@siggy47 and I were discussing the popularity of the Buffalo Bills in Canada and the fact that approximately 15% of Bills season tickets are held by Canadians.
So I wanted to do some digging to find out who Canada's NFL team is?
A recent Leger (not Ledger) survey found that the Bills are in fact Canada's favourite team overall but team preference varies geographically. On the map you can see Ontario favours the Bills, while BC/Alberta favour the Seahawks. The Maritime provinces favour the Patriots. All of these make sense geographically as these would be the closest NFL team to each region. What is surprising is Quebec's favourite team is the Chiefs and Manitoba and Saskatchewan (don't spell it wrong grayruby- you will never live it down) love the Raiders. (@Undisciplined quickly searching for Canadian work visa until he remembers Trudeau is PM)
So, Quebecers are front runners (never trust the french), the folks in the middle of the country love silver and black and the rest just cheer for their closest geographical team.
If you want the non geographic rankings and just overall:
- Bills
- Seahawks
- Chiefs
- Patriots
- Raiders
never would have guessed Quebec’s team would be the Chiefs, why is that?
Probably because they don't want to select the same team as the Maritimes and Ontario so they choose the team of the moment. That's my totally scientific assessment.
Raiders and chiefs don’t really make sense. The others I can see why
Chiefs because they are currently winners
So basically the country is full of bandwagon fans lol
Seems like a lot of people are.
Yes I am sure this will shift next decade when we have a new dynasty in the league.
I do wonder how much bleed over there is near the border.
How many are Packers, Lions and Browns fans due to location vs moved across the line?
Definitely a lot. People in Windsor (right across the border from Detroit are pretty much all Detroit sports team fans). Probably get a lot of Vikings and Packers fans in Central Canada if they are close to the border.
Bon Jovi almost stole the bills and took them to Toronto! So make sense bills would be number one.
But on the flip side the blue jays have a strong buffalo following. I still remember as a child my grandpa watching every blue jays game and when Gary Carter won it all (I think)
Joe not Gary. Gary Carter was a player for the Montreal expos. Joe Carter was the guy that hit the WS winning homer. On the right track though.
Ahh yes Joe! Thanks
"Touch em all Joe, you'll never hit a bigger home run in your life."
Burned into my memory.
Fantastic what a memory! I was too young but linked to it by my grandpa
There are Minnesota Vikings fans in Canada, Winnipeg
Yes definitely. I was surprised that the Raiders were the pick in the central provinces as I would have though the Vikings or Packers
Quite a few Seahawks fans here in BC, especially during those 2 years when they won a Superbowl in 2014, then got to the Superbowl but lost to the Patriots in 2015. I still see people wearing Seahawks sweaters, caps, or other merch occasionally on the streets.
Yes definitely a lot of Seahawks fans. Are the baseball fans split between the Mariners and Blue Jays or it is mostly all Blue Jays. I know the Jays get crazy crowds out to support them when they play in Seattle.
I don't see too many MLB team merch in the streets. Maybe because I'm not a big baseball fan so I don't pay attention to it. But from the ones I did notice, it was mostly Jays merch. In fact, I think I haven't yet seen someone wear Mariners merch in BC. I guess most people here still have the Canadian identity and would support the Jays over the Mariners even though the Mariners are so close.
Many many Canucks fans though, but I guess that's obvious haha.
Yes the Jays have the benefit of being Canada's team.