Other reason would be they became a fan of a team before their hometown got a team and stuck with them after that. Which happened in my case, I became a Pens fans before Ottawa got an NHL team and stuck with the Pens after.

I live in southern california.

NFL; Dallas Cowboys, I started watching sports back in '92, I wanted to get into watching sports and the Cowboys were on cbs. They were winning the game ..it was in early october, I finished watching it and just decided there and then I would be a 'boys fan. ANDD that same year they won the superbowl:D.

NBA; Seattle Sonics, Yea that same year I started watching basketball and was watching NBA INside stuff. They were showing some sweet Shawn Kemp dunks, and I was like 'hey cool i'll root for that guys team!'
Now since they moved I don't have the same love , I still root for them though but it isn't the same. The Lakers were always a 2nd favorite so now it's basically Lakers then the Thunder:|

MLB; L.A Dodgers, the only local team I always rooted for since the beginning. But I'm not into baseball as I am in football or basketball so I don't really care as much.

I never really picked a team to cheer for. I was born and raised in NY, so that took care of 3/4 of my pro sports teams. With hockey, I grew up loving Jagr and Lemiuex and have been a Pens fan ever since. I about 8 when I started caring about hockey

by the way, I will say I do get pretty amped about people not having ties to NY/NJ/Conn being Yankee fans. I can't stand it.

I live in southeast Ohio, where there are no Pro teams

Pittsburgh Steelers: They were the closest team and had the best team colors. I've been a Steelers fan my whole life, to a point that when I get the money, the logo gets tattooed on my arm (after my kids)

Pittsburgh Penguins/Pirates: I figured if I'm gonna cheer one Pittsburgh team, I may as well cheer all the Pro teams in Pittsburgh

Navy Midshipmen: My family has a long history in the United States Navy. I've had ancesters in the Navy as long as the US has had one. My great Uncle worked in the Pentagon. As a result of being from a Navy family, I cheer the Middies. (I would like to add to that history, but I have a lot of work to do, they don't let 265 lb guys be Navy Corpsman no matter how much they want to go to Afghanistan.)

San Antonio Spurs: After Jordan retired I jumped off that bandwagon and went to the team I actually liked. It doesn't hurt that David Robinson played for Navy.

Dale Earnhardt/Dale Earnhardt Jr.: I was poor as a kid, and got hand me down clothes. One shirt I got was a Dale Earnhardt T-Shirt that said "Real Men wear Black and Silver". I got attached to that shirt and the driver it represented. On February 18th, 2001, I sadly had to pick a new driver. It took a while of deciding between Dale's replacement, Kevin Harvick, or Dale's son, Dale Earnhardt Jr. I eventually chose Jr Nation.

Tottanham Hotspurs: Fan exchange with the San Antonio Spurs. If I recall they sell each other's mercahndise, so it seemed logical.

College football: Florida Gators. My dad is from Florida and has always been a fan, that's how I became a fan. For some strange reason I became a fan of the Oregon Ducks about 3 years ago. I think I just ended up playing them alot in NCAA football one year and that carried over to real life.

NFL: Tampa Bay Buccaneers. No real reason why, probably stems from my interest in Florida football, even though my dad likes the Dolphins. I remember before the beginning of the 2002 season I went out and bought a bunch of Bucs merchandise and decided to follow them closely. The first game that year they lost to the Saints in OT. Was so pissed. They ended up winning the Super Bowl though, that was cool.

Baseball: My grandma has always liked the Braves, so Ive been a Braves fan by default. Was alot easier to follow them when they were on TBS every night.

Don't really care about basketball and hockey. I'll watch the playoffs but don't really root for any one team.

Also, even though I'm an hour from DC, I've never been a fan of DC sports teams. Not really sure why. No one in my family is, so I guess that's a big reason for it. Now that the Nationals are in DC, I'll pull for them occasionally, as long as they aren't playing the Braves.

Ohio has 2 pro football teams, 2 pro baseball teams, a pro hockey team, a pro basketball team, and a huge university, yet you root for Pittsburgh, where everybody hates Ohio.

I hate Ohio. But if you take away state borders, Pittsburgh is the closest city to the part of Ohio where I live, closer than Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincitucky. I'm not Anti-Buckyeye, though. I'll root for them when they aren't playing the Naval Academy.

You live in Ohio

Not by choice. Just can't afford to move two hours east.

Growing up, my father and his buddies always cheered for the "Great One" while he was wearing the Blue and Orange of the Edmonton Oilers. I guess I just inherited it from them. Also, Edmonton is the city that is the closest to me that has an NHL to so yeah, that helps to.

I already told myself that if Pittsburgh gets an NBA team, San Antonio will get dropped to second. If the rumors are true, I could be a Pistons fan before long.

I'm really interested in the geographic area where the Red Sox and Yankees fanbases switch.
In Connecticut, there are areas that are split right down the middle. I think that would be an interesting thing to observe.

General: Half my family is from Minnesota, half from Wisconsin. However, I grew up under a single mother who doesn't really watch sports.

NFL: When we moved to CA when I was young, they were talking about sports on the news. I asked my mom which football team was from WI, and she informed me that it was the Packers. A couple years later they won the Superbowl and I was happy. My mom is a Vikings fan.

MLB: I don't really remember when I picked up on the Twins. I was pretty young, though. I remember going up to Oakland and being excited to see Chuck Knoblauch play. Mark McGwire hit a homerun in that game, but it wasn't relevant until many years later.

NBA: I tried to get into watching basketball in high school. After first I watched the Bucks for a little while, but got bored. Then I watched the T-Wolves and KG made it interesting, so I followed them for a while. Also almost bought a Szczerbiak jersey at one point. When the team got terrible I stopped watching. Can't get into basketball enough to be any more than a fairweather fan. Still like watching KG, though, so I've been intermittently following the Celtics.

NHL: Haven't gotten into hockey. Went to a Kings game once, had great seats and had an awesome time. I don't have enough of an interest to watch it on TV. I do check up on the Wild once and a while. I love watching international play, though. I enjoyed many of the Olympic games, even those between countries that were entirely irrelevant to me. Too bad that doesn't happen more often.

Soccer: Haven't watched a minute of MLS. I enjoy rooting for US in international play, but we're usually too bad for that to be much fun.