“Beşiktaş Means Everything To Us”: Football Fandom Within Consumption And Sacredness Context

Abstract

Fan consumption behavior motivated by symbolic meanings instead of rationality. In other words, the reason of fans’ consumption behavior is the favor of the team. Related to fan behavior and consumption, the term sacredness is crucial. Thus, two contradictory concepts; sacredness and consumption (which is a secular area that is connected to market rules) are brought together within the fan behavior context. In this study, Beşiktaş Football Club fans’ behavior within the consumption and sacredness framework is examined. For this issue, Beşiktaş’s biggest fan group Çarşı’s web site and social media accounts is analyzed via discourse analysis. With the aim of analyzing the data, the Miles and Huberman (1984)’s technique was applied. Within the football-sacredness framework six dimensions are appeared: place, time, tangible things, intangible things, people/other beings, and experiences. The relation of these dimensions with different consumption forms is also analyzed.