I have made it pretty clear that I don't live in Portland now, and I am just speculating. But all my family is there, so I am up there all the time. My family has a house on the coast. So during the summer and early fall, I spend a lot of time there. Sometimes, an outside perspective can be just as accurate. And I am not basing that on the "gear" I see. But again, I am not saying I know, it's just my perception. One example is my nieces and nephews (all Duck alum) tell me their kids' friends are all Beaver fans, because all their parents are. Of course, I tell their kids they all need new friends.
There are no longer Beaver stores in Portland. There is still a Ducks store in pdx area. It isn't even close. Ducks fans rule the roost in PDX.
They both have the PDX market ... it would be like saying the ucks don't have it but Portland State does or UofP. If Corvallis was their 'market' than you'd see horrible TV ratings and yet in 2023 they were #20 in the entire nation. They have a massive fanbase and most of that is in PDX. And psssst ... they are all of 25 miles closer, it's not like Eugene is tucked down in the SE corner of Oregon on the opposite end of the state. Just look at WSU, it's a 5 hour drive to Seattle and yet that market is really where the WSU fans live.
Where do the majority of WSU fans live? Come on man, you can't be this obtuse. It's really not that hard to understand that WSU has a chunk of the Seattle market, just the facts. Whether you choose to believe it or not, the numbers don't lie. It's not about how far a school is from a city, it's about the make up of the fanbases and the demographics of the cities. It would be like saying the Dallas market belongs to SMU, when it's dominated by Texas and Texas A&M. As for the bigger TV numbers coming from bigger games, that's a no shit sherlock type of statement. Of course more fans are going to tune in for bigger games and those bigger games are going to tend to be on the bigger networks, so it becomes a self fulfilling prophesy. End of the day though OSU being #20 in viewership in 2023 wasn't done just because of their opponents, people are tuning in to watch OSU as well. WSU punching above it's weight in TV numbers for years has to do with the fans tuning in and the brand that was built. Even then why is Arizona always towards the bottom of the pack when it comes to P4 schools when it comes to ratings, as is ASU?
This explains a bunch. The coast is not Portland at all. Matter of fact the Locals on the coast hate Portland. The Coast is very conservative and yes you will find more OSU fans there for sure.
No idea how its changed the last 9 years but OSU is just as liberal if not more so than Eugene nowadays. It was incredibly liberal when I attended in the late 2000's. https://www.klcc.org/politics-government/2016-06-02/corvallis-now-bluer-than-eugene When I attended students would go get into debates with the conservative booths that would pop up at the MU building.
I didn't say I be am only on the coast. My friends and family live all over the Portland area. But yes I enjoy the coast..... where people from Portland also tend to frequent.
I'm curious, when Beaver sports teams have to fly to a game, do they fly out of Eugene or Portland? Especially football, which uses a charter flight.
Here is a recent baseball article that says they flew to Portland. Checks out from the days I roomed with a basketball player on the team. They would fly out of Portland or take a team bus. https://www.espn.com/college-sports...-baseball-basketball-soccer-oregon-state-ucla
