Has Being A Sports Fan Changed? 1996-2026: 30 Years of Being a Fan

Cold Open

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Do you remember what it felt like to be a sports fan thirty years ago? Waiting all day for the game to start, racing home to catch that opening face-off or the first pitch? Celebrating the wins, replaying the losses, and talking about it all with friends the next day? Today we've never have to wait. Scores, highlights, rumors, and opinions are in the palm of our hands within seconds. But here's the question. Has that made being a sports fan better? Or have we lost something along the way?

Intro

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Welcome to True Fan True Opinions. I'm Sue. Around here, being a true fan doesn't mean blindly agreeing with everything your team does. It means caring enough to tell the truth. So let's talk sports, like fans do.

Then or Now

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Before we dive in, let me be clear about one thing. This episode isn't about saying sports were better 30 years ago because they weren't. And it's not about saying today's fans have it worse because we don't. Sports have changed. Technology has changed. The world has changed. So it only makes sense that being a sports fan has changed too. Today I want to take this trip through 30 years of sports fandom by comparing 1996 to 2026. And for the ones that weren't born then, well, this might be a little history lesson, a little eye-opener. We'll talk about how we watch games, how we followed our teams, how we celebrated championships, even how we argued about sports. And whether all these changes have actually made us better fans, or simply different ones. Because by the end of this episode, I think you'll realize the biggest changes in sports haven't happened on the field, the court, or on the ice. They've happened in the stands, on our couches, in all of us as fans. So let's get into it.

Watching Sports

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Okay, first, let's talk about how we watch sports. And this has changed so much. So back then, 1996-ishish, the games were scheduled around airtime, right? They were scheduled specific days, specific times. A lot of us suffered through local regional blackouts. Remember that? And if your favorite team was not from your state, province, city, whatnot, well, good luck watching it live. You watch full games live in your living room or in bars. Remember the VCR? Like if you knew you weren't gonna make it on time or you had another event to go to or whatever. You had to like record the game, right? And watch it when you got home. And then do you remember waiting for sports highlights at 11 o'clock news? Right? Because you missed a game, either you were working, you were out, whatever. I do. I remember wondering did my team win? What was the score? Did someone get hurt? Right? So you stayed up later in the evening to watch the sports highlights. No, you're listening also to the games on the radio. Like I remember when I was a kid at camp and listening to the Blue Jays on the radio. And then you're looking at the newspaper the next day, right? That was your replay. You were reading that box score. You were looking at the highlights, that picture of that winning goal or the overtime goal or the home run. Right? So it was different how we watch those games. Now, 2026, the fan controls the broadcasts. And what I mean by that is you can order these different apps and watch any team you want at any time, on any kind of different highlight packages. You can watch stuff on TikTok, Apple TV. Never mind just normal cable TV. There's multi-view streaming. You can watch two, three games at the same time. Some of us even have a second TV side by side. You got your laptops, your tablets. It just has changed so much. And then there's the hyper-personalized uh interactive broadcast, right? They use like the streaming media insights and AI tools. Just customize a live game for you, for each viewer, for the fan. So, like instead of a single feed for everyone, fans get tailored camera angles and target ads like for you, just for you. So, like back in 1996, when the game came on, that was your entire focus, right? You just watched that. And when the commercial came on, you ran to the washroom, get your snacks. It was one TV, one game, no second screen. You lived every pitch, every shift, every play. I mean, like today, many of us watch it phone in one hand, a tablet nearby, and another game playing on a second screen. Like I've done it a whole bunch of times the last couple years. Multiple games going on. When the Raptors are on, with the hockeys on, the Blue Jays are in the playoffs. We have access to more sports than ever before. But you know what? Sometimes I wonder if we're given any one full game our full attention.

