I don't remember when was the last day I did not think about Pokémon at all. In the 30 years since Pokémon debuted in Japan with the 1996 release of Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green for Nintendo Game Boy, the franchise has taken over the globe with its animated shows, mobile games and highly coveted trading cards.
Fandom is first and foremost a community. It has a shared lexicon that includes in-jokes and rapidly evolving language that would be difficult to keep up with from the outside. Like any community, it has norms and values and standards of behavior. Fandom is also a marginalized community.
Beer explores what he's learned from Men in Blazers co-founder Roger Bennett about how brands can leverage compelling storytelling and authentic fan culture, which sometimes matter more than the action on the field. Beer also shares insights from executives at major brands like Verizon and Anheuser-Busch about their World Cup marketing strategies to build lasting fan connections through global league sponsorships and tournament partnerships, while avoiding the "cultural wallpaper" effect that often happens at major sporting events.
Ahead of its 12th season in Major League Soccer and its final campaign at Yankee Stadium, NYCFC has tapped into city culture for the announcement of its official mascot, Sky Scraper, a pigeon and local New Yorker. As the club prepares for the start of a new era, it only feels right that Sky writes his own chapter into club history.
For most of a warm and breezy Sunday afternoon in Mumbai, the Wankhede Stadium felt closer to Kathmandu than India's southern metropolis as thousands of Nepalese fans sang, danced and dared to dream while their cricket team took on the mighty England in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026. A sea of red and blue replica shirts heaved in every nook and corner of the iconic 33,000-capacity venue, with supporters turning the famed Indian stadium into their adopted home.
In Germany, fans watched the games on screens in crowded town squares, their roars careening off ancient buildings, or from the banks of rivers, peering at floating, double-sided big screens on barges. At the next World Cup, in South Africa in 2010, people gathered in parks and open-air markets and hotel lobbies and unlicensed, makeshift bars in people's garages. In Brazil, four years later, fans spilled from the bars on the Copacabana or watched in restaurants
In this playoff season, I try to shut my eyes to products featured in commercial time-outs. You've seen them? The cryptic medicines to treat unspecified ailments? The pickup trucks and beer brands that signal ruggedness and romantic success. Or more tempting, the gooey-delectable double-cheese-pepperoni pizzas with yet more cheese stuffed in the crust. But one other caught my ear for novel English usage. Namely, the new infinitive "to fan."
There's something different about the "Heated Rivalry" online fandom from what I typically see - something strange brewing in the feeds, something I haven't seen in a long time, or maybe ever. It's easy for a topic to suddenly take over my Instagram Reels or TikTok feeds - those algorithms seem so sensitive that interacting with just a handful of posts on a topic can instantly send you down a rabbit hole.
"There are boy aquariums all over the United States," a TikTok creator explains in a recent post. The video then shows a clip of someone carrying a bucket filled with hockey pucks. "Come feed the fish at the boy aquarium with me," the closed captions reads. The person tosses the pucks onto the rink as players skate past. On TikTok, ice hockey arenas have been rebranded as "boy aquariums."
Episode 20 of Fan Cave Battles may be the best evidence yet that Dodgers Nation never lets us down. This week's episode not only showcases another group of imaginative fan settings, but it also crowns the Fan Cave Champion of the Month. The competition was captivating from beginning to end.
He says one person even dropped to the ground in worship not long ago at a supermarket. Some guy walked up behind me with his two kids, got on his knees and started crying, he tells FourFourTwo. I thought, Get up mate, your kids will think I f**king hit you!' He was crying his eyes out. I get that a lot with fans.
This, I learned, is known as a B'nei Mitzvah. Through a series of misadventures, it fell on the day of the Australian Rules Football (AFL) Grand Final, a day that is, in essence, the Australian equivalent of Super Bowl Sunday. I have three older brothers who all love the AFL, but it's my younger sister who is our family's most devoted fan.
