The research question for this paper focuses on soccer fans’ motivation for supporting their teams through stadium attendance. Many believe that fans go to stadiums for games out of love for their teams or the sport in general, but there are indications that it could be something else (Reed, 2018). This research seeks to interrogate the true motivation through observation. The setting chosen for this research is a soccer stadium on a match day. The researcher sits among the fans and quietly takes notes. The stadium is ideal because it is the easiest place to find several soccer fans gathered together since the research seeks to specifically analyze why the fans come to this specific place.
The physical setting of this research is a soccer stadium a few minutes away from the city center. This particular venue is overwhelming by the sheer beauty and magnitude of its physical structure. It stands at over 200 feet high, where it hosts over 30,000 fans. The first noticeable thing, once the awe of its architectural structure starts to fade away, is the roar and number of fans, whom before analysis seem like one passionate family of crazy believers. In their tens of thousands, they are clad in their teams’ colors. Replica jerseys, scarfs, jackets, tracksuits – they have it all. There is excitement and anticipation in the air as the fans sing, chant, and shout to support their teams. They cram themselves into every available seat and before long, there is literally nowhere to sit.
The stadium seats are not the most comfortable the researcher has used in his lifetime. They are made of cold, hard plastic and painted in the team’s colors as well. They are truly uncomfortable and sitting on them is true pain. However, people in the stadium seem not to mind, as they hardly use the seats anyway. However, they are built so close together that one feels as if they are squeezing into them. There are different smells in the stadium, from the cold winter breeze to the stench of human odor. The aromas from different foods are very strong, one can almost taste them, but there is the smell of warm beer that has been spilled from time to time, alongside stale urine from fans who apparently did not want to miss any minute of the beautiful game. The floodlights are set high above the stadium where one can spot them from miles away. A scoreboard reminds everyone of the state of the battle on this ground. The fans seem to live in every moment of the game, cautious not to miss anything.
The researcher notes that soccer fans have different motivations for going to the stadium on a match day, many of which may not necessarily trace back to love for their team. It is apparent that for most, the experience comes first. This is because there was joy and merry-making on many fans’ faces, despite the home team having conceded three goals to the visitors, something that put them in real threat of relegation from the league. The fans seemed to care more about the things that created a good experience for them. Many focused on the quality of the food and the drinks instead of what was going on the pitch. The researcher even overheard a young couple swear they would never have come if they knew they would be served such “trashy beer,” in their own words. Even the cheering and singing seemed more angled towards creating an experience for the fans rather than supporting the team to perform.
Notably, many fans had their own activities taking away focus from the match while it was ongoing. At some point, a man seemingly in his thirties challenged another to a bottle game that would soon capture the attention of a whole section of the stadium, while the match went on the pitch below. There was an indication that most of the fans were here to enjoy a day out, and would still have had the same experience if it was another sport going on in the stadium. However, there was still a good number of fans that genuinely seemed to care for the team, and some of them left in frustration and anger when the team conceded the third goal during the second half of the match.
This was a wholesome experience for the researcher, who takes an interest in soccer. It was eye-opening because he had always presumed all fans went to the stadium out of love for their team – it seems from the findings that they would still go to watch paint dry if they had the same experience with their day out. It felt awkward having sideshows within the stadium amidst the discomfort of its seats, as it was irritating. The setting was, however, perfect for collecting data for this research, and the researcher looks forward to similar forms of practical learning and research.
Reference
Reed, S. (2018). “I’m Not a Fan. I’m a Journalist”: Measuring American Sports Journalists’ Sports Enthusiasm. Journal of Sports Media, 13(1), 27-47. Web.