Social Media & News

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All right, another area that changed the sports fan, one extreme to the next. You got your sports news and your social media. So back then, to get some sports news, you had to watch that game at that day for that broadcast, right? You had to listen to the broadcasters and the analysts at that time. Or you catch the evening sports highlight show, but they were at fixed hours, like 6 p.m. You know the news was on at like 6:25 p.m. or the 11 o'clock news. Or you waited for the morning newspaper, like I mentioned before, and you had to go to the sports section. And for social media, you had basically only two ways of interactions. One, you had to call in radio shows. Remember that? And you would call and call and you wouldn't even get on. And you're agreeing with the caller, or you're yelling and disagreeing at the radio because you can't believe what the caller just said or what the host just said. The other way was physical in-person banter, right? With your buddies at the bar, your family during the holidays, the next day at work or at school, right? So you were interacting at the water cooler. Is that what they say? The next day? That's what you talked about. Now, 2026, it's literally in your hands, the cell phone. The sports fan, we receive instant mobile pushes, notifications. My phone's always going off. I'm always looking at it because there's this and that going on and scores, updates, everything. Right? Like breaking news are updated within seconds. Every trade, every mistake becomes breaking news, national news. And then with social media, well, every fan has a voice. And on the short form platforms like Facebook, TikTok, X, you didn't have to wait till the next day to talk to somebody, to disagree, to argue, to debate, to have a conversation. You did now. Instant. Like that play just happened. That home run just happened. That goal just happened. That referee's stupid call just happened. Everything's instant. Right? The real-time reactions from fan to fan. And not just locally, it's global. Like I remember interacting with people in Europe, people in the states. And then you can do all this engagement, all these conversations, all these debates, all these banters. You can be by yourself and your PJs on the couch, drinking and eating pizza, nachos, whatever. Or you could be listening to podcasts, right? And there's so many different TV daily programs on every channel. And there's specific channels, right? For golf, for tennis. Which brings me to the question: has all of this instant information made us better sports fans? Or has it taken away the excitement of waiting?

Fantasy Sports & Sports Betting

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Another area that completely changed for the sports fan. You got your sports betting and fantasy sports. So back then, I remember doing fantasy leagues. I had to take my paper home and look at the newspapers, maybe reading stuff from the last week or so, watching the news to see if somebody mentions any kind of injuries or whatnot, right? And you had to go through your computer, maybe a fax machine, or wait till you got to work or to school and hand it to the guy or the person that was taking care of the fantasy league. Right? I remember calculating like my stats on paper and going back through if my magazines or newspapers, like I said. So like the fantasy sport was different back then. Sports betting. I mean, like you had to be in Vegas. There wasn't like ProLine that you can just bet or apps. Maybe you knew the local bookie. Maybe you that's how you place your bets. And now, well, the sports fan can manage daily fantasy apps like instantly. You can even manage your own leagues. You don't have to wait for the guy at work or the person at school. And you can place wages instantly on your phone. You don't have to go to the corner store, you don't have to go to a buddy. And you can wage on like so many different things. You can even track like real-time props in game. So things you can bet on the next inning, the next period, the next quarter. And it's all there in the palm of your hands. You don't really have to do research, it does it for you. 30 years ago, if you wanted that edge, you had to earn it by putting in the time and finding the information yourself. Today, the information is everywhere. For me, guys, the challenge isn't finding the stats anymore, it's deciding which ones actually matter.

Fan Loyalty

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Okay, and then there's loyalty. Oh man, loyalty. And I can honestly say this one has changed the most for me, and I'm gonna explain what I mean by that. So, back in the day, 1996-ish, fans usually stuck with the one team, right? You followed the local home team blindly, and then loyalty passed down from family generation to generation. Your team was like religion. And then 2026. Now I do believe there were sports fans that still ride and die with their teams, like I do with the Blue Jays. But fan loyalty has changed more by following players and not so much for teams. And I'm gonna explain why I say that. Well, I think it's a lot easier to follow individual players and not just the teams than you did back in the day. Um the players are more visible, right? They're more out there. When back then it was the team and maybe a couple superstars. Now you kind of know a little bit of everybody. And you follow them through juniors and college, so you have a little bit more of a rapport with the players. So with the players and the athletes switching teams more often, so does the loyalty of the sports fan. We tend to change teams a little bit more. And I said I can relate because I'm a big sports fan. But if I look at hockey, 1996, I liked my two teams and that was it. And now, the last 10, 15 years, especially the last couple years, I've liked different hockey teams because of certain players, because I saw them in juniors, I've seen them at the Olympics, I've and I just tend to follow them with their teams. No, not the Blue Jays, that's my loyalty a hundred percent, and that's not gonna change. But when I looked at other sports, yeah, that loyalty fan base has changed for me. So I guess what I'm saying is team loyalty hasn't disappeared, it has evolved. More fans today build their loyalty around star players instead of the logo on the jersey.

