The New Fan

There is a New breed of fan emerging throughout the sports world.  This Fan has been created by Facebook, Twitter, Fantasy Football and Reality TV. The constant access to athletes’ personal lives has changed the way the New Fan views the game. Where the Old Fan had a constant devotion to a team or city, The New Fan becomes devoted to their favorite players. When a player spurned the Old Fan’s Team, that players jersey got burned (see LeBron James and Cleveland), when a player spurns the New Fan’s team the New Fan follows him. The Old Fan is still prevalent and is still in charge of the sports world but their grip is slipping.

The New Fan is in at least one fantasy league for their favorite sport. They use the Internet to be constantly prepared for their league. That means the New Fan thinks they know more about their favorite teams than those involved with the team. This belief makes them abnormally angry when their team releases, trades or otherwise parts ways with one of their favorite players. It also means the New Fan will continue to follow their favorite players long after they leave their team. The New Fan uses Facebook and Twitter to follow their favorite players. The insight provided by the sites, into the way the player thinks, will often cause them to side with a player over a team.

So you may be asking yourself what a New Fan would look like in Oregon.  A New Fan may be both a Fan of the Trail Blazers and a player like Travis Outlaw.  This New Fan could go to Blazer games on consecutive nights. The first night they could come to the game all decked out in Blazer gear and root hard for the home team. Then the next night with the Blazers playing against the Kings he would show up to the Rose Garden wearing an Outlaw jersey and root for the Kings.

This kind of New Fandom is not applicable only to sports; it shows up in other kinds

of Fandom. Comic book Fans are consistently moving from being Fans of a character to Fans of the creative teams. Kim Kardashian has become famous for…. I honestly don’t know why she’s famous other than that she has a Twitter and Facebook following. New Fan’s are taking over the world and its going to cause some changes. I expect that New Fans, the people who have driven the rising popularity of the Combine and Draft, will cause a rise in the popularity of the Pro Bowl and other events like it. They’ve already caused the NFL Draft to change from a two day to a three day event and you shouldn’t be surprised to see other changes in the future.