The Good and Bad of Being a Long Distance Anaheim Ducks Fan
A lot of Anaheim Ducks fans reside in sunny SoCal, but there are many of us who don’t. There is certianlly both good and bad to being a long distance Ducks fan.
Here’s a fact that many of you may not know. While we are all dedicated Anaheim Ducks fans, most of the staff here at Pucks of a Feather is from out of state. We hail from places like Arizona, Boston, and even Canada. However, while we may be the majority here on the site, we are the minority in Ducks Nation.
During the regular season, while most Ducks fans can enjoy a game at Honda Center during any home game they want to attend, we have the opportunity to see our favorite team live an in person maybe once or twice a year if we’re lucky. The rest of the season, we get to watch from the comfort of our couches.
While watching a game from the comfort of your home can be rather enjoyable, especially this season, nothing compares to the experiance of being close to the ice. The sounds, smells, and feelings experianced within the walls of Honda Center are some of the most enthralling.
Living out of state, or out of country, is definetly difficult, that much is true. However, there are also some great benefits to residing outside of the Golden State. After discussing with the rest of the staff, we’ve come up with a list of pro’s and con’s to being a long distance Anaheim Ducks fan.
The Bad: Constantly Getting Accused of Being Bandwagon Fans
If you’re an Anaheim Ducks fan living outside of California, you hear this statment a lot. “Oh, you must only like the team because you’re a big fan of the movies.” While I know most people say this with good intentions, what that statment really means is that people are under the assumption that we are bandwagon fans.
As much as other fan bases dislike the Anaheim Ducks, most hockey fans love the Mighty Ducks trilogy. I mean, what’s not to love? A hockey team of misfits goes from zero to hero; everyone loves a feel good story. Disney then profits off of two aditional story lines featuring the same characters because of how well the original was proceved by their audience.
However, as out of state fans, we are often accused of being bandwagon fans. I’m not sure if it’s because other hockey fans just can’t fathom how we could become Anaheim Ducks fans, especially outside of SoCal, if not for the movies.
As much as we love the Anaheim Ducks, explaining how we became fans over and over again can be a rather exhausting task. Nevertheless, everytime we are asked how exactly we became Ducks fans, we share our stories willingly because, although it is frustraing getting accused of being a bandwagon fan all the time, the story of how we became a Ducks fan is one of the most important stories we could ever tell.
The Good: Getting to Show Off Our Awesome Anaheim Ducks Memorobilia
I don’t speak for all out of state Anaheim Ducks fans when I say this, but for a lot of us, this is true. Since we don’t get the opportunity to participate in the games or special events that happen throughout the season, we overcompensate by buying Anaheim Ducks merch and memorobilia.
We want people to know we are fans of the Anaheim Ducks because we take great pride in our fandom. So, we often wear our closet full of jersey’s, shirts, and sweatshirts. Then, we have our pucks, signed photos, cups, and other memorobilia that makes it clear to other people that the love we have for our team runs deep.
The Bad: Our Voice Doesn’t Matter as Much
This season has been a perfect example. Near the end of Randy Carlyle‘s “reign of terror” I think it’s safe to say that 99% of Ducks Nation jumped on the “Fire Carlyle” train. Bob Murray was admimant that he was not the issue and that the players needed to step it up.
However, shortly after the Anaheim Ducks sent out their renewals for Season Ticket Holders, Bob Murray finally pulled the trigger. While it has not been confirmed that this is the reason Murray finally fired Carlyle, there is a lot of evidence to back it up.
If Season Ticket Holders aren’t willing to renew because of Carlyle, the organization loses a lot of money. Being from out of town means that we aren’t contributing that money to the franchise. Although we are glad Carlyle has finally been canned, it’s a little disapointing that our voices didn’t get heard earlier in the season when money wasn’t the motivating factor.
The Good: Social Media and Our Amazing Friends
Despite being so far away from Ducks Nation, the rest of you have still accepted us as one of your own. We have all developed such amazing and authentic friendships through social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. In some cases, we have developed better friendships with some of you than people we know in our own personal lives.
You have become like our inside informants, providing us with information about the Anaheim Ducks we may not know otherwise. There have been many laughs, inside jokes, and geuninely kind moments shared between all of us.
