Bandwagoning in Sports
Bandwagoning is a cultural phenomenon that is good for business, but ethically pathetic, pitiful, and deplorable to what we call sport. Where did the term bandwagon come from? What does it mean? Whenever a particular team does well, more people come. Winning sells tickets, merchandise and sponsorships. That is part of the deal. Sport is a business. A perfect analogy to sports is that sports are like movies. A horrid team that does not win is like a tragedy. The main character dies and everyone is sad at the end and typically people are not going to want to talk about it.
A great team is like a great action movie where the main character falls in love and kills the enemy in the process. It will sell and keep peoples’ attention. According to the Fallacy Files, the term bandwagon came from “the phrase ‘jump on the bandwagon’ or ‘climb on the bandwagon’, a bandwagon being a wagon big enough to hold a band of musicians. In past political campaigns, candidates would ride a bandwagon through town, and people would show support for the candidate by climbing aboard the wagon. The phrase has come to refer to joining a cause because of its popularity. The popularity in a sport sense is a team that is only winning in the present. The Bandwagon Fallacy is committed whenever one argues for an idea based upon an irrelevant appeal to its popularity. True fans are hard to find. What characteristics make up a true fan? They are not just someone who paints their body in their team’s colors. Just because someone is mental enough to make themself look ridiculous does not mean that they are a true fan. A true fan is someone who has been exposed to their team for as long as they can remember.
They have to be exposed to a particular team from an early age and stick by that team even if the team is terrible. What it is supposed to be is “an allegiance or devotion to a particular team that is based on the spectator’s interest in the team that has developed over time. ” Fans are supposed to bond with their team with certain psychological factors that include satisfaction (expectations met, self-connection (a person’s identity), intimate connection (the desire to continue a deep relationship to the end), and emotional achievement. The term fan refers here to the emotionally committed “consumer” of sports events.
Further into the social aspects of the fan of a successful team, “fanship is empowering, generating passion and pleasure. It provides social prestige and self-esteem, a form of cultural capital that many fans otherwise might not have. ” It is not just a matter blending in. It becomes a self-esteem issue. The idea of winning becomes a social issue rather than a competitive issue. Perhaps the best way to describe a true fan is someone who feels that “‘real’ support is not always about being entertained, it is about duty, obligation, blood, sweat and tears. Part of the reason why soccer has not taken off in this country onto the mainstream is because it is not tradition. Since people do not change, they will not adapt or even attempt to try something new. Americans that say it is boring is just the excuse they make for not being exposed to it from an early age. If those people went to a live game, they would be hooked (and a pro game at that, not a youth game). When a player gets tackled (a soccer tackle is much different from the tackle that us Americans consider a tackle), they fall and pretend to be hurt. The thing is, they’re not pretending the majority of the time.
Other aspects of it are quite exciting. But there is a difference to the way fans cheer for their team even here in the United States. Since England is a small country, it does not take fans long to travel from match to match. Now I mention this because of their passion. It is passion that Americans are completely oblivious to. That passion kills. In many examples there are gangs (Bloods and Crips type gangs) called firms that follow the team and riot against the opponent’s fans or firm. They take a love of the game and turn it into violent crimes that involve drugs and the drug trade. This is called hooliganism.
That alone is a particular reason why some people die for their “football” team. There is one particular event in sporting history that nearly all of American sports fans are completely unaware of: the Hillsborough Disaster. On April 15, 1989 (tomorrow) Liverpool FC was going to play against Nottingham Forrest for a spot in the Football Association Cup Final. Like any tournament game it was going to be played at a neutral site. The FA Cup is the English equivalent to the World Cup, however it is a tournament of clubs across England (the UEFA Champions League is the tournament similar to the World Cup but for club teams, not national teams).
Well, the passion of the fans was so much that the stadium was overfilled. In England, the stands had no seats. The stands were just concrete steps that people would stand on (imagine Beaver Stadium without the bleachers). There were no “seat” assignments and people kept on pouring in. It got to a point where it was too full. People started to panic because of the lack of air and as a result 96 people were trampled to death simply because there was too many people in an area not fit for that many people. The game was called off after six minutes. It was because of that, which caused many European stadiums to become all-seater stadiums.
In that case, poor managment passion for the team and the game, killed. Another aspect of the European soccer is that teams can get relegated into a lower league. There is no such thing as ‘minor leagues. ’ There are four leagues that are prominent and all ranked. In England for example, there’s the Premier League (1), Championship (2), League One (3), and League Two (4). If a team comes in the bottom three of the table (standings) then that team gets relegated into the lower league while the top three get promoted to the next level every season.
What happens to the fans of the teams that get relegated? Do they go away? Despite going through similar psychological distress that is comparable to posttraumatic stress, over the long term there is “no effect on the long-term behavioral loyalty. ” Who are the worst bandwagon fans in the United States? An Internet blogger made a list of many teams that have quite a bandwagon type following. There are several teams that instantly come to mind. The first two that always come up are the New York Yankees and the Dallas Cowboys.
The Chicago Bulls are ranked right up there because of Michael Jordan. In reality those people just like Michael Jordan. They wanted to see Michael Jordan win, not the Bulls. Today, that can be attributed to Kobe Bryant. People who call themselves Laker fans have either been fans of Kobe, Magic Johnson or even Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, not the team. They will only cheer and show their fandom when the team is in the playoffs and/or win a championship. With that in mind however, they will talk trash about that team year round when they really don’t know the bench players or even the owner of the team.
What really irritates me even more is when people associate themselves with a particular team that they have no connection to whatsoever. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish is a perfect example of this. Especially people whose university is in lower division of the NCAA or are not fans of sports and they respond with “I root for Notre Dame. Why? I am Irish and/or Catholic. ” That is not a good reason at all. They have to have an emotional connection. That is just Notre Dame. Many people particularly cannot stand people who are fans of teams only because they win (which is my definition of a bandwagon fan to begin with). T
