ABSTRACT
Based on ethnographic research with supporters’ groups in the US, this article explores how Ultra and other global models of fandom are being appropriated by soccer fans in the US and Canada. I argue that these fans enact more than stylistic expressions of fandom but instead contest the boundaries of locally accepted models fandom. Most notably, organized soccer supporters in the US reject the notion of being simply consumers of sports entertainment and see themselves instead as stakeholders in the teams they follow and as de facto constituents that the clubs need to be accountable to. At the same time, the global and local organizational structures and histories of professional soccer confront these fans with specific restrictions in how they are able to articulate their interest as fans.
