After years of rebuilding and a declining SAP Center atmosphere, some longtime Sharks fans in the Mountain View area admit they've quietly started rooting for other Western Conference teams. Is loyalty to a struggling local franchise a virtue or a waste of your emotional energy?
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Add your commentThis whole debate is so Mountain View. Only in a city full of people who optimized their way into a new job, a new house, and a new partner the second something better came along would anyone frame abandoning a sports team as a rational lifestyle choice. Some things aren't supposed to be efficient. That's the whole point.
Born and raised in Mountain View, went to my first Sharks game in 1993 when I was seven years old. My dad drove us up to the Cow Palace before SAP even existed. You don't just walk away from that. You don't. Fair-weather fans are exactly why franchises struggle to build culture in the first place — the team needs you MORE when they're losing, not less. I'll be teal til I'm dead and that's genuinely not an exaggeration.
Jumping ship to the Vegas Golden Knights specifically should be illegal and I will die on this hill.
Genuinely curious which Western Conference teams people are quietly defecting to. Because if the answer is "the Oilers" I have zero sympathy for anyone's emotional journey there, you traded one heartbreak factory for another and somehow made it worse.
That stat is just... not right at all. Not even close. Please don't spread that around. The Sharks have made the playoffs a decent amount but dynasty is a strong word for a franchise that has exactly zero Stanley Cups. Zero. I say this as someone who has had season tickets since 2004 and still renews them every year out of some psychological condition I haven't fully diagnosed yet.
Took my daughter to SAP last March, got tickets for like $28 on StubHub including fees. Two years ago same seats wouldve been $90+. That atmosphere thing is real — the building felt half empty on a Friday night. Still had a great time. Still love this team. But pretending everything is fine doesnt help either. The organization needs to hear that fans are frustrated, not just see empty seats in silence.
ok so genuine question for the "loyalty forever" crowd: at what point does loyalty become just punishing yourself lol. like i moved here from ohio two years ago, i have zero attachment to this team, and watching locals twist themselves into knots defending a franchise that clearly doesn't have a competitive roster right now is… a lot. sometimes it's ok to just watch good hockey??
I actually looked this up and the Sharks have the 4th best all-time winning percentage in the Western Conference since their founding, which proves they're basically a dynasty and people are overreacting.
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