The thrill of being a fan: ku and minnesota vikings game from among the fans

For my two sporting events I went to a KU basketball game and a Minnesota Vikings game. I would say that some of the ideologies expressed at these games is the idea that so much people spend so much time rooting for their favorite team. Especially for the KU basketball it is something that has become so engrained in the culture of the school and the city of Lawrence that people live and die with the team. The Vikings’ fans can be the same but to less of an extent but even then you could tell that some of the fans lived for Sundays.

I do not think that there is any connections to race, gender or sexual identity, but I guess I could connect both to sex/race in terms of the sport. Both sports are heavily dominated by black males, and when we look at their female counterparts, then suddenly they are “ less athletic” and by far less popular when it comes to any form of attendance, whether it be via in person or television viewership. This could reinforce the idea that men have the “ power” but the honest truth is that men’s basketball/football is and will be for a very long time much better as a product than women’s basketball/football. Sorry ladies the Lingerie Football League does not help the cause.

Those who participate are mostly black males, with the occasional white male sprinkled in at positions like quarterback, or the white point guard who shoots three pointers. I kid you not for some reason white players in basketball are usually very good a threes, or maybe it is just me. I would say for the most part the people who observe are on the middle class spectrum. Interestingly enough you can almost see the social structure of money as you go around the stadium. The people with money will be very close to the field or up in the suites, while the lower end people are usually up in the nose bleeds and are just there to be rowdy and drink.

For the most part both of these sports are done in very nice stadiums, and especially KU. The Vikings were temporarily at the University of Minnesota’s stadium as they wait for their new stadium to be built. The events are attended in many different tiers. You can have the people who go there for the love of the game, others for the love of drinking at the tailgate. Some are hardcore fans, and others are there just because their boyfriend/girlfriend wanted them to come, and you can almost always tell the difference between the fans. These events are usually publicized via the local newspapers and televisions and are often done with a very go-team attitude.

Experiences at sporting events can be vast and different but for the most part these two were very similar because of how much fandom was exhibited at the events. Yes, one was football and the other was basketball so there are some obvious differences in the two, but even with one being college and the other being professional, both were overall just fun events to attend.