Sports in the United States are a billion dollar industry. There are many pieces that make up sports and sports teams such as venues, workers, coaching staffs, and the players of course. But arguably the most important piece to the puzzle called sports are us, the fans. For a long time sports have been an essential for fans around the world. It has been a corner stone for American revenue and enjoyment for ages. Employees will call in sick off work and pay sometimes hundreds of dollars to see a simple baseball, football, or basketball game. But what causes this behavior? What would make someone paint their body and go shirtless to a College Football game in 20 degree weather? Why are sports video games so popular? And how much money do these …show more content…
For example, college football fans for Ohio State. On game day they will come out early in the morning to tailgate with other fans before the game. Then after that 110,000 fans pack into a stadium to watch around 3 hours of 20 year old men smacking each other around. Some of them show up shirtless with painted bodies to support their team, while other lose their voices cheering on their team. Now NFL and pro soccer are similar in the regard, but neither have stadiums as big as college football, which speaks volumes about the popularity of each sporting league. Now NFL fans as bad as college football fans, but they’re up there. For example, fans of the Cleveland Browns. Sports in Cleveland, Ohio have been sort of a roller coaster for about the past fifty years. Fans have been absolutely taunted in that span by not only the city’s lack of ability to produces quality teams, but their sheer bad luck when good things do happen. From The Drive, all the way to The Shot/ The Block, and the emotions of fans may have varied, but many of them stayed loyal throughout this whole process, even though it has been very painful to watch. The Netflix movie “Beliveland” goes in depth and the history of Cleveland sports and its fans. So this begs the question, who are Cleveland sports fans and how have they been able to handle being among the worst teams in every sport? And what better way to understand who Cleveland fans …show more content…
Occasional sports fans are not truly huge on sports, but will watch a game every once in a while. For example, an occasional sports fan might be flipping through channels on their television and begin to watch a game because there is nothing else on. Many of these people also may just like a team because of their friends or family. But then there are people who just hate sports all together. This can be for many reasons, such as they are scared of extreme fans. Extreme fans are the people that burn a player’s jersey if he leaves their team, or use up all of their money on tickets and fan apparel. Another reason they may hate sports is because athletes and fans are everywhere all the time. No matter if you’re looking at social media, the newspaper, or watching television, you’re bound to come across advertisements for athletes. Then some people just think sports are too complicated. Sports rules, like most things in life, are constantly changing. Sports evolve to become safer and more efficient, and in order to do that many things must change, and change often. Also, some people don’t like sports because they’ve had trouble with it in the past. So if you grew up un-athletic and bullied by athletes, you may hate sports. Or if you had an incident or injury you may also hate
Lets look into the psychology of being a sports fan shall we? A loyal fan likes to represent his/her team in the best possible way. Loyal fans cannot stay away from the game. They will support their respe...
Sport fans, sometimes also called sport devotees, followers, or supporters, are persons who are enthusiastically devoted to a particular athlete, team or sport. They may show their enthusiasm by often attending sporting events or watch on television, being members of a fan club, follow sport news through newspapers, online websites, and creating fanzines. Their disposition is often such that they will experience a game or event by living through their favored players or teams. These behaviors manifest itself in different ways. To enable better understanding of these behavioral patterns, we have to classify these sports fans into groups based on their devotion to teams: fair-weather fans, bandwagon and the super-fans.
Whether it's Mark McGwire breaking the home run record, Terell Davis breaking the rushing record, or superstars retiring, Americans have always had a fascination with sports. Sports have provided entertainment even before radio or television. Sports provided many things for the fans that watched them. Sports allowed communities to grow stronger and provided great athletes to look up to. With the arrival of television sports took on a whole new meaning. Being able to watch a game together gave the community a new way to bond, giving individuals a visual image of their favorite athletes. The television also opened up the industry of commercialization. Sports, televison, and merchandising on television became a combination that continues even today.The community in the 1950's was like one big family. Children played in the streets, everyone knew everyone else on the block, and sports created unbreakable bonds. Children and their fathers, neighbors, and even complete strangers could always talk about sports. As televison began to fill American homes, neighbors flocked to each others house to watch different events. Even neighbors who loved different sides crowded around the television to watch the event. Whether it was baseball, wrestling, golf, roller derby, or another sport, television allowed the community to grow closer. It is estimated that one sporting event drew an audience of 150,000 viewers. This is remarkable considering there was only about 5,000 television sets in American homes. That is about 30 people per set! Sports and television did more than just bring the community closer together. Sports on television became so popular that merchandising became a booming business. Whether at a game or sitting in the living room, authentic merchandise was a must for any fan. Much like the merchandise in Karal Ann Marlings book As Seen On TV, the merchandising industry exploited the people.
When looking into the history of our culture, there are many subtopics that fall under the word, “history.” Topics such as arts and literature, food, and media fall into place. Among these topics reside sports. Since the beginning of time, sports have persisted as an activity intertwined with the daily life of people. Whether it is a pick-up game of football in the backyard, or catching an evening game at the local stadium, sports have become the national pastime. According to Marcus Jansen of the Sign Post, more specifically, baseball is America’s national pastime, competing with other sports (Jansen 1). Providing the entertainment that Americans pay top dollar for, live the role models, superstars, and celebrities that put on a jersey as their job. As said in an article by Lucas Reilly, Americans spend close to $25.4 billion dollars on professional sports (Reilly 4). The people that many children want to be when they grow up are not the firefighters or astronauts told about in bed time stories. These dream jobs or fantasies have become swinging a bat or tossing a football in front of millions of screaming fans. When asked why so many dream of having such job, the majority will respond with a salary related answer. In today’s day and age, the average athlete is paid more than our own president. The cold hard facts show that in professional sports, the circulation of money is endless. Certain teams in professional baseball and football are worth over millions of dollars. Consequently, the teams who are worth more are able to spend more. The issue that arises with this philosophy is virtually how much more? League managers, team owners and other sports officials have sought out a solution to the surfacing problem. Is it fair to let...
