ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an interesting typology of sports spectators. It argues that, with the enormous changes in the political economy and globalization of sport, the structure of opportunities for spectator identities has changed. Using two dimensions of attachment—hot vs. cool and traditional vs. consumer—the author's scheme yields four types: supporters, followers, fans, and flaneurs. These categories have been distinguished according to their different football identities and the distinctive, underlying relationships that they have toward the game. At the elite level, football's finances have grown exponentially, while there have been major changes in the cultural organization of the game as experienced by players, spectators, and media commentators. The chapter examines the impact of football's commodification on spectator identities relative to their association with professional football clubs. It develops critical sociological and normative arguments presented elsewhere on the nature of football's commodification. The chapter concentrates on one critical social relationship that has undergone transformation throughout football's modern and postmodern eras of hypercommodification.
