Sports - A Community Builder or Destroyer?

Sports are a common thread for many people to connect on. By going to a sporting event, you are acknowledging the fact that you like the team or sport that you are attending. Sure, there are some people who attend sporting events that are not really fans of the game or the the players. Yet, even with the people who do not invest emotional value into the game, everyone is interacting with each other, using the game as a conduit to communicate through. Attendees of sports events are part of a community, due to their close social interaction which can shed light on different social qualities that they might have.

One example of this was my attendance of the Georgia Tech v. Clemson football game. Everyone was at the game. There were a lot of people who absolutely loved the game and the players, who have season tickets, so on and so forth. In addition, there were the fans that are mildly excited normally of sports in general, and can appreciate all sports, which is the category that I fall into. Also, there were the people who have no idea what football is, and they attended the game just to be a part of the whiteout game. Right there, are a few key examples of the community aspect. People are actively trying to be in the community, by voluntarily attending the game, and the fans of all kinds eagerly accepted them. The sense of belonging to something bigger than themselves was a key concept that was prevalent in the whiteout game. Also, there was a way for all of the fans to communicate, through the football game. By the way different fans cheered displayed the level of commitment and emotional investment they made in the game, thereby showing others and connecting on different levels through the yelling and cheering and how they heckled the opposing sides. All of the fans showed a common goal, which was to beat Clemson, and this common thread, by working together and being led by cheerleaders, willed Georgia Tech to victory. These interactions by meeting people to achieve a common goal and by investing a certain amount of emotion voluntarily constitute a community.