For True Fans, Sports Are About More Than Wins and Losses
Saturdays in South Bend, Indiana, don’t start when eleven Notre Dame players charge the field after the football has been kicked.
Saturdays in South Bend start before 8 AM as students and families begin prepping their YETI coolers, running to the store for last-minute tailgating snacks, and scrounging around to find all eight cornhole bags.
Some may argue that arriving at the stadium eight hours before a game is extreme, while others say it’s tradition. Either way is fine. What matters is that the stadium seats are filled.
In the most basic sense of the word, sports fans are supporters of a sports team. They buy gear, attend games, and cheer mightly on through losing seasons. Not all fans are created equal though. The depth of being a fan of a team can range from “I’m only here because my daughter is on the team” to “I’ve gone to every game for the last twenty years, and my son is named after the pitcher from ‘99.” They are, however, the reason that ESPN’s various networks sold over $790 million in ads during the 2019 college football season. They are also the reason that the University of Alabama was able to spend an average of $60.43M each football season from 2013 to 2018.
From a supply and demand perspective, sports fans matter because of the money they bring in.
More fans mean more money.
More money means better coaches, facilities, and pre-game events.
In reality, the money is secondary.
The fans come first. Fans are the foundation of sports. Anyone can play soccer on a Friday night, but not everyone can play in front of an audience of 21,000 screaming fans. Whether it’s Adam Duritz rooting on Cal Berkley, Will Ferrell supporting USC, or you yelling for your alma mater — every single fan is important.
Ask those donning foam fingers, wearing full-body warpaint, or holding season tickets for twenty years what the university means to them, and you’ll receive different answers from each person. Some will say that it’s the mascot. Others will say it was the first lacrosse game their dad took them to. It doesn’t matter their reasoning behind rooting for a university because it’s never just about the number of wins or the school’s colors. For the true, diehard fans, it’s about something bigger.
It’s about:
Finding something or someone to believe in when times are tough.
A collective group of people rallying around a team of young men or women — modern-day warriors — who put their blood, sweat, and tears on the line to bring home a win.
Rooting for something bigger than themself.
Hope.
Spending time with grandparents who reminisce about when their bodies could twist and turn without causing a visit to the hospital.
Joy.
Forgetting about work in order to be present with friends and family all the way from the tailgate to the final buzzer.
More time surrounded by the people and things they love.