I think you can't underestimate the element of routine and following your mates. My dad's sympathetic to it but he's retired, he's gone to the match every weekend for 20 odd years and footy's main time he meets mates now, his mate he goes with isn't boycotting so if he missed the match he wouldn't go to the pub, he'd sit at home.
They let you in the pub if you haven't been to the match you know