Dave Newton's piece on ESPN.com today reminded me of my undergrad thesis. (Bear with me, I promise I'm going somewhere...) Newton wanted to find out how fans of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch are different from one another. And, while his study relied on anecdotal evidence (and not the rock-solid analysis of my own thesis), he found some interesting stuff.
Busch's fans tend to be younger, and more of them are men. Jr's fans are more blue-collar, and more loyal despite his slump in wins and finishes. (It's tempting for me to throw in something snarky about how Busch's fans admit liking him because he's immature... but I won't.)
In my senior thesis, I wanted to explore communication within subcultural groups. The subculture I researched was sports fans, particularly NASCAR fans. (Word of advice to students: pick a thesis topic you can actually live with for a year, not something you think will impress people.) One of my sources was a wonderful study that examined the differences between "old school" and "new school" sports fans with respect to marketing. (If you're curious: Aiken, D., Kahle, L., and Sukhdial, A. (2002). Are you old school? A scale for measuring sports fans’ old-school orientation. Journal of Advertising Research, 42, 71-81. Online, PA Research II database, retrieved 4/22/03.)
"New school" fans were more likely to agree with the statement that winning was the primary purpose of a competition, and as such they're more drawn to athletes or teams that are on top. In my family, we have another term for these people. We call them "fair-weather fans," and we spit on them. Seriously, a bandwagonner has got to be one of the lowest forms of life on the planet.
That's if you're an "old school" fan, like me. In my world-view, basing one's support for a team simply on their winning record is borderline sacreligious. It's the opposite of what sports should be about. Of course we want our guy to win, but we're not going to kick him to the curb just because he's losing.
When I did my research just over five years ago, Earnhardt was regarded as the "new school" guy - the symbol of new fans who were all flash and no substance, with no understanding or respect for the sport's heritage. And many of them were. Then they moved on to Kasey Kahne, Carl Edwards, or other young, single, successful drivers. And now it's Busch's turn at the head of the bandwagon.
It's cool. He'll crash the thing soon enough.
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