Is Upper Peninsula anti-Pistons? and other info from national survey

A recent survey conducted by a national ticket-selling agency had some interesting results about which areas in the country, root for what NBA teams. The state of Michigan is, according to them, not united behind the Detroit Pistons.

Land does not buy tickets to NBA games, but the people who live on the land do. Vividseats, a national ticket-selling agency, made a survey, county by county, of which NBA team the people there bought tickets to.

Our sister site in Memphis, shows how the map looks nationally:

To see the actual map, go here.

Couple things to remember when analyzing the map:

1. All counties do not have the same weight in terms of ticket buying. Los Angeles and Manhattan have a wee bit more population to purchase tickets than say, a rural county in Idaho.
2. This is strictly about buying tickets to NBA games. If a team has been bad, say a club that has not won a playoff game since 2008, they might have supporters in a county who simply do not have the interest in spending money, and making the trip to watch them play in person.

This is a reason for anomalies in the map. The Orlando Magic have some strange pockets of popularity, like North Dakota, Upstate New York and Iowa. The most obvious answer is, that people there are going to visit Disney World or Universal and decided to see a Magic game as part of their vacation.

Upper Peninsula a battle between Detroit Pistons and Bucks fans?

From the Pistons perspective, the thing that stands out most is support in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It looks like a truly divided territory.

The eastern part of UP, from Alger on, are supporting the Pistons. But the western half, starting in Delta, are backers of the Milwaukee Bucks.

Of course, this is simply the buying of tickets. There could be Pistons fans in the western part of the UP who are going to Milwaukee simply because it is more convenient. Detroit has always traveled well, and usually you can find Pistons fans in any arena they are playing in around the country.

The article actually states that ‘The Charlotte Hornets, Denver Nuggets and Detroit Pistons come close (to having the entire state support them).’ Most states are broken up more than Michigan.

Still, it is a bit rankling to see counties in the state handing over their money to see Giannis Antetokounmpo and Milwaukee.

But kudos to Lucas, Ohio, the only place (that I found) where they like the Detroit Pistons best, outside of Michigan.

Is there anything to read into this survey? Obviously, Minnesota and Memphis are not the most popular teams in the NBA. But it does show the regional differences, and where the borders are of an NBA team’s fan base. And if Detroit gets successful again, maybe all of the Upper Peninsula will support it.