Interwoven Statesmanship and Sports Fandom

Abstract

Social identification–based theories (fan identification and nationalism) were used to delineate whether degrees of sports fandom and/or national identity are significant predictors for television consumption of the 2014 Fédération Internationale de Football Association World Cup. A national survey of 490 respondents was conducted at three different time periods (10 weeks before the start of the World Cup, the start of the World Cup, and immediately following Team USA’s first World Cup match) to determine whether planned media consumption of the World Cup shifted based on levels of fan identification and nationalized qualities. Using structural equation modeling, increased nationalized qualities across two of the factors (nationalism and internationalism) increased World Cup fan identification, resulting in predicting higher planned television consumption of this international megasporting event. Nationalized identity alone had no significant result on predicting television consumption of international sport. Ramifications for theory, as well as conclusions related to deciphering the complex formulation of national identity and sports fandom, are offered.