New Media and the NFL Fan: Determining the Impact of New Media on Team Identification in Displaced NFL Fans

Sports team identification, when viewed through the lens of social identity theory (Tajfel, 1978), can be seen as a powerful means of maintaining one's sense of self and feelings of belonging as part of a group. In some cases, team identification has been found to be based on one's feelings of connection with the geographic location of that team (Uhlman & Trail, 2012). Furthermore, prior research has shown that bonds of team identification forged in one's youth are particularly strong (James, 2001). The surge of new media options that have appeared in the last decade are changing the way in which sport fans consume sports (Fairley & Tyler, 2012). This in tum is providing a new twist on the conventional understanding that fans must be part of a fan community in order to remain highly identified over time (Hyatt, 2007) by providing opportunities for virtual fan communities. As such, the following research question guides this study: How does current distance from hometown, length of time gone from hometown, use of new media, and feelings of attachment to one's hometown impact levels of team identification with the hometown NFL team? The study also employs a secondary research question that considers the relationship between the difference between attachment levels to hometown and current community attachment and the existence of an NFL market in one's current community, in terms of the likelihood that one will remain highly identified with one's hometown team. The first research question utilized a multiple linear regression model that was found to be significant, explaining 31.7% of the variance in levels of team identification among non-local NFL fans. The use of social media, the use of Internet streaming, and level of hometown identification were found to be significant variables. RQ2 utilized a 3x2 two-way ANOV A which demonstrated that there was a significant difference in team identification based on differences between hometown and current community attachment.