Eintracht have placed the emphasis on keeping the opposition quiet in their past two competitive games, and with good reason after suddenly becoming one of the most porous teams defensively in the Bundesliga, and that concerning pattern extending into the UEFA Champions League. Three conceded at Bayer Leverkusen started the unwanted trend and it worsened with four against both Union Berlin and Borussia Mönchengladbach and then five Gegentore against both Atlético Madrid and Liverpool on the continental front
STAYC drew thousands of spectators last month for the final stop on the US leg of their tour, STAY TUNED,' drawing thousands of fans to the Theater at Madison Square Garden. With the rallying call, STAYC Girls is going down! echoing throughout the venue, fans beamed with pride as SUMIN, SIEUN, ISA, SEEUN, J, and YOON lit up the stage on October 21. The six-member girl group delivered an unforgettable performance for over 2,000 supporters filled with STAYC's signature Teen Fresh energy, combining a perfect blend of charm, confidence, and talent.
As number 39, he is the last player to be mentioned, but instead of the customary name check, the word Bruno is bellowed through the speaker and then boomed around the four corners of the ground in unilateral response. It is a way of recognising not only how important the Brazilian is to the team and Eddie Howe, but also the strength of feeling towards him from the supporters. His passion and emotion is infectious.
And, here we are. With a team that seems to be considered by most to be middling ( super rude @Bleacher Report [25th]), still sticking it out. As passionately infuriated as ever about all the wonderful minutiae. Like, no one appreciating Ochai Agbaji's defence. Or, celebrating Scottie Barnes as one of the best basketball minds in the game. Or, noticing that for the last two years Jakob Pöltl has been top 20 in on/off efficiency in the league.
The allure of a "pop-up" tour from the Midwest Princess herself was one that attracted droves of fans - in pinks and blues and reds - from across the States to the grassy knolls of Brookside at the Rose Bowl. It's a rare feat that an artist has such a pull, only recently repeated by that of Oasis, whose draw was more than a decade in the making.
"I think it's great, I love being in a market where there's so much passion," he said. "I can't imagine wanting to be in a different place where you wouldn't want to win. I really appreciate the passion; it's ingrained in everybody's blood here. I see bumper stickers all the time. I see kids with jerseys at school and I absolutely love it. Wouldn't want to be anywhere else."
One is baseball, one is sumo wrestling and the other one is horse racing. We are always exposed to racing and thoroughbreds are beautiful animals, and there is drama and romance and a challenge to the Arc because we've been trying to win for more than 50 years. I think that's why Japanese people are so attached to the Arc.
The whump of pitchside flames, the tinny theatre of the Uefa anthem, a craning of necks, a rising crackle of energy. And finally there he was out on the Stamford Bridge touchline, like some fond, long-lost figure emerging from the steam, suitcase in hand, while Jenny Agutter says Daddy, my daddy and rushes in for a hug. Except of course, this daddy is just as likely to jab her in the eye,
As well as cast members like Little Nell and Barry Bostwick, the talking heads here include original-stage-version actors, fans, and producers, one of whom really nails why Rocky is such a delight: Rocky was an accident. You can't try to have an accident. This gets to the heart of why this particular phenomenon is special and why so many imitators and projects conceived with the intention of being cult entertainment are doomed to fail
"I'm crossing oceans to see Joshua Hong, and this is going to change my life," I said in my friend group chat, drunk with victory, with my prize from the Seventeen concert ticketing war in hand. To be clear, I didn't meet the US-born member of the boy band Seventeen, but I did hop on an international flight to see him and the group perform.
As Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels made his way through the concourse of Capital One Arena following a Washington Capitals game in late April, he was forced to begrudgingly reach a conclusion about his status in the nation's capital that many had known for months: He was a big deal. On this day, the simple act of walking to the bathroom required the help of four to five security guards. There, a handful of fans tried to snap selfies with him.
THEY START GATHERING four hours before the gates open. It's a muggy Friday morning in late July, with thunder forecast for the afternoon, but the fans lining up outside the back entrance to the Cleveland Browns' training facility in Berea, Ohio, will not be deterred. They're here, on a leafy suburban street six weeks before the regular season, for the Browns' first public day of training camp, which is free each year.
Football season may be all about Sundays, but this fall, SWAG Golf is making sure the energy doesn't stop at the stadium gates. The Chicago-based disruptor in premium golf gear has teamed up with the NFL to drop a first-of-its-kind collection of officially licensed headcovers, letting fans rep their squad while chasing birdies. With all 32 franchises represented, this limited-edition release isn't just about protecting clubs - it's about bringing game-day swagger straight to the fairway.