The Bad: It’s Hard Being Alone and Feeling Left Out
Unless we are willing to fork over a few hundred dollars for airfare, tickets, a hotel, and more, we rarely get to see these wonderful friends we have made because of the Anaheim Ducks. To be quite honest, watching a hockey game with friends is half the fun. Plus, the more games you attend, the more friends you make.
Being so far away from Anaheim and Honda Center can get lonely sometimes. When the team wins, we don’t have anyone to celebrate with. We don’t get to high five or hoot and holler with our friends everytime the Ducks score a goal.
On the flip side, it’s even more difficult when the team loses because there’s no one there to share in the frustration. The phrase “misery loves company” rings true, and it’s a hard pillow to swallow when you have to throw a pitty party by yourself. Although they will put a smile on their face while they listen, our non-hockey friends don’t understand. To them, it’s just a game.
Plus, we don’t get to participate in the fun events that the rest of Ducks Nation does. We don’t get to attend fan events like the Center Ice Party or Anaheim Ducks Day at California Adventure. Due to the fact that we live so far away, we don’t get to participate in events planned specially for Season Ticket Holders either. Unfortunately, we cannot take part in the watch parties you throw during away games, and sometimes it makes us feel left out because we’d rather be watching the game with our friends than from the comfort of our own home.
While we do have the amazing invention of the world wide web to dull the feeling of celebrating or suffering in silence, it isn’t the same as being in Anaheim with the rest of our friends cheering on the team we love, win or lose.
The Good: Watching the Anaheim Ducks Play Live is Like a Holiday
Do you remember that feeling you would get on Christmas morning when you were a kid the moment you relaize Santa came? We get those same feelings of pure joy when the Anaheim Ducks finally travel to a nearby city or we make the trip out to SoCal.
Hearing the sound of the skates on ice or players being knocked into the boards, seeing the team up close, feeling the roar of the fans through the soles of your shoes, and the sheer excitment of the arena is a feeling that cannot be compared to. We don’t get to experiance it often, but that’s what makes it such an exciting occasion.
The Bad: Should We Sleep or Suffer the Consequences in the Morning?
Who doesn’t love sleep? Well, when you’re a long distance Anaheim Ducks fan, sometimes you’re sleeping habits suffer. Unless we’re running on Pacific Standard Time, we have to stay up late to enjoy an entire game. That is why we love it so much when the Ducks are on East Coast roadtrips.
It’s been quite a bit easier to turn the game off in the third period this season, but it’s still a difficult decision to make. Games that start at 7 pm in Anaheim somtimes don’t end for us until sometime between 11 pm-1 am depending on our location. Those games are hard to stay awake for because a lot of us have to go to work on 4-5 hours of sleep. However, we willingly do it because we love to watch our team on the ice.
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Then, if we wan’t to catch one of the many wonderful Anaheim Ducks podcasts such as Forever Mighty or Anaheim Calling, we get to stay up even later. For example, our contributor Eddy Jones, host of the Forever Mighty Postgame Show, doesn’t end up crawling into bed until 3 am some nights because he’s so dedicated to bringing Ducks Nation a fantastic post game analysis on his podcast.
While we are dedicated Anaheim Ducks fans, we are often very tired Anaheim Ducks fans. Sleep is a neccessity for everyone, but the Anaheim Ducks and hockey often trump a healthy eight hours of sleep. We get by with a lot of coffee, or maybe that’s just me?
The Good: The Good Always Outweighs the Bad
As we’ve seen, being a long distance Anaheim Ducks fan certianlly has it’s disadvantages. Nevertheless, the advantages severly outweighs the disadvantages and we wouldn’t give up being a part of Ducks Nation for anything.
Depsite their current situation, the Anaheim Ducks have always given us something to cheer for when we didn’t have the energy or desire to cheer for anything else. It is no secret that the Anaheim Ducks are commited to bettering their community, and in turn, Ducks Nation is a better community because of them.
The lot of us who live so far away may have a biased opinion about Ducks Nation, but it’s one of the most fun fan bases to be a part of. The saying really is true, “birds of a feather flock together” and the Anaheim Ducks have given us the greatest gift, our hockey family!
Randy Carlyle Has Been Canned, What Now?. dark. Next
We want to know where the rest of our long distance Anaheim Ducks fans are from! Leave us a comment in the comment section down below about where you watch the Ducks from!What fdo you think the best and worst part of being a long distance Ducks fan is?