The Toxic Fan Base

Adapted from Procrastination Why You Do It What To Do About It by Jane Burka and Lenora Yuen

In talking with many NHL players over the years, we have heard five primary themes concerning their fans described over and over again: Pressuring, Doubting, Controlling, Clinging and Distancing.

All five themes exist to some degree in every fan base.  But each separate fan base system develops its own combination of methods for encouraging its teams toward achievement, acknowledging the limitations of each player, making rules and enforcing them, holding the city together and letting each other go.

In your particular fan base, one theme may stand out as primary.  Some fan bases, for example, hold all team members up against a standard of achievement, while others are primarily concerned with demonstrations of organizational loyalty. Sometimes one issue is the source of most of the major conflict or disagreement while other issues cause less trouble.  By contemplating the interplay of these five themes in your own fan base, you may see a fuller picture of the development of a player’s self-esteem and of his tendency to procrastinate.

The Pressuring Theme

The Pressuring Theme is apparent in fan bases that are extremely achievement-oriented.  Anything short of being at the top is a disappointment, is viewed as evidence of mediocrity.  The Dallas Cowboys, LA Lakers and New York Yankee fan bases are particularly known for this.  There may be, uh, other examples.  None in the NHL, of course.

The Doubting Theme

In contrast to pressures which prod a player toward success, the Doubting Theme communicates the fan base’s uncertainty and perhaps even outright disbelief in the player’s ability to achieve.  “He’s too soft.  He’s too Euro.”

Doubts may be conveyed directly or indirectly, with force or subtlety, but in every case they let you know that little, if anything, is expected from you.

The Controlling Theme

The Controlling Theme is evident when fan base (or media) members take over and direct a player’s life using Twitter or Facebook edicts.  A fan or media member may, in effect, make all decisions for the player – what to do, what to wear, how to act, whom to befriend – and give “advice” that the players is expected to follow without question.  The controlling fan or media member has difficulty tolerating the player’s moves toward autonomy and quickly acts to restrict the player as soon as too much independence is apparent.

The Clinging Theme

Clinging fan bases encourage dependency even when it is no longer necessary or helpful.  Players aren’t encouraged to mature and strike out on their own perhaps seeking free agency and greener pastures.

Instead, the importance of holding the team together is stressed, perhaps by alluding to dangers waiting in the rest of the league or by implying that harm may come to those teammates left behind if any player should stray too far.

The Distancing Theme

The Distancing Theme is evident in fan bases in which the members are unable to develop emotional closeness.  One of the more apparent examples of distancing can be seen in fans who behave almost as if the team has no players.  They send out the message “Go away, don’t bother me,” sometimes in words, sometimes in their behaviour.  Think of the fan that comes to the arena, plops in his chair and reads his paper throughout the game.

Now what kind of fan base are you a part of?

Related posts:

1. Winter Window Pane and Hand
2. Les Canadiens Today
3. Reggie And The Logo
4. Ovechkin Proved Cherry Wrong
5. The Length of a Season
6. Carbonneau Firing a Shock