As someone who was born into the ball chasing cult, there are three things:
- The social aspect. It’s the one thing that brings my family together, each week, to watch the game. For away games, you have a cookout with some family friends, buy some drinks and then you watch the game. If it’s in the evening, then you go out afterwards. For home games, you gather the same group, but now you’re gonna meet more people in the arena, people you know because they’re also in the cult. You have a drink, you have a laugh and you catch up with them. Our team is a second division side with some okay players and a great goalie, so the game is almost relegated (heh) to play second fiddle.
Oh and don’t get me started on the choreos.
- Hometown pride: This team has been here since the 19th century and for me, going to the games or even having just a passing interest in the team is part of being from that town.
You tag lamp posts in your town with their stickers and you do the same in the surrounding smaller cities. By looking at the stickers in any given town, you can see to which city their youth gravitates, which tickles my brain in ways I can’t explain.
- It’s fun to watch: Arguably the weakest reason, but God damn, sometimes even second division footy just looks so good! When you see someone pull off a sick trick or make a clean tackle or catch, you get that sweet dopamine kick, it’s insane.
I’d never beat someone because of their allegiance. Those people can kick rocks.
PhilipTheBucket@quokk.au 2 days ago
I actually understood sports fandom for the first time because of watching streamers play video games. I was like ooooohhh, this is a very challenging skill, and I’m watching someone do it very very well, and I’m fucking hyped and I want to see more.
I never in my life had that for basketball or anything. But it made sense when I saw it for video games.