What happens when sports fandom becomes a full-time job?

With an ever-increasing stream of content and platforms, sports fandom has become a full-time job. That change comes with costs.

What does it mean to be a sports fan? The question seems simple enough. Being a sports fan is different for everyone, but generally, fans connect to sports because they contain some entertainment value. Watching sports is a category within the digital entertainment industry. But unlike its counterparts (television shows, films, talk shows, fashion events, etc.), sporting events are live. On-demand viewing, recording content, and catching reruns are common in almost any other form of media. But not sports.

Let’s look at an example. An SNL episode with one’s favorite comedian is airing the night of their graduation. An easy fix is to record the episode and watch it at a later date. Now replace the SNL episode with a Game 7 in the Stanley Cup playoffs, including one’s favorite team. With the smartphone at the fingertips, it’s more likely that glances at the score and three-minute highlights in between periods would be watched. Keeping up with a sporting event live is part of the experience. If it isn’t live, if the viewer is not feeling the same emotions as the athletes — the adrenaline, the excitement, the heartbreak — then part of the experience is lost.

Now, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. At least it wasn’t. Being a fan today is very different than it was a decade ago, let alone a generation ago. Keeping up with one’s favorite team was as simple as watching or listening to the original broadcast of the game and catching up on team news via the sports section in the paper the following day.

Today, it’s wildly different. Sports media has made it a priority to ensure that fans instantaneously have access to all the coverage they ever need. The digital media rise has also led to an abundance of content creation from a multitude of media outlets and fans themselves. There is endless content to consume, making being a fan more time-consuming than ever.

No one is faulting those with a passion for sports. But with the constant consumption of content, passion can very quickly turn into an obsession, and that’s dangerous. Continuous consumption only fuels the obsession, and it can lead to a justification of negative actions.

More isn’t always better when it comes to sports fandom

A study on compulsive sports consumption (CSC), which the Journal of Business Research recently published, showed several harmful effects on relationships, diet, sleep health, and financial stability for those who mass-consumed sports.

To complete the study, researchers interviewed and analyzed the thoughts and behaviors of avid sports fans who consume an average of 24 hours of content a week. Most of the fans reiterated their pride in being sports fans. But there was an evident pattern of worrying behavior.

One fan recalled needing to be put on antidepressants after former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning was announced to be out for the season due to injury. Another admitted that his relationships suffered, calling his ex-girlfriend a “bitch” because she “didn’t like sports” and would tell him the scores in advance when he recorded a game. Two other fans admitted how sports impacted their work-life, one confessing that he traded shifts during hockey season and another getting fired for skipping work and “going to the bar to watch sports.”

Fans are not the only ones who are affected by their CSC. Third parties were also interviewed as part of the study, and their outside perspective was even more enlightening on the harmful effects. One woman blames her divorce on SportsCentre, because her husband, who never missed a game, “frequently refused to even hold [their] daughter while he was watching sports.” Another discussed how their friend lived “vicariously through [their] favorite teams or athletes” while one had a family friend who missed his parents’ 50th wedding anniversary celebration to go to an NFL game. Several also discussed recurring emotional outbursts, with one explaining that a tantrum is thrown every time a game is missed, while another described the constant disruptive behavior: “He screams at the TV, yells at the players, and pulls his own hair out. He even throws things.”

Excepting a very few lucky individuals, being a sports fan is a hobby, not a job nor a career. This means that watching sports for most is an activity done in one’s free time. But this has started to change, something the study has showcased.

The question then becomes why is this only becoming an issue now, if sports have been around for thousands of years? The simple answer: more content than ever before.

Being a fan used to be stuck as a hobby because of our world’s limited media availability, which meant limited consumption. With the rise in technology and new media platforms, being a fan and being a part of fan culture is a 24/7 experience.

We currently live in a world where newer forms of media are not replacing ‘old media’; they have just been added on. Old media still exists today — magazines, television broadcasting, and radio. New forms of media like social media and streaming offer the same rush but often with an urgent need to stay connected with sports all day long.

