Shifting Lenses

I can’t remember how I became a Chelsea fan, but I have been one ever since I started following professional football years ago. My passion for the team grew when they acquired my favorite American player, Christian Pulisic, in 2019. Seeing a game at Stamford Bridge was a dream come true, and it lived up to expectations.

Tickets are hard to come by, but somehow my mom managed the feat. This is apparently a point of frustration for local fans, as many articles have been written about it. While we were at the game, I even heard a fan loudly complaining that “real fans” can’t even get tickets anymore. The comment may have been directed at my American accent having family, but I think it was more likely directed at the selfie-taking ladies next to us who were blocking views with their poses. The “real fan” phenomenon is an interesting one. Living near New York, people were always saying that most people wearing Yankees hats don’t even know it’s a baseball team. Globally, this may be true. When a team is on a hot streak, new fans are called bandwagoners and are often looked down on. The longtime fans sometimes feel that if you haven’t been there for the bad years, you shouldn’t join in on the fun of the good years.

The “real fan” attitude is not my favorite part of sports fan culture. However, I can say without a doubt that it is a global phenomenon.