Athlete Access

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Which brings me to another topic that has changed for the sports fan: access to the athletes. So in 1996, back then athletes felt larger than life. They were viewed distance, untouchable icons. They were like God, right? The superstars, especially the superstars. They didn't do a lot of interviews, and those interviews were usually politically correct, no flair to them, really not a lot of drama. But now, present, 2026, social media gives us a front row seat to their lives beyond the game. Like we know their eating habits, the restaurants they go to, the clothes they're wearing, who made them, who are they getting married to, where did they go on holidays? And then their personalities, like it's through Instagram, X, Twitter, whatever. You can even have conversations with them on the social media platforms. They'll make comments back. And the players themselves, they call each other out. I mean, sometimes that's more entertaining than the games themselves, but we get to see that. We get to see them banter. They even host their own podcasts. Like they're everywhere. So this makes me wonder do we really know athletes better today? Or do we just know more about them? Our relationship with these athletes wasn't the only thing that changed over the last 20, 30 years.

Analytics vs The Eye Test

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It's the way we judged their performance. That changed too. So, of course, we need to discuss this. So you got your analytics versus your eye tests. The eye tests, right? So back then, for the most part, fans trusted what they saw. There was really no replay. You saw what you saw on the ice, on the court, on the field. If a player looked great, they were great. We valued simple stats. Wins and losses. How many points? How many home runs? Right? The stats were very limited. Nowadays, well, the numbers often carry as much weight as the game itself. Everything's about stats. There's the war, the expected goals, exit velocity, course, and dozens of advanced metrics that have become part of the everyday sports conversations. The numbers, they influence almost every debate. There's no denying that we've never had more stats, more data, or more ways to analyze sports. But sometimes I do wonder have we lost a little of the emotion that made us fans in the first place? Because stats explain the game, but emotion is what makes us remember the game. So analytics changed how we understand sports,

Technology

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and technology changed how we experience the games. So let's talk about that. Back in 1996, technology played a much smaller role in sports, right? Fans accepted the referees or the umpire's decisions, even when it was wrong. Yelled at the TV, but it was what it was. Because the replays, they were limited. Broadcasts were much simpler. Usually the games only had the one angle, so you can only see it that one time. And watching the game just meant trusting what happened in real time. And now, technology is part of almost every sport. You got your instant replay, your VAR, there's goal line technology, the hawkeye view, drones, yeah, your strike zone graphics, advanced camera angles, streaming, real-time stats that they'll just pop on the TV, right? And when you're watching the baseball games on Apple TV, they're telling you the next pitch that maybe that hitter has 12% of hitting a home run on that ball that the pitcher's gonna throw. And and those stats have made the games more accurate. And you're giving the fans more information than ever before. So the sports fan has changed, right? Because today we don't just watch the game, we analyze every angle right alongside the officials. We're all referees, we're all umps. And why? Because it's right there at so many different angles, so many different replays. So, friends, we can agree, right? Technology has changed sports forever. But I want you guys to think about this, and I want to hear some comments, I want some feedback. I want to know, would you trade at all just to relive one unforgettable moment exactly as we did back then?

Fan Communities

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Alright, so we talked about how the fan experience has changed over the last 30 years. But after all these changes, there's even a bigger question. How have they changed us as sports fans? So let's end this discussion with two questions every sports fan should ask themselves. One, have our expectations changed? And two, have we become a little bit more toxic along the way? The sports fans' expectations from the 90s to now. Well, back in 1996, being a fan meant having patience. Teams had time to rebuild. Young players had time to develop. Coaches weren't on the hot seat after every losing streak. And one bad game didn't define an entire season. We always just believe we'll get them the next game. Oh yeah, sure, we complain. Fans complain. We've always done that. But I think we just had a little bit more understanding that success takes time. It's not just overnight, it's not just one season or two. And you fast forward to now, 2026, everything feels immediate. Like, God forbid, if your team loses five in a row, never mind, just three in a row. People are calling for the coach to be fired. They're doing that after a bad decision. You pulled the pitcher too fast, you pulled the goalie too fast, you left them in there too long. And if a young player struggles, fans are so ready to trade them. Get rid of them. Right? They don't want to wait for that development, that extra year or two. Every mistake is clipped, shared, analyzed, and debated within minutes. Not the next couple of days when you get back to school after the weekend or work or when you go to church the following week. Right? You debated those things now. So we, the sports fan, have become accustomed, right? To get everything instantly. So I sometimes wonder if we start expecting instant success too. So that leads me to another question every sports fan should ask themselves.

