By all appearances, things on the Yellow Wall seemed as they always had been.
asserted
they → seem → Wall
The stadium announcer hollered out the first names of Borussia Dortmund’s starting lineup and the supporters responded with their last names, tens of thousands of voices bellowing as one.
asserted
thousands → holler → one
Dozens of black and yellow flags waved over Europe’s largest standing terrace, a mass of faces fixed on the field beneath them.
asserted
Dozens → wave → them
And then Signal Iduna Park, sold out with 81,365 fans, roared when Max Beier’s lone goal led Dortmund to victory over Eintracht Frankfurt last Saturday, putting the home side even on points with Bayern Munich atop the Bundesliga standings.
Yet, apparently, a crisis of a sort has been churning just below the surface of what is, by broad consensus, Europe’s best home support.
asserted
what → sell → consensus
On Friday, Dortmund had announced a kind of bribery scheme.
asserted
Dortmund → announce → scheme
A rewards program is probably a kinder way of putting it.
asserted
program → put → it
Fans who stayed off their phones during the bout with Eintracht had the chance to win signed jerseys and earn gift cards to the club’s merchandise store.
asserted
who → stay → store
If they activated a so-called “fan mode” on the club’s app – a name so phenomenally passive-aggressive you can only applaud whoever came up with it – the club could count who unlocked their phones the fewest times during the game.
uncertain
who → activate → game
For every minute the fans left their phones alone, they got points.
asserted
they → leave → points
Dortmund are not the only German team to pick a fight with phones.
asserted
Dortmund → pick → phones
Second-division clubs Hertha Berlin and Dynamo Dresden have banned commercial influencer-style videos in their stadiums altogether, fearing for both the integrity of the TV rights they sell and the experience of their fans.
asserted
they → ban → fans
Dortmund, likewise, appear motivated by the incursion of influencers, who are siphoning off and monetizing footage of the famous match-day experience and growing into a nuisance for regulars.
asserted
who → appear → regulars
This problem has also afflicted the tennis majors.
asserted
problem → afflict → majors
The US Open now resembles an influencer convention more than it does a tennis tournament.
asserted
it → resemble → tournament
When the US Tennis Association credentialed more than 100 content creators this year, the influencers grew so disruptive that a match was stopped when a chair umpire had to ask them to turn off a ring light.
asserted
umpire → credentiale → light
Wimbledon has refused to credential influencers for just this reason, which doesn’t stop them from getting in with regular tickets or through sponsors.
asserted
which → refuse → sponsors
Dortmund’s attempt at shaping fan behavior, however, goes further than warding off the cultural content parasites.
asserted
attempt → shape → parasites
This please-stop-holding-up-your-phones-and-just-live-in-the-present plea raises quasi-existential questions about sport and its consumption.
asserted
plea → stop → sport
“Over 81,000 people in the stadium, singing, cheering, and holding their breath together: this here and now is irreplaceable,” Dortmund chief executive Carsten Cramer said.
asserted
Cramer → sing → breath
“And that’s exactly what we’re putting front and center together.”
asserted
we → ’ → what
“Anyone at a soccer game should experience the moment and the emotions – not just a cell phone screen,” added Marcel de Groot, the chief executive of Vodafone Germany, both a cellphone service provider and a Dortmund sponsor.
asserted
Groot → experience → Germany
“Let’s leave our smartphones in our pockets more often at the stadium and instead focus on what’s happening on the field and in the stands.
asserted
what → let → stands
These were statements delivered with unshakeable confidence in their righteousness, yet there is evidence to suggest this simply isn’t how some fans want to behave at stadiums.
asserted
fans → deliver → stadiums
Which begs the question: can, and should, professional sports teams get to dictate how their ticket-buying fans experience their games?
asserted
fans → beg → games
It’s surely a question that’s crossed the mind of all the musicians who now perform to a sea of cell phones, their flashlights on, obscuring the faces in the crowd.
asserted
flashlights → ’ → crowd
Did their fans buy the right to experience the concert as they please?
asserted
they → buy → concert
Or does this objectify the musicians and diminish the performance, somehow?
asserted
this → objectify → performance
It goes back to the question of whether sport is entertainment, and whether its consumers get to sit back and let the proceedings and the attendant stimuli wash over them.
asserted
proceedings → go → them
Or whether they are something else entirely: active participants in the games they attend.
asserted
they → attend → games
If that is so, then fandom amounts to a parasocial relationship conferring membership to a community with attendant behavioral expectations.
asserted
fandom → amount → expectations
What are the responsibilities of the ticketholder? Do teams get to purity-test their supporters?
asserted
teams → get → supporters
What do fans owe their teams?
asserted
fans → owe → ?
A day out, not unlike going to the movies or a museum, where nobody expects total focus and for you to cheer on the thing you’re looking at?
asserted
you → go → thing
Is it heresy to even suggest this?
asserted
it → suggest → this
The latter tends to be the view, or at least the vibe, in most American sports leagues where fans are often less engaged, told by an announcer and a jumbo screen when and what to clap or stomp or chant.
asserted
fans → tend → announcer
This has always contrasted with the feel of global football, where the folklore is usually organic, sparked and dictated by the fans themselves.
asserted
folklore → contrast → fans
It’s why all of those pre-game and half-time concerts at the World Cup final rankled, drowning out the thrum of the throaty Argentina fans.
asserted
all → ’ → fans
It feels both instructive and fitting that this debate broke out at Dortmund.
asserted
debate → feel → Dortmund
The Bundesliga’s rules on safeguarding fan majority ownership of very nearly every club have preserved the league as a kind of supporters’ paradise, with relatively cheap tickets and policies that put fans first.
asserted
that → safeguard → fans
Dortmund, for their part, have been held up for years as a paradigm for their following – thus attracting the influencers, of course.
asserted
Dortmund → hold → course
…and 5 more, not listed.
The Aporia
