Sports Fans and Identities

Paul Graham wrote an essay on identity:

I finally realized today why politics and religion yield such uniquely useless discussions.

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I think what religion and politics have in common is that they become part of people’s identity, and people can never have a fruitful argument about something that’s part of their identity. By definition they’re partisan.

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More generally, you can have a fruitful discussion about a topic only if it doesn’t engage the identities of any of the participants. What makes politics and religion such minefields is that they engage so many people’s identities. But you could in principle have a useful conversation about them with some people. And there are other topics that might seem harmless, like the relative merits of Ford and Chevy pickup trucks, that you couldn’t safely talk about with others.

Paul makes a great point. Many people label themselves using religion and politics. “I’m a Catholic” or “I’m a Libertarian”. But Paul forgot one label that many people identify with. Sports. How often do you hear… “The Gators suck! But the Huskers rule! Lolzz!” These sorts of statements are made often. Just go visit any teams’ forum. Arguing with a fan about his team will often turn into yelling matches that rival those of toddlers.

It’s been said that sports are recession proof. Sports are a multi-billion dollar per year industry. I’m not quite sure how you would capitalize on religion or politics, but capitalizing on sports is much easier.

My point is, if you’re looking for a market, I’m not sure that there is any better market than sports. That’s what we do. And that’s what Tribal Fan will do. Stay tuned.