and being disappointed in your team are common excuses. If it’s December and you’re at a Pats game, of course it’s going to be cold. You should have prepared yourself better. If it’s getting to 11 p.m. on a weekday and you have work in the morning, you should have thought about that before you purchased the tickets, so you might as well just stick it out. If your children are getting tired, you probably should not have brought them in the first place. Bottom line, you pay the money, so why waste it by leaving early?
