ABSTRACT
New media have amplified fan–athlete interaction significantly and irrevocably. Social media tools like Facebook and Twitter have facilitated quicker and more instantaneous exchanges between fans and athletes, but fan–athlete relationships have incubated for some time due to a host of other Internet-enabled technologies like listservs, chat rooms, community forums, and web logs (“blogs”) (Hambrick, Simmons, Greenhalgh and Greenwell, 2010). Online sports fans or those who use the Internet to engage in a broad range of sport-related activity regularly visit sport websites, check on and confirm the game results for their favorite teams, purchase team apparel and related merchandise, seek and enjoy interaction with other fans through discussion forums, and participate in online fantasy sport leagues (Hur, Ko and Valacich, 2011).
