Have you ever attended a sporting
event and without hesitation booed a player on the opposing team? You’re not
alone. The entire sporting world loves a good rivalry. “It typically emerges when competitors are similar, when
they face off repeatedly, and when they’re about evenly matched. When these
circumstances are present, they can lend a given competitive event a
psychological weight that goes well beyond its tangible stakes” (Hutson). The
concept of a rivalry is something most enjoy, something that pushes our levels of fandom to heights they have never been before. The emergence of social media within the sports world
has paved the way for sports rivalries to grow immensely (and feature the
clever use of emojis when trash talking).
Before going any further, I think it’s
important to address just how many sports fans are actually taking to social
media. The two most popular sports franchises in the word on twitter and
Facebook are Barcelona and Real Madrid, two football clubs in La Liga, Spain’s
premier soccer division. Barcelona has a collective 100.9 million fans while
Real Madrid is close behind with 99.8 million followers. Believe it or not, 10
of the top 14 most followed sports franchises in the world are soccer clubs,
with the closet non soccer team being the LA Lakers at 25.6 million fans. “The NFL and MLB have
global ambitions, but its social media fan bases pale in comparison to the
world’s top soccer clubs. The NFL’s 32 teams have a combined following on Twitter
and Facebook of 98 million, or less than both Barcelona and Real Madrid.
The Dallas Cowboys are the NFL’s top team on social media with 9.3 million
followers. MLB is even further behind with only 66 million followers for its 30
teams. The New York Yankees are baseball’s top franchise with 9.8 million fans”
(Badenhausen).
You may be
asking yourself “Ok I get that sports
are popular on social media, but how has it sparked rivalries?” The answer is
rather simple actually. It gives casual fans a platform to be informed on
exactly what is brewing between a rivalry their team is participating in, while
giving devout fans an outlet to actually allow their voices to be heard and
appreciated on specific fan pages. For example the following Facebook pages actually
exist: Boston Red Sox Suck!!!, Yankees HATER!, and the very intriguing New
England Patriots Suck and their fans are morons!. These sites are for the
extremists who take sports rivalries just a little too seriously, but it is
still pretty great that the medium exists for fans to absolutely destroy their
friends feelings in a playful way, rather than fans who turn to physical
violence at actual games. In 2013, a Los Angeles Dodgers fan drunkenly beat a
San Francisco Giants fan after a regular season game leaving the Giants fan
with residual brain damage and physical disabilities. I am all for rivalries,
some of my fondest memories in my life have some from going to Yankees/ Sox or
Islanders/Rangers games, but no fan should ever be subject to any sort of
physical abuse simply because you love a team, that is simply wrong.
Not all rivalries need to be bitter
or even violent though, some can just be entertaining and silly. The first
exchange that comes to mind is the “Twitter War” that the New York Yankees and
Chicago Cubs had during this past MLB offseason. A Yankees fan simply tweeted
“Yankees twitter > Cubs Twitter”. The cubs account (811k followers) replied
with a twitter poll asking fans to pick the Yankees or the Cubs. The Yankees
and Cubs followed up with a series of gifs and tweets that were all in good
fun, until the Yankees put the nail in the coffin. The Yankees twitter (1.61
million followers) tweeted at the Cubs saying “Were new to this poll thing
@Cubs, do the #Yankees have a) More rings b) a lot more rings c) Cubs fans,
what’s a ring?” In case you were unaware, the Cubs haven’t won a World Series
title in over 100 years while the Yankees have won 27. This banter
on social media connected two of the sports biggest teams in a fun, engaging
way that any sports fan who appreciates a rivalry can get behind. You can read
the entire exchange here http://m.mlb.com/cutfour/2016/02/08/163970396/cubs-and-yankees-fought-on-twitter
Ultimately, rivalries are a staple
of sports culture, giving reasons to root for the home team harder than you
would on another occasion. Social media has developed into the perfect platform
for fans to chirp and cheer unlike they ever have before.
Works Cited
Badenhausen, Kurt. Forbes. Forbes Magazine, n.d. Web.
