Naslov
Construction of sport audience: A case study of KHL Medveščak Zagreb

Autori
Nuredinović, Andrej Ivan ; Vukušić, Dino

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, sažetak, znanstveni

Izvornik
Book of Abstracts - EASS 2023 Budapest Conference: Transitioning sport Transitioning European societies / Perényi, Szilvia ; Dóczi, Tamás - , 2023, 62-62

Skup
Budapest: European Association for Sociology of Sport

Mjesto i datum
Budimpešta, Mađarska, 30.05.2023. - 02.06.2023

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
comodification, sportainment, flâneur, hockey, KHL Medveščak Zagreb

Sažetak
Contemporary professional sports are part of the global economic system and corporate business. Coakley (2015) see contemporary professional sports as sporttainment, a kind of fusion of sports and the entertainment industry. Professional sports became one of the key promoters of consumer culture. In Croatia the audience mostly reacted passively to this process of commodification of sports, except the ultras subculture, which characteristically shows resistance to these processes, insisting on the values that clubs have for the local community (Perasović and Mustapić 2013 ; Šantek and Vukušić, 2016 ; Hodges 2018). There are not many hockey clubs in Croatia, the number of visitors to matches is extremely small, and this sport is marginally followed by the media. Nevertheless, ‘KHL Medveščak Zagreb’ in the period between 2009 and 2019 experienced its peak in terms of sports and marketing, participating first in the EBEL league, and then in KHL league, the strongest hockey league after the NHL. The club's participation in these competitions was financed by several sponsors and during that period the project was extremely popular. Once the funding stopped and the club withdrew from the competition interest of the audience quickly declined and the club was liquidated in 2019. After that, the club operates under the new name ‘Medveščak mladi’ and participates exclusively in the domestic championship with a very small number of spectators in the stands. In this paper, we will test the applicability of Gullianoti's (2002) fan typology (supporter - follower - fan - flâneur) on the example of the audience of KHL Medveščak Zagreb during the period of the rapid growth of the club. Applying this typology to our research, it is clear that the audience at Medveščak's matches mostly falls under the category of flâneurs, commodified followers of sporting events. However, we point out the existence of subtypes of this ideal type, which are different in their style, but function according to the same commodification logic of hedonism. In-depth, semi- structured interviews (N=10) were conducted with regular visitors to Medveščak matches in the specified period.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Sociologija

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