Sports Fans: A Sociological Analysis

Last Wednesday, I was lucky enough to attend a Rangers vs. Penguins hockey game at the renowned Madison Square Garden. Jerseys, hats, and merchandise filled the arena in a sea of blue, as fans poured into the arena. As my beloved Rangers started to fall behind to the Penguins, (in an eventual 6-1 drubbing) I started to exercise my sociological imagination, wondering how these disparate 18,000+ individuals came together to witness a mundane hockey game, and in essence create a social structure like no other. The first sociological term that sprung to mind when pondering this mystery of sports fans is the idea of a subculture present between fans of similar teams. A subculture is defined as a distinguishable group that shares a number of features with the dominant culture within which it exists while also having unique features such as language, customs, or values. In this case, the distinguishable group serves to be the fans at the arena, and unique features may be the wearing the teams colors, watching them live at the arena, or just a general sense of affiliation with said team. Like any culture, not all people participating in the culture are alike, …show more content…
Without “suits”, the expensive seats will likely go unfilled, and the team may be forced to move due to lack of revenue. Without “ultimate fanatics”, the game will likely be boring and dull, thus diminishing the appeal of an event to the “tourists” or “experience-goers”. The subculture of sports fans is an intricate subculture as fans come in every shape and size, yet they’re all united in their shared-experience with the event on hand. As sociologists, it is important we understand the intricate patterned relationship apparent in the social structure of sports fans, and how each type of fan plays a role in creating this subculture of