A North American Perspective
Simply, away support is generally not a ‘thing’ here in sports. Sure, a family or group of friends might try to attend a game or two if they happen to be in the area, or they might even plan a holiday around attending a game, but this is on a very small scale. You will see people wearing the visiting team’s colours here and there in the crowd at any venue, but rarely would you find a large block of them who had travelled just to see the match. Distance, cost, and the time it would take make it something that people don’t even think about.
This is a reason why Canadians are somewhat taken aback when English supporters complain that the Toronto Wolfpack don’t bring any fans from Canada. When you live in a big country where all the teams are so far apart, you don’t expect many visiting fans.
North American teams also market exclusively to their own supporters in their own geographic area. The goal is to fill your own facility with your own fans. Some have greater success than others at this, often dependent on the team’s results.
A fascinating ‘exception’ to this is when the Toronto Blue Jays visit Seattle or Minnesota. Then the crowd is filled with Jays fans, often outnumbering the home crowd. This is because the Blue Jays are the only major league baseball team in Canada, and Canada’s a fairly large country, so fans in British Columbia make a special trip down to Seattle as it’s so much less expensive and easier to do than fly to Toronto. Similarly, people in Manitoba will cross the border to Minnesota. They support Toronto, but can’t get there easily or cheaply, so they plan to see the Blue Jays when they are near. Not so much away supporters, as supporters who live closer to the away team.