10 Apr. 2016.
"Cubs and Yankees Stage Epic Fight through Twitter GIFs and
Polls before Making up." Major League Baseball. N.p., n.d.
Web. 10 Apr. 2016.
"Dodger Fans Plead Guilty to Beating, Disabling Giants Fan
Bryan Stow on Opening Day 2011 at Dodger Stadium." CBSNews.
CBS Interactive, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.
Hutson, Matthew. "How Rivalries Bring Out Our Best - and
Worst." Science of Us. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.
I find this topic quite intriguing, and though I may not be as up-to-date on my sports lingo or any sort of lingo since I just used the word twice in one sentence, I find sports banters hilarious. When I attend any sort of sporting event I enjoy watching people interact with one another just as much as I enjoy watching the actual event. There is something about a third party rivalry that amuses me. I’m not sure if it’s the people in the audience that are sweating more than the athletes because of how riled up they are, or if it’s to see what crazy thing someone may say or do next. Either way – it’s a show both on and off the court or field or rink… you get it.
ReplyDeleteSo it is no question that sports is a very delicate topic among die-hard-bleach-your-hair-and-paint-your-belly-rolls-the-color-of-your-favorite-team individuals. It is also quite evident that social media has acted as a gentle barrier between someone that has had one too many beers and that guy over there that doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Rather than beating their frustrations into someone’s face so they really feel it they can take out their frustrations through the use of capital letters and an obscene number of exclamation points and angry face emojis.
Due to this constant chatter, Twitter became a perfect platform for the NFL to stream their games. The NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said, “There is a massive amount of NFL-related conversation happening on Twitter during our games and tapping into that audience, in addition to our viewers on broadcast and cable, will ensure Thursday Night Football is seen on an unprecedented number of platforms this season” (Urbain). This now allows crazed fans that weren’t able to attend the game to target all of their frustrations in one area, and for people like me – it’s a nice display of raw human emotion to enjoy beside a bucket of popcorn. This was a smart move as it expands the NFL’s presence to a wider audience.
However, with all of the perks of social media there are bound to be some downsides. Included in this array of insanity are the super fans that watch their favorite athletes every move. Even if this move includes unfollowing someone. According to an article in the New York Daily News, “The Internet -- which has a lot of time on its hands -- discovered on Monday that LeBron James unfollowed the Cleveland Cavaliers Twitter account” (Healy). You know the saying one person can change the world – well this is like that, but on a smaller scale. It only took one person to create this newsworthy moment, and it’s all because one button was pushed. Could you imagine if it had been a mistake? I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve accidentally unfollowed someone on Twitter. Granted I’ll go back and refollow them immediately, but maybe LeBron just decided he wanted to take a nap… or maybe not.
Regardless of the circumstances, sports banter on social media should have an award category at the ESPY’s. It’s entertaining and extremely informative. It’s kind of like the angry girlfriend of the social media world – it won’t let you forget anything that’s happened in a teams past.
Works Cited:
Healy, John. "LeBron James Unfollows Cavaliers on Twitter." NY Daily News. N.p., 22 Mar. 2016. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
Urbain, Thomas, and Rob Lever. "Twitter Wins Rights to Stream Thursday Night NFL Games." Yahoo Finance. N.p., 5 Apr. 2016. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
To answer your first question, YES. I am a huge soccer fan, and I completely agree that every sports fanatic loves a good rivalry. I think social media allows for people’s opinions on sports to be expressed immensely. Not only are the fans actively using social media to express there thoughts on the games but because teams as a whole post to their accounts during games I feel this encourages us to post during games as well.
ReplyDeleteIts funny how you mention that the two most popular sport franchises in the word on twitter and Facebook are Barcelona and Real Madrid because I am a HUGE Real Madrid fan, which obviously leads to me say I hate Barcelona. I honestly do not even hate them because I do love Messi, and Neymar, not Suarez, but even though I don't hate them I always talk badly about them whenever they play Real Madrid aka in El Classico.
