NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Troy Fisher has proven a person doesn’t have to have a favorite team to be a sports fan.

Fisher finds it difficult, if not impossible, to choose which teams he likes best so he usually ends up rooting for them all.

Some fans collect memorabilia from their favorite teams. Fisher collects season tickets for all the teams he follows.

He currently has season tickets for the men’s and women’s basketball teams at Belmont, Lipscomb and Tennessee State, along with the Titans, Predators, Nashville SC and the Nashville Sounds.

“Sometimes I have tickets to six things at a time and I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, what am I going to do?’” Fisher said.

That happened once when TSU had a men’s basketball game that tipped off at 6 p.m. and the Lipscomb and Belmont men were playing each other at 7:30 p.m. Fisher managed to catch both games, or at least parts of both.

“I showed up at TSU and made sure the guys knew I was there when the game started and then slipped out the back, changed my shirt because I had on a TSU shirt, and headed over to Lipscomb to watch them play Belmont,” Fisher said. “Following all these teams keeps me pretty busy.”

Fisher, 62, keeps this frantic pace while managing to hold down a fulltime job as an electrician at Berry Plastics in Old Hickory.

His co-workers are aware of Fisher’s passion for following local teams and help when they can, which often means swapping shifts. It also means Fisher ends up exhausted at some of the games he attends.

“I’ve got a Saturday coming up where I’ve got tickets to several games and I was scheduled to work,” he said. “I’m working the 4 p.m. to midnight shift, which I’ll do that Friday, and then I’ll work midnight to 8 a.m. for a guy I swapped with. So I’ll work 16 hours straight and I’ll be tired but I’ll be off all day to be able to go the games.”

It may seem that Fisher is fortunate when his favorite teams play each other because he gets to see two at once, but that’s not necessarily the case. When that happens, one team has to lose and Fisher is never happy about that.

“There’s good and bad about having tickets too all these teams because I hate it when they play each other,” he said. “It’s terrible. I don’t wear either teams shirt and I don’t clap and I feel a lot worse for the team that loses than for the team that wins. TSU and Lipscomb played a few years back and it went into overtime and I was like, ‘Can this game just end in a tie?’”

Fisher, who was a standout basketball player at Cohn High before a knee injury cut short his career, said he spends an average of $12,000 each year on season tickets.

Along with his college tickets, he has three club level season tickets for the Titans and two for the Predators, Nashville SC and Nashville Sounds.

His tickets for the pro teams allow Fisher to make up for the time he misses out on spending with his family. His wife Teresa and daughter Lindsey go to every Titans game with him, and his son Brian goes with him to the Predators games. His grandchildren usually accompany him to Nashville SC and Sounds games.

Fisher, a longtime member of the Nashville Sports Council, also tries to go to a few Titans away games each season. He traveled to Los Angeles (Rams) and New York (Jets) games this season.

“I am trying to see as any NFL stadiums as I can,” Fisher said. “I’ve been to like 20 different stadiums now.”

He might end up back in L.A. this season at SoFi Stadium if the Titans make it to the Super Bowl.

“I’ve had Titans season tickets since Day One and I went with them to the Super Bowl in Atlanta in 2000,” Fisher said. “So, of course, I’ll go again this year if they make it.”

Fisher had season tickets for University of Tennessee football games before the Titans came to Nashville.

Fisher doesn’t usually allow other matters in his life to disrupt his hectic sports schedule. He was supposed to have knee replacement surgery in February, but that conflicted with the Feb. 26 NHL Winter Classic between the Predators and Tampa Bay Lightning at Nissan Stadium.

He tried to reschedule the surgery for early March, then found out that conflicted with the SEC women’s basketball tournament March 2-6 at Bridgestone Arena.

“After the SEC women’s tournament it will slow down a little bit,” Fisher said. “For the time being I’m having to get Cortisone shots every three months because it’s gone, there’s nothing left in my right knee.”

News from © The Associated Press, 2022