Finding Your Football Family

For millions of NFL fans, Sunday football is about more than watching a game. It’s about watching your team with your people. But what happens when you no longer live anywhere near your team?

A Green Bay Packers fan living in Philadelphia, a Pittsburgh Steelers fan who moves to Boston, or a Buffalo Bills fan who relocates to Los Angeles faces the same problem every Sunday: Where are my people watching the game?

These “displaced fans” are one of the most passionate communities in sports. They may live hundreds or thousands of miles from their hometown, but their connection to their team hasn’t changed. And across America, local sports bars have become their home stadiums away from home.

Packers Fans Have Built “Local Lambeaus” Across the Country

Few teams demonstrate the power of displaced fans better than the Green Bay Packers.

Green Bay is the smallest market in major American professional sports, yet Packers fans can be found practically everywhere. Recognizing that enormous national following, the Packers created Packers Everywhere in 2011 to help fans find bars, restaurants and other Packers fans when they live or travel outside Wisconsin. Today, Packers Everywhere says its network includes more than 1,500 bars, restaurants and fan clubs around the world.

The team even describes participating Packers bars as a “local Lambeau” — a place where Packers fans can gather every game day even when Lambeau Field is a thousand miles away. And, these aren't necessarily quiet groups sitting around a television. Packers Everywhere organizes official pep rallies at Packers bars around the country. Recent events have brought fans together at Will's Northwoods Inn in Chicago, Wally's Wisconsin Tavern in Denver, Craft Hall in Philadelphia and other locations.

That's the displaced-fan phenomenon in action. The Packers may be playing in Green Bay, but for three hours on Sunday, a bar in Chicago, Denver, Philadelphia or Los Angeles can feel a little bit like Wisconsin.

Steelers Nation Really Is a Nation

The Pittsburgh Steelers have one of the most recognizable traveling fan bases in American sports. The Terrible Towel isn't confined to Pittsburgh. You'll see it waving in sports bars from Florida to California — and around the world.

The Steelers have formalized that community through Steelers Nation Unite, which supports official Steelers fan clubs and Steelers bars. The organization maintains an interactive directory designed specifically to help fans find places where other members of Steelers Nation gather to watch games. The team understands something important: Steelers bars aren't simply places showing the Steelers game. They're gathering places.

The Steelers themselves have described these bars as destinations for fans living outside Pittsburgh and an important part of keeping Steelers Nation connected around the world.

Walk into the right Steelers bar on a Sunday afternoon and the experience can be completely different from walking into an ordinary sports bar. The Steelers game is on the big screens. Terrible Towels are everywhere. Touchdowns produce a room-wide celebration.

For someone who grew up in Western Pennsylvania but now lives hundreds of miles away, that experience provides something difficult to replicate watching alone at home. It provides community.

Bills Mafia May Be the Ultimate Displaced-Fan Community

Then there are Buffalo Bills fans. Few fan identities have become as powerful as Bills Mafia, and that identity travels remarkably well.

The Bills operate an official Bills Backers network specifically designed to connect Bills fans outside Buffalo. Today, the organization says there are more than 600 Bills Backers chapters worldwide, giving fans places to meet at bars and restaurants and watch games together. Some of these communities have existed for decades.

The San Francisco Bay Area Bills Backers, for example, trace their history to the 1990s. On the West Coast, fans routinely gather early in the morning for 10 a.m. kickoffs. Other Bills Backers communities have grown from a handful of Buffalo transplants watching together into bars packed with Bills fans every Sunday.

One Baltimore-area Bills Backers chapter reported attracting around 75 fans for regular-season games, while also organizing Draft parties and Buffalo-themed events. Think about what that means for the bar.

Instead of hoping football fans happen to walk through the door Sunday morning, the bar has a built-in community arriving specifically to watch one team. That's powerful for the fans — and potentially even more powerful for the business.

The Problem: Finding These Communities Is Still Harder Than It Should Be

The Packers, Steelers and Bills have all recognized the value of helping displaced fans find each other. But they're solving the problem primarily one team at a time.

Packers fans can search Packers Everywhere. Steelers fans can search Steelers Nation Unite. Bills fans can search Bills Backers. What about everyone else? And what happens when you're traveling? Or when a fan group changes bars? Or when you're looking for a place where fans are gathering for a specific game tonight?

The information is fragmented across team websites, Facebook groups, Reddit threads, Google searches, bar websites and word of mouth. There should be one place where sports fans can answer a very simple question:

Where are my people watching the game?

That's where Tailgate comes in.

Tailgate Is Built for the Displaced Fan

Tailgate is a watch-party discovery platform designed to connect sports fans with the bars and communities gathering around their teams.

Instead of searching:

“Packers bar near me.”

Or:

“Where do Steelers fans watch games in Boston?”

Or:

“Bills Backers bar in Philadelphia.”

Fans can use Tailgate to discover where supporters of their team are gathering.

The idea isn't to replace communities like Packers Everywhere, Steelers Nation Unite or Bills Backers. It's to take the behavior those communities have already proven works and make it easier to discover across sports, teams and cities.

A Packers fan moving from Milwaukee to Atlanta shouldn't have to start from scratch. A Steelers fan traveling to Chicago for the weekend should be able to find Steelers Nation. A Bills fan moving to Los Angeles should be able to find Bills Mafia.

And eventually, the same should be true for a Detroit Lions fan in Philadelphia, a Boston Celtics fan in Denver, a Liverpool supporter in Chicago or a Michigan Wolverines fan in New York.

Tailgate Can Help Bars Find Their Fans

There's another side to the equation. Bars need customers. A bar might already show every Packers game, but hundreds of Packers fans living nearby may have no idea. Another bar might be willing to become the local home for Steelers fans if it knew there were 200 displaced Steelers fans within a few miles looking for one. Tailgate can help connect those two groups. That creates a powerful network effect:

Fans find their bar. Bars find their fans. Fan communities grow. And game day gets better for everyone.

For bars, a successful team watch party can turn an ordinary Sunday afternoon into a recurring weekly event. For fans, that bar can become something much more valuable. It becomes their bar.

Sports Are Better When We Watch Together

Packers Everywhere, Steelers Nation Unite and Bills Backers demonstrate that displaced fandom isn't a niche behavior. It's already happening at enormous scale. Millions of sports fans live outside their team's home market. They still wear the jerseys. They still follow every game. They still celebrate every touchdown. They're simply looking for each other.

That's the opportunity behind Tailgate. Because whether you're a Packers fan searching for your local Lambeau, a Steelers fan looking for Steelers Nation, or a Bills fan trying to find the nearest Bills Mafia takeover, the question is ultimately the same:

Where are my people watching?

Tailgate wants to make the answer easy.

Never Watch Alone.