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i think there's some sports that are a bit acquired tastes, like I don't think the skill is immediately apparent the first time watching soccer, it's "just people running around". The strategy, technique etc is not immediately apparent. As opposed to like skateboard tricks or dry tooling/ice climbing competitions, which also have depth but are impressive without any prior knowledge, imo.
For me personally, it's the fan aspect I don't get. What's the point of projecting the us vs. them mentality on some team, "we won", and foflowing a team almost religiously, even building ones own identity around it, at least in part. In general, getting so emotionally invested in it, i don't understand. And it seems to mostly be a team sport thing.
Hopefully I can illuminate
Team sport fandom traditionally trends with locality. You grow up with going to the local football stadium on the weekend as one of the options for how you spend your time. Your mates have the same choices, so even if you never pick it, you're gonna hear about it at the very least
If you spend your time with a team, you get to know the players (which is kinda parasocial in most instances, ngl) and in many cases watch them grow over the years into incredible athletes.
Naturally, people end up proud of the people they support, doing well. It's part of the human condition
That makes sense, though at least where I'm from it's usually not local. At least people seem to care most about soccer and ice hockey teams that are not from where they grew up or where they live. Maybe more handed down by parents?
It's mostly that shared parasocial relationships are weird to me. Like, the benefit of a parasocial relationship is that it helps with loneliness and fill social needs without any pressure. But a shared parasocial relationship, idk. You get pressure/obligations from your peers and you actually have a friend group for fulfilling social needs. at least i never felt an urge to combine my parasocial and social relationships.
I mean, if it was just some activity you did to spend time with friends, sure, i get it. But it seems like the sport itself is more central than a group of friends, to the point of getting ostracized for liking another team. Or getting into fights over which team is better, that kind of stuff. I know that's not how everyone interacts with team sports, but there is a sizable chunk of people that do take it pretty seriously, and that's where I don't follow why they do that and what they get out of it.