Has It Become More Toxic?

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Has being a sports fan become more toxic? Well, back in the day, yeah. Debates got heated. There was arguments. But once the game was over, most of the conversation stayed between friends, family, coworkers, with your buddies. People you knew. And if you disagreed with someone, well, you agree to disagree. And then chances are you just moved on and look forward to the next game. And now today every fan has a voice. And that's great. But sometimes it feels like we've forgotten there's a real person on the other side of the screen. And it's easier than ever to criticize players, coaches, officials, right? Because we're all experts now. We all have the stats in front of us. I mean, we even criticize other fans. A bad game can lead to hundreds of angry comments within minutes, like hundreds. And sometimes the line between passionate criticism and personal attacks get crossed. Sports betting has added another layer, too, right? Like for some fans, one missed shot, one blown safe, or even a questionable call doesn't just ruin the game, it costs them money. So that frustration often gets directed to the athletes and the officials. How fair is that? Hey, listen, passion has always been part of sports. That's what we love about it. The way we get excited, the way it makes us feel. But have sports fans become more toxic? Or has social media simply given every fan a microphone? So after everything we talked about today,

What Do You Think?

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what do you think? Has being a sports fan really changed over the last 30 years? Or are we just still chasing the exact same feeling we were back in 1996? I want to know, have you changed as a sports

Sue's True Moment

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fan? Alright, so before I wrap things up, you guessed it. It is now time for Sue's true moment. Throughout this episode, we've talked about how being a sports fan has changed over the past 30 years. But for me, two baseball moments perfectly capture both worlds. The first takes me back to Saturday, October 1993. Joe Carter steps to the plate, and then it happens. One swing, one home run. Legendary Tom Cheeks call. Touch them all, Joe. You'll never hit a bigger home run in your life. Man, I still get chills to this day. One of the greatest moments in Canadian sports history. I remember jumping up and celebrating with my mom and one of my closest friends. There was no smartphones, no social media. And when the game ended, you picked up the phone and called people one by one because you couldn't wait to relive what you just witnessed. The next day at work, Monday at school, it felt like everyone was talking about the same moment. Every conversation started the same way. Can you believe it? World Series champions. And now you fast forward to 2025. Game seven of the American League Championship series. You know what I'm talking about. You can see it. George Springer comes to the plate and crushes a go-ahead three-run home run in the seventh inning, sending the Blue Jays back to the World Series. The celebration was just as real. The excitement was just as powerful. But this time I didn't have to wait until the next morning to share it. Within seconds, my phone exploded with messages. Friends were texting, social media was celebrating, and thousands of Blue Jays fans across Canada were reacting together in real time. It felt like the entire country was connected by one incredible moment. Looking back, I wouldn't trade either experience. One reminds me of the excitement of waiting to share the unforgettable memories with the people around me. The other reminds me how technology can instantly connect passionate fans from coast to coast to coast. The way we experience sports has changed dramatically over the past 30 years. But one thing hasn't changed. That feeling, when your team gives you a moment, you'll remember forever. And that's why, my friends, I'll always love being a sports fan.

Outro

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Thanks so much for listening to another episode of True Fan True Opinions. If you enjoyed today's conversation, I really appreciate it if you follow the show, leave a review, and share it with another sports fan. And don't forget, I want to hear your thoughts. Did you agree with my takes? Did I miss something? Let me know in the comments or on social media. Until next time, keep sharing, keep believing, and remember chin up, don't give up. I'm rooting for you.