For the longest time, social media was dominated by the ‘Big Three’ — Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. But new platforms have come along and become popular seemingly overnight, like TikTok and Clubhouse. The two applications have not replaced any of the ‘Big Three’ nor any other social media platform. But their user traction has simply created more content to be consumed.
YouTube, of course, is the most popular streaming site, but Twitch, Periscope, Vimeo, YouNow, and others are all platforms where sport creators share content. And, again, these platforms have not replaced television broadcasts. They’ve added on.

And with all these platforms being available on smartphones, fans have been and will continue to consume their content everywhere. At home, of course, but also during their commute, at work, outside, even in the bathroom. It has come to the point where when one sits down to watch a sporting event, their smart devices allow them to use their second screen to consume live-stream reactions, interviews, news, and more.

And there is no break during the off-season either. Teams have increasingly upped their content during time off, with most subscription-based models showing fans behind-the-scenes footage. Being a sports fan is a hobby that runs year-round.

Live sporting events have also benefited from technological advances, giving more content to the fans. Innovativations in camera technology, broadcasting, and the surge of virtual reality mean a personalized viewing experience for each fan. With dozens of options, it naturally will only take time to go through them all.

Live features on televisions that have recently made waves like split screens in order to watch two matches at the same time or multiple angles of the same game. Live stats are included instantaneously, and fans can choose when to watch replays, how fast they can view them, and which angle, as they were filmed with a 360-degree replay cam.

Virtual reality innovations have allowed fans to become a literal part of the game, either by making it seem that they are on the pitch or allowing them to ‘replace’ a player, a coach, or a referee, making the fan see and hear exactly what is being said. Sporting events will continue to be broadcast differently and tailor-made to the viewer as more advancements come to light about how broadcasters can get fans more involved.

Again, hobbies are healthy, necessary even. But the constant bombardment of sports media does not improve happiness or enjoyment. In fact, it does the opposite, as consumers risk being over-engaged in sports consumption. As seen in the OSU study, fans can, and will, easily experience personal collapses if their hobby of following sports slowly starts to become addicting.
Because of the abundance of content and because of the fear of missing out, the positive relationship that a fan has with sports, in general, can quickly turn into a relationship that lacks boundaries.

The abundance of content makes fans believe that their relationship with teams and players is personal, and the 24/7 access is seen as a right and an entitlement. With that right seemingly comes the right to have excessive rage tendencies and just have a general sense of entitlement. Online, this can turn into harassment, which includes racist vitriol and death threats.

Verbal abuse is also ever-present during in-person sporting events, which also include physical altercations between fans and athletes.

More content does not inherently make the fan experience richer; all it does is permit fans to go down a rabbit hole that, for some, allows their behavior to feel justified, no matter how far outside social norms.

Fans love sports because they are entertaining. But it’s more than that. It also allows an individual to have social interactions and connections, a bond with those with similar interests, and sometimes a pivotal aspect to their identity as a human being. Many fans define themselves through the amount of sports content they consume. Research has shown that there is a link between how a fan identifies with their sports team and how people identify with their nationality, ethnicity, and gender. It can come to a point where “the extent to which a fan feels a psychological connection to a team and the team’s performances are viewed as self-relevant.”

The risk of missing out can lead to a disconnect from that sense of community. If a fan decides to only watch their teams’ games and opt-out of consuming everything else, does that make them less of a fan? Probably not, but the idea of a “true fan” is knowing all the ins and outs of your favorite teams and players and sports in general. The fear of missing out is a valid reason why fans may feel a need to continuously consume the endless content. And the fans who do decide to regulate their content could be alienated from the community, whether intentional or not, simply for not being as in the know.

The massive increase in innovation has definitely led to a shift in fan culture. It is worrying that the rise in innovation will continue to lead to endless amounts of content, making it difficult for fans to ever stop consuming. The goal of those working in sports will always be what content can we offer that no one else can? Whether it be behind-the-scenes insights, new live moments during games, exclusives that can only be provided at venues to make the traveling expense rewarding, the goal is to always facilitate fans’ desires to consume sports. But with an oversaturation of the industry, participating in fan culture has become the new 9-5.