By: TJ Hartnett

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

Atlanta is a terrible sports town. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Atlantans simply don’t show up for their pro teams unless they are winning, and consistently.

Partially it’s because the south belongs to college football, and partially it’s because of a lack of championships and probably some other things factor in as well.  It’s the way of things here, and I doubt it will change any time soon.

So how is it that the NFC Championship, the final game at the Georgia Dome for the Atlanta Falcons, was packed full of loud, screaming southerners? Why were tickets for Suntrust Park’s debut game so hard to come by when they went on sale?

Fair weather fans.

The Falcons were good, and they were on their way to the Super Bowl. Suntrust Park is sparkly and new, and there is excitement abound for the Braves this year; but mark my words, if the Falcons can’t win football games at a high clip in their own brand new stadium, Mercedes Benz Stadium won’t be seeing sellouts in November.

If the Braves don’t stay competitive, then Suntrust Park will be just as vacant as Turner Field was in August last year; because those fair weather fans will stop caring and that’s okay.

Look, it can be frustrating for die hard fans to cope with the sudden attention their team gets from people that would otherwise fail to show up. Die harders experience the lows that fair weather fans will never know; because they don’t subject themselves to it. So, what right do they have to experience the highs?

I saw it and heard it all over Atlanta while the Falcons were in the playoffs: remarks about fans coming out of the woodwork just because the team was good. It was certainly true – but warranted. They WERE good!

As I am a die hard Braves fan, I find myself occasionally annoyed by fair weather fans too but if I take a step back I realize that not only are they not committing any egregious crimes, they are benefitting the team they’ve suddenly come out to support.

Think about it: if the Braves miraculously made it to the World Series this year, fair weather fans would show up in droves to the ballpark and sports bars to watch them play.

Irksome as they may seem (this has been MY TEAM for years!), would I truly rather they didn’t bother to pay attention? Do I want my team to take the field to a stadium half full of fans while they battle for a championship? Of course not.

A roaring crowd can tip the scales in some cases and I want my team to have that. They should take the field or court or gridiron to a packed house of supporters. It doesn’t matter if the fans have earned the right to celebrate – the team has earned the right to fans.

Plus, not every die hard fan was raised to be a die hard fan. Everyone has to start somewhere. I, for one, am a die hard Braves fanatic not because my parents were, but because I watched John Smoltz strike out three batters out in 2003 to close out a win. They were good, and they hooked me.

What if the Giants had come back and won that game? Would I have come back to the Braves? I’d like to think so, but I’m not so sure. Good teams breed new fans. Just think about how many Georgian eyes were on the Super Bowl in February. If they had held on and won, how many of those eyes would have been converted into die harders?

So, next time your beloved team, wherever they are, starts winning don’t scorn those who haven’t suffered the losses with you. Instead, embrace them. Your team deserves them.