Week 11 (13) FINAL

Question 1

Identify and describe the three types of fans (according to Dixon).

Answer 1

1. The Partisan = someone who sticks with the team through the good and the bad - with them no matter what
   
   • Grassroots partisan = knows the players - they’re friends or families, true for local amateur teams
   • professional sport partisan fans = still support local team even if they don’t know the players personally
2. The Purist = supports the team who they think displays the highest virtues of the game, allegiance is flexible, basically neutral as they’re watching for skill
3. Moderate Partisan = combo of loyalty of partisan and purists views that if they do not follow the rules they don’t deserve support. Sticks with their team even when they loosing but dips out when they’re behaving badly

Question 2

According to Dixon what are some good things about the purest?

Answer 2

• appears to be true fan of the game (no hometown bias)
• makes partisan appear superficial
• doesn’t want favourite team to win, certainly not at all costs, but just wants best team to win a fair match

Question 3

According to Dixon, what are some good things about the partisan?

Answer 3

• love for team is romantic, and romanitic love is good
  -> you fall in love with the team becasue of certain qualities, but over time you love them becasue they are THAT TEAM - the same team you fell in love with
  -> it’s unconditional love
  -> romantic love is loyal

Question 4

According to Dixon, what are some bad things about the purest?

Answer 4

• they’re like a sociophath - incapable of love for a team, trading up and always looking for the best team, doesn’t belive in stay with a team through the good and the bad
• cannot form meaningfull bond with a team
• too fickle to financially support any team
• too imposible to be a purist - hard to not form a bond with a team

Question 5

According to Dixon, what’s the bad thing about the partisan?

Answer 5

ignores the fact that sometimes a team should be abandoned like when they cheat or violate the spirit of the game. Even romantic love is not fully unconditional

Question 6

Identify and describe any two objections to the moderate partisan view, and Dixon’s responses.

Answer 6

1. partisan fans commit immoral actions (ex. acting violently towards other team)
   R: not neccesarily, you love your family but you won’t act violently towards other families, and moderate partisans hold their teams to high moral standards so they probably hold themselves to those high standards as well
2. they admire exceptional athletes so they contempt mediocre athletes
   R: it is not clear that loving good athletes entails that you hate not good ones, and this is a probelm for the purist not the moderate partisan
3. it’s partial - gives special treatment to a favoured group of people
   R: yeah so what? it’s not bad unless you own the other teams that same treatment but you don’t. You owe them no harm and you’re not harming them.
4. it’s a form ot tribalism, dividing fans into arbitraty opposing factions
   R: it’s not trivial, it’s; physical excellence, mental qualities, aesthetic qualities which are not trivial at all
   R: if you can criticize this, then you can criticize romantic love too, which you shouldn’t so you shouldn’t criticize this either
   R: it’s not unconditional, there are behavious that are not tolerated and will be boycotted