• by Jas Dhami , September 9, 2024

Fandom in sport is evolving. It’s no longer about the name on the front of the jersey. Younger fans are increasingly pledging their allegiance to the name on the back, fundamentally changing the very nature of the relationship between fan and athlete.

WARC’s Global Media Trends report is estimating brand spend in sport to top $60.9 billion globally. With social media taking center stage -- and with the “Summer of Sport” kicking off major events like the FIFA World Cup in the US, Canada, and Mexico in two years -- there’s a lot for brands and their sporting alignments to play with when it comes to this cultural shift.

Sporting Stans

In the past, only athletes with an otherworldly game were crowned with superfan status -- superstars like Jordan, Kobe, Brady, Messi, and Ronaldo. While the idolization of GOATs will always exist beyond team fandom, athletes no longer need to be the best in the game to have mass appeal as an individual star.

Fandoms are now growing around athletes who use their social posts to express their interests off the field, such as avid gamers Alphonso Davies, Lando Norris, and Josh Hart. Fans are also following those who use their platforms to drive social change, such as Marcus Rashford, Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka. It’s a far cry from team-controlled media appearances and post-game interviews, where athletes have historically toed the party line and become personality vacuums.

Thanks to social media, fans can form emotional connections with the athletes they love that go beyond their performances on the pitch, field, or court. Today, the opportunity to see an unfiltered look into athletes’ personal lives—what impacts their performance, their relationships with their teammates, their connection to what’s happening in culture, and even their moral and political beliefs—is making them more accessible -- and more real. More like us.

This insight has precipitated different behaviors from fans. Just like pop culture stans, online fans are publishers and pundits in their own right, creating fan accounts, custom art, edits and supercuts of their favorite athletes. They rally behind their guys, actively engaging in the comments section, even sending verbal shots at rivals in defense of their heroes.

Check out the comment section of any Instagram post about Messi. You won’t find a single Messi hype post without the comments section taken over by Ronaldo “fanboys.”

Brands looking to break through the ever-crowded space of sports marketing can take creative inspiration from creator fans, as well as the content athletes put out themselves. Tapping into the multitudes of athlete talent to find untold stories or points of relatability are how brands can create greater impact with their audiences.