- Question
Is sport fandom a religion?
Does devotion to a sports team function like a religion? This entry sets out the two positions on the question — that sports fandom is a religion, and that it is not — weighing ritual, community and belief against the differences.
Position 1 of 2
Read this position →Yes, sports fandom is a religion
This position holds that supporting a team performs the functions a religion performs: shared ritual, a sacred calendar and sacred ground, inherited loyalty, an in-group with its own heretics, and a source of identity, meaning and belonging.
Position 2 of 2
Read this position →No, sports fandom is not a religion
This position holds that the likeness is one of form only. Fandom borrows the outward shapes of religion, its gatherings, songs and sacred places, but asserts nothing about what is true and imposes no account of how a life should be lived.