I am really not surprised that soccer has more followers than any other sport on social media, but I wonder why. Maybe it’s because soccer has been around longer? In the article “Barcelona and Real Madrid Head The Most Popular Sports Teams On Social Media” they say “They jockey back and forth to secure the sport’s biggest stars, with Barcelona signing Neymar and Luis Suarez the past two summers, while Real Madrid inked Gareth Bale and James Rodriguez. Their franchise players, Lionel Messi (Barcelona) and Cristiano Ronaldo (Real), have won the past seven FIFA player of the year awards, with Messi holding a 4-3 overall edge” (Badenhausen). I think because they have these extremely well know celebrity football stars on their team, this makes it easy for them to have so many followers across social media platforms. It did surprise me though that in the article The World's Highest-Paid Athletes 2015: Behind The Numbers, they state “Mayweather tops the list for a second straight year and third time overall (Tiger Woods was the highest-paid in the 12 other years since 2001). His $300 million year is more than double the previous record for athlete pay set by Woods who made $115 million between June 2007 and June 2008 ($125 million adjusted for inflation). Mayweather, Woods and now Pacquiao are the only athletes to earn nine-figures in one year..” (Badenhausen). This surprised me because the most paid athletes aren't even on a team, they play a sport that you do alone which maybe is why they don't have as many followers as a player who plays on a team because you can like any given player on a soccer team and follow them personally plus the club account as a whole.
I think social media allows for fans who cannot attend one of the games to express themselves as if they were really there yelling in the stands. I know I can never see Real Madrid play because they only play in Europe so I take to Twitter, but mostly Snapchat and Facebook to express myself. Real Madrid actually just played Barcelona and after losing to them the last two times we finally beat them again and even before the game I took to Facebook to say that I don't care how good the forward line for Barcelona is today Real Madrid is taking this W. Many of my friends and family also turned to Facebook to express themselves because I had several comments on my post. Some people saying no Real Madrid sucks, and others say Yes Real Madrid got this today. During the game I literally snap chatted every time something happened. When Real Madrid made a goal I took to Snapchat to make a video saying WOO **** Barcelona! Literally just for fun because like I said before I don't hate that team they just happened to be my favorite teams biggest rivalry. They're like the biggest rivalry across all sports. I do agree that rivalries do not need to be violent, that is just ridiculous. Like you stated in ur blog “rivalries are a staple of sports culture, giving reasons to root for the home team harder than you would on another occasion” (Miller), and social media gives you that opportunity to express yourself.
ReplyDeleteBadenhausen, Kurt. "Barcelona and Real Madrid Head The Most Popular Sports Teams On Social Media." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 15 July 2015. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.
Badenhausen, Kurt. "The World's Highest-Paid Athletes." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 10 June 2015. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.
I chose to comment on Ryan’s blog because sport rivalries are one of my absolute favorite thing in all of sports. Like Ryan, I grew up watching arguably the greatest rivalry in modern sports with the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, although I rooted for the Sox instead of Ryan’s ‘Evil Empire’. I think the fact that I grew up in Boston, which is a city with such rich sport history, gives me added appreciation for rivalries because Boston often finds themselves involved in them. Personally, I believe the greatest rivalry to ever occur in sports is between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics. Even though I wasn’t alive for the best parts of the rivalry, I still believe that this was the most intense, competitive rivalry in all of sports. The Lakers and Celtics have played each other in the finals a staggering 12 times, and the two make up for almost half of the NBA’s championship titles with 16 and 17 respectively.
ReplyDeleteI was also fortunate enough to study abroad in Barcelona last year, which gave me a first hand look at just how seriously they take their soccer. So when I was reading that Barcelona and Real Madrid had the most social media followers with “100.9 million followers (Facebook: 85.4 million; Twitter: 15.5 million) and 99.8 million followers (Facebook: 83.3 million; Twitter: 16.5 million)” I was not surprised at all (Forbes). It makes sense that people who take their sports teams so seriously would want to follow the social media accounts in order to get closer to their respected teams. Also, the rivalry between Barcelona and Real Madrid (El Clasico) is so intense that almost all of Spain shuts down when these two teams square off. Also, when I was in Barcelona I took a sports and culture class and we learned that Real Madrid and Barcelona topped the list for world’s most valuable sports teams. I was really surprised to see that Barcelona has dropped a bit to number 4, valued at $3.16B and Real Madrid has stayed atop the list valued at $3.26B (Forbes).
