Revolution of the Modern Sports Fan explores the elements of the sports fan that have markedly changed in the past few years. Inherent within these investigations is the role of communication in a multitude of forms (mediated, relational, etc.) as the prototypical sports fan has most heavily shifted within this domain. From the advent of social media to the rise of fantasy sport to the increased media platforms in which to consume sport, the sports fan has never had more options for consumptionand for the rendering of ones opinions. As such,Revolution of the Modern Sports Fan offers an opportunity to advance what we now know about American sports fandom as well as the ability to debunk what scholars thought they knew about sports fandom that has now shifted.

Kenon A. Brownis associate professor and Reese Phifer Fellow in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations at the University of Alabama.

Andrew C. Billings is executive director of the Alabama Program in Sports Communication and Ronald Reagan Chair of Broadcasting in the Department of Journalism& Creative Media at the University of Alabama.

Melvin Lewisis assistant professor in the Department of Human Nutrition and Hospitality Management and Fellow of the Alabama Program in Sports Communication at The University of Alabama.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction Eccentric Yet Conforming, Irrational Yet Predictable: Anatomy of the Hyper Mediated Sports Fan

Kenon A. Brown, Andrew C. Billings and Melvin Lewis

Unit I: Antecedents and Outcomes of Fan Behavior

Chapter 1The Origins of Sport Fanship: Delineating Tipping Point Sports Identity Factors

J.C. Abdallah, Andrew C. Billings, Zachary W. Arth and Samuel D. Hakim

Chapter 2National Basketball Association (NBA) Social Platform Fan Desires: Attitudinal and Behavioral Intentions

Melvin Lewis, Kenon A. Brown, Andrew C. Billings and Bumsoo Park

Chapter 3Shaping the Shield: Exploring the Impact of Fan Attachment and Consumption towards the Perception of the NFL Brand

Kenon A. Brown, Melvin Lewis, Andrew C. Billings and Bumsoo Park

Chapter 4Loyalty and Locality: Contrasting Sport Fan Behaviors in the United States and China

Sitong Guo and Andrew C. Billings

Unit II:Media Impact on Building Fan Behavior

Chapter 5Resource Dependency Theory and Off-the-Field Behavior: An Analysis of Newspaper Coverage of the NFLs Ray Rice Saga

Mia Long Anderson, Josh Dickhaus and Kenon A. Brown

Chapter 6The Power of Love: Sport Celebrity, Fandom and the Influence of Mental Health Disclosures on Reducing Stigma

Nathan A. Towery, Nicholas R. Buzzelli, Scott Parrott, Andrew C. Billings and Danielle Sarver Coombs

Chapter 7Thats the TicketTrend: College Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) Ticketing Shifts and Differences

Melvin Lewis, Kenon A. Brown, Andrew C. Billings and Justin Rogers

Chapter 8Fandom in the Twitter World: Sentiment Analyses of the FBS College Football National Championship

Bumsoo Park, Nathan A. Towery and Andrew C. Billings

Chapter 9Machine Learning Insights within Gender-Enacted Social Media Content: The Case of the 2019 FIFA Womens World Cup

Minghui Fan and Andrew C. Billings

Unit III:Fandom and the eSports Revolution

Chapter 10Understanding eSports I: Are Video Game Competitions Sporting Events? Comparing 30 eSport and Traditional Sport Spectatorship Motivations

Jue Hou and Andrew C. Billings

Chapter 11Understanding eSports II: Active Audiences, New Needs, and Comparisons of the Consumption Motivations of eSport and Traditional Sport Spectatorship

Jue Hou and Andrew C. Billings

Chapter 12Understanding eSports III: Construction of the Motivational Scale for eSport Spectatorship Consumption

Jue Hou and Andrew C. Billings

About the Authors