The importance of fans is vital because in addition to skill talent and hardwork, fans greatly affect how a team performs in their games. They affect the way a player plays because fans have a way of getting into their players heads and the opponent's head, even the referees are affected by the fans and we rarely notice the importance. In 2001 a Sports Ethics article “ The Ideal Fan” by Myles Dichter he explains the importance of fans and connection between fans
Sports bring friends, family and our country together more so than political debates or even church on Sunday. Whether it be football, basketball, baseball or everything in between everyone has their favorite team that they cheer for regardless if they are the shits or number one. Americans will have gatherings of their friends every week of the season to watch games and “support” their teams from hundreds of miles away. Sports have an enormous impact on our society in every way shape and form, whether it is kids pretending to be their favorite super star while playing in the yard or it is co-workers participating in fantasy sports or making March Madness brackets, but which is the most entertaining, is it the professionals that are paid millions of dollars to play or college kids struggling to get by while trying to earn an education?
Sport is the new Opiate of the Masses it behaves in the same way religion does as it is used as a deterrent from our everyday lives. Religion main function is to preserve the status quo, which means that it serves the “haves” and keeps the “have-nots” down in their place. Sport may be very different from
Football is a culture and within that culture is the desire to make money. In the 2014-2015 season, the NFL made $7.24 billion. Many dedicated fans travel to the stadium on a Sunday afternoon to experience the culture of football: the tailgate in the parking lot, the hundreds of dollars they pay to publicly display their favorite team’s gear, the front row seats to the game for them and their best buddy, the hotdogs and beer from the concussion stands. Many fans will participate in the NFL’s lifestyle every week. But the question is, do they really care about the actual sport or is it just the comradery and entertainment that it
Every February an event is televised in many different countries and watched by millions of people according to Greg Price in the article “How Many Countries Will Watch the Super Bowl?”. Some of these people would consider this show the greatest show on Earth and many companies would consider it the greatest night of television. This is not the circus it is a sporting event featuring two National Football League teams called the Super Bowl. According to Sociology of Sports Module” by Wadsworth this event is watched by people, who don’t normally even watch football, but parties are set up and this event can even become a family ritual (7). When this event is televised the major networks compete to be able to air it on their station. Companies compete and pay large amounts of money to commercial their products. The majority of viewers are average people with average incomes that are far separated from the cash flow of the Super Bowl.
Sports really shape our society, and culture. You will not find very many people who do not have some love for at least one sport or another. There are so many sports out there that people love and will always watch the sport of their choice.
Sports affect major institutions of society, including the mass media, politics, religion, education, and family. The Super Bowl gathers thousands of viewer’s attention, including those who do not usually watch the regular season games. Football is by all means an American sport. Since the day a baby is born in America, whether it be a boy or a girl, one of the first words they learn to say is ball, and after a few months they add the word foot in front of the word ball, and by the time you know it your baby boy is playing football, and your little girl is cheering “Go Steeler’s go!” and without intention their cultural identity starts.
When examining the issue of criminal acts in sports it is easy to realize that there are many places where these acts occur. The range of these acts is far more vast than just in the professional arenas. This is, however, what the public sees and hears about most often. While this is one of the major topics of this paper, criminal acts are found in all of sport ranging from professionals, to college, high school, and in youth sports, including the reaction of the fans. This paper will take an in-depth look at the four major points regarding criminal acts in sport: the acts themselves; the consequences of those acts; the possible reasons for the acts occurring; an analysis of a few major events that have occurred and the possible solutions to the problem of criminal acts in sport. In the section about fan reaction to sport, there will be an overall account of the individual acts and not personal cases due to the overload of personal events that occur.
A recent article in Readers Digest estimates that most Americans spend at least 13% of their income on sporting events and sport related products. Sports has entertained American people and drained money out of their pockets making sporting events an arena of pure economic activity. It has been proven that Americans will purchase tickets to attend sporting events, but this alone does not create enough revenue to keep sports teams profitable.
A young boy goes up to his mother and says, "Mommy! I want to be a baseball player!" If this was said in 1930, the boy's mother probably would have told the boy, "That's not future for you! You need to get a real job and make good money." If this was said in 1999, the boy's mother probably would have said, "Let's go to the store and buy you a baseball glove so you can start to practice." It is visible to every sports fan that in the past few decades, sports has undergone a whole new renovation. It isn't just an activity that is played for fun. It is a business in which owner and players attempt to coincide. It is a business where TV controls fan interest. It is also a business that affects many people's lives, both monetary and living aspects. There are many aspects that are involved with the economics of sport. Each one having unique qualities that adds to the greatest source of entertainment.
The movie Invictus brings up several key points about the media in everyday life. One of the most prominent points brought up in the film is that sports have the power to bring people together and unite them with a common goal. Sports are an enormous part of the media and cultures all over the world. Whether it be the Super-bowl, World Cup, or Olympics, millions of people continue to unite and cheer for the teams they support. The reason in which sports often unites people is that it gives people something in common with one another. No matter what race, age, or gender, people of all types enjoy watching and supporting sports teams which is why it is such a powerful means to unite people.