I agree with Ryan’s last point how it is awesome when sports teams lightly jab at each other through social media. I agree with what Ryan was saying about how it is all in good fun in the spirit of competition. It is nice to see a lighter side to sports, and I think it kind of shows a bit of personality to each franchise based on their social media presence. I think the greatest exchange on Twitter involving a sports team was between the San Jose Sharks and ESPN. ESPN tweeted something in reference to Sharknado at the team, and the team absolutely shut ESPN down. The Sharks tweeted back asking why ESPN doesn’t show any hockey highlights, and that was the end of the battle.
Works Cited
Badenhausen, Kurt. "Barcelona and Real Madrid Head The Most Popular Sports Teams On Social Media." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.
Badenhausen, Kurt. "The World's 50 Most Valuable Sports Teams 2015."Forbes. Forbes Magazine, n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.
Ryan,
ReplyDeleteI thought your insight on social media influencing rivalries in sports was spot on. I think it is awesome when different teams interact on social media. A good example of this is when the New York Jets almost made the playoffs last season. The Baltimore Ravens pulled an upset and beat the Cincinnati Bengals pushing the Jets into the playoff race. After the game, the Baltimore Ravens tweeted at the Jets saying “You’re welcome”. This simple tweet set the National Football League twitter on fire.
This comedic banter is happening more and more on social media, and I think that it is fantastic. Being able to follow your favorite teams on social media allows for more interaction with these teams. This only creates stronger ties to that team, and makes people more avid fans. I follow the New York Jets on every social media platform, and occasionally I will interact with them. Nothing makes me more excited then when they respond to me.
Social media is slowly but surely taking over the way that we watch professional sports. According to the Nielson article Year in Sports Media Report, “There was over 69 billion minutes, or 1.2 billion hours spent on sports sites via smartphones. This is an impressive 22% from 2014” (The Neilson Group). The second screen experience is changing the way that social media. What shocked me most about this article was the percentages of activity the sports had on both the television and twitter. According to the same article, sports made up only 1.4% of television programming, but it made up 49.7% of all twitter television activity.
Twitter recognizes this growth, and is not going to give it up. In fact, Twitter just won the rights to stream a Thursday night Football game during the regular NFL season, and I do not believe that people realize how groundbreaking this actually is. Twitter has always been a “second screen” experience. People watch something on TV, or stream it on their laptops and share their thoughts on Twitter. By using hashtags, you can “create a conversation” that you can partake in with other fans of the same television show. This is going to be the first time that Twitter is the primary screen, and I think that it is an amazing opportunity. In the article Twitter Wins Right to Stream NFL Games, there is a great quote from the Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey saying, “This is about transforming the fan experience with football. People watch NFL games with Twitter today. Now they’ll be able to watch right on Twitter Thursday nights”(Yahoo.com)Work Cited
Master, Stephen. "Year in Sports Media." Neilson (n.d.): n. pag. The Neilson Group, 2015. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
Urbain, Thomas. "Twitter Wins Rights to Stream Thursday Night NFL Games." Yahoo Finance. N.p., 5 Apr. 2016. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.
Ryan, I have to completely agree with you that a good rivalry always makes a sporting event more eventfully and exciting. “The entire sporting world loves a good rivalry. “It typically emerges when competitors are similar, when they face off repeatedly, and when they’re about evenly matched. When these circumstances are present, they can lend a given competitive event a psychological weight that goes well beyond its tangible stakes” (Hutson)” Also when two teams are in the same city or state battling to claim “their territory” it makes a rivalry that much sweeter. What also makes the build up of a rivalry sweeter is the social media wars and promotions. When I think of rivalries I think of the typical American rivalries such as, New York Yankees vs. New York Mets, Duke vs. North Carolina, Chicago Bears vs. Green Bay Packers, Eagles vs. Green Bay Packers, and so on. What never immediately comes to mind is the worlds biggest sport rivalry, FC Barcelona vs. Real Madrid C.F. I am not surprised these two Spanish club football teams have the largest and most popular rivalry of all time but I was unaware of the astronomical amount of followers both teams have on social media compared to all other sports. “The margin between Real Madrid and Barcelona is razor thin in almost every area. It is no different with their social media profiles: Barca and Real are the most popular teams in the world. Barcelona has 100.9 million followers between Facebook and Twitter with Real close behind at 99.8 million. The next closest squad is Manchester United, which is 29 million followers behind Real.” (Barcelona and Real Madrid Head The Most Popular Sports Teams On Social Media) I need to start paying closer attention to this rivalry. I can only imagine how intense and exhilarating this rivalry is in Spain.
