What does fandom give the fan?

Many moons ago, I read Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby. In the book, he talks about his struggle as a die-hard ‘Arsenal’ fan (soccer), and what an unmerciful, miserable, and ultimately inescapable experience it truly is.

Much of the appeal and anticipation and involvement of fans in sports comes from the fact that it is unscripted. And to love a sporting team is to know the constant, dull ache of suffering. once in a while, this is replaced by fleeting moments of triumph. The book, and it’s message came rushing back to me, as I attended a talk by Professor Gina Antoniello, of the Preston Robert Tisch Institute for Global Sport at New York University last week.

Her talk was titled ‘fandom, cities and the psychology of collective emotion.’ As I heard her, I thought she was answering an important question posed by in the book ‘Fever Pitch’, which is this

“Why has the relationship that began as a schoolboy crush endured for nearly a quarter of a century, longer than any other relationship I have made of my own free will?”

Trending Topics

Sam AltmanUber OpenAi PartnershipYouTube Homepage UpdateShah Rukh KhanTanishq News
Here are our five #BookStrapping insights from her talk that will hopefully lead us closer to understanding the obsessive nature of sports fandom.

1. Elements of fandom that show up on the balance sheet are tickets, ratings, followers, merchandise and revenue. However, many aspects of fandom are not number-centric. These can only be answered by the question, “what does fandom give the fan?”

2. The answer is both escape and anticipation. Fandom gives you permission to talk to strangers, to celebrate and acknowledge one another, a sense of personal pride even though the fan has no role in the outcome. This is also called BIRGING or ‘basking in reflected glory.’

3. Fandom is completely different from being a passive observer. For a fan, the team’s story is entangled with their own.

4. The team becomes a gateway to the psychological benefit from the people and the community built around it. Because ‘social wellbeing’ by definition does not require every interaction to become a lifelong relationship. It just means access to ‘relationship infrastructure’ in terms of shared rituals by appointment, at the same place and same time. A reason to gather, speak, dress up, belong and celebrate.

5. Finally, the trigger that moves from jersey, recognition, conversation to connection feeds into identity. People begin to talk in terms of ‘them’ versus ‘us.’

Dr Gina Antoniello also made a clear that this identity could have dark shades too. But on the positive side, sports gives communities their own mythology. This again took me to what Nick Hornby explained in Fever Pitch. “One thing I know for sure about being a fan is this: it is not a vicarious pleasure, despite all appearances to the contrary, and those who say that they would rather do than watch are missing the point. Football is a context where watching becomes doing.…”

In a world where athletes become ‘media economies’ their fandom seems way more than pure currency!

Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a Reading Coach and biographer. You can connect with her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta.

Follow Storyboard18 on Google for the latest and breaking how it works news and industry updates, along with in-depth coverage of digital media and media & entertainment news. Stay informed with the latest perspectives only on Storyboard18.
Tags
First Published onOctober 25, 2026, 12:32:01 IST

SPOTLIGHT

Special CoverageGen Z is rewriting the media-to-commerce funnel, forcing brands beyond traditional cohorts

The conversation highlighted a fundamental shift underway in the relationship between audiences, platforms and brands. Rather than treating Gen Z as a uniform consumer segment, marketers are increasingly having to account for individual behaviours, fragmented content consumption and a stronger expectation

SAC 2026: Swiggy, Nestlé, HDFC, Flipkart, Puma, Lahori Zeera shine | Why Piyush Pandey remains India’s creative North Star

Storyboard18 brings you top five news updates from the world of advertising, marketing, and business of brands.