ReplyDeleteNot only do these two teams trump all sports teams in followers on Twitter and Facebook, they are also top 5 for the most valuable sports teams of 2015. “Real Madrid has a value of $3.26 billion coming in first as the most valuable team in the world. “Real Madrid won the Champions League for a record tenth time last year and is the most valuable sports team in the world for the third straight year.” Although Barcelona comes in at number 4, they are not far behind in value at $3.16 billion. “Barcelona captured its fourth Champions League title in the past decade. The win was worth $64 million in prize money for Barca and will propel Barca's revenue to more than $650 million.” (The World's 50 Most Valuable Sports Teams 2015) Real Madrid and Barcelona are neck and neck in all aspects making this rivalry the biggest in the world.
Rivalries in every sport at all levels make the game more fun for the players as well as the fans. Every year during my club soccer days we would have the biggest rivalry with another team. It normally would come down to the two of us in the US Youth National Soccer Championship and it would get pretty intense, sometimes girls would take the rivalry to social media but all that matter was who won on the field. This rivalry amongst others will always be one my fondest memories of soccer. They keep the entertainment level high as well as the level of play because everyone wants to be number 1.
Works Cited
Badenhausen, Kurt. "Barcelona and Real Madrid Head The Most Popular Sports Teams On Social Media." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.
Badenhausen, Kurt. "The World's 50 Most Valuable Sports Teams 2015."Forbes. Forbes Magazine, n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.
Hutson, Matthew. "How Rivalries Bring Out Our Best - and Worst." Science of Us. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.
I chose to comment on Ryan’s blog because being I’m a fan of sports rivalry. In Mexico, soccer is a part of our culture. I grew up with my dad being a huge fan of C.D. Guadalajara, popularly known as Chivas. Guadalajara plays in the Liga MX. The Chivas has developed two important rivalries over the years, but perhaps its most intense rivalry is with Mexico City-based Club América. El Clásico that I have known is not Real Madrid vs Barcelona, its Chivas vs America. These are played at least twice a year. Both of these teams are the most successful and most popular teams in Mexico.
ReplyDeleteEl Clásico is not just a game. Friends and family gather at the same home and have a celebration. Even if someone is not specifically a fan of either of these teams, every single home in Mexico is tuned into the game. The thing about rivalry is that it comes from passion. If you weren’t so passionate about your team, you wouldn’t care about rivalry. Soccer, from what I have seen and experienced in Mexico, is one of those sports in which people get really emotionally invested into. This is why I was not surprised to see Real Madrid, Barça and ManU on the list of The World’s Top 10 Most Valuable Sports Teams of 2015, nor was I surprised to see that Real Madrid and Barcelona have 100 million followers on Twitter. Soccer is a language spoken across the world, and that’s why I think that it’s more popular on social media than football.
If you want a good example of how social media and sports go hand in hand, just look at something like the World Cup or even the Olympics. Yes it’s not really a Yankees vs Red Sox kind of rivalry, but there is definitely a sense of rivalry with the rest of the world when it comes to these events. You can add banners to your profile pictures, use hashtags that come attached to an emoji of your flag, and now with Snapchat I'm sure that there will be some feature that they will add to support the US in the Olympics this summer. Social media is simply just a platform to create a sense of community that supports the same thing while also being able to bash the other team.
Works Cited
Badenhausen, Kurt. "Barcelona and Real Madrid Head The Most Popular Sports Teams On Social Media." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.
Badenhausen, Kurt. "The World's 50 Most Valuable Sports Teams 2015."Forbes. Forbes Magazine, n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.