Rethinking Fandom: How to Beat the Sports-Industrial Complex at Its Own Game

by Craig Calcaterra

A fundamental reevaluation of how to be a sports fan by an acclaimed baseball writer.

Sports fandom isn’t what it used to be. Owners and executives increasingly count on the blind loyalty of their fans and too often act against the team’s best interest. Intentionally tanking a season to get a high draft pick, scamming local governments to build cushy new stadiums, and actively subverting the players have become business as usual in professional sports.

In Rethinking Fandom, sportswriter (and lifelong sports fan) Craig Calcaterra argues that fans have more power than they realize to change how their teams behave. With his characteristic wit and piercing commentary, Calcaterra calls for a radical reexamination of what it means to be a fan in the twenty-first century.

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction, Baseball, History, Audiobook, Economics, Politics

150 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 5, 2022

Reviews

[Nathan Shuherk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Asks a lot of important questions to sports fans and gives very precise and empathic evaluations for how fandom should (needs to) change. Really enjoyed this quick read a lot. Would absolutely recommend to any type of sports fan, especially those that have felt different about sports - like somehow things are changing (spoiler: they are) in the past few years.4. Thanks Belt for this review copy. Tiktok review coming soon.

[Beauregard Francis · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first half of the book is a brief history of the shady shit that happens in baseball, with occasional focus on NFL and NBA history. I'm a pretty casual baseball fan so it was interesting to me to have a general overview of business-side baseball stuff I didn't know about.

The second half is a personal manifesto of the author defecting from his sports teams throughout his life for various reasons and urging the reader to reconsider their fandom and do what makes them happy. I became a sports fan later in my life (my folks are only casual NFL watchers), so this section didn't really hit for me but I was happy that the author seems to be finding more joy in sports now. I definitely agree with his points that you can just root for individual players, be a casual fan, and drop your teams if the management or people are shit.

My main grief with this book is the lack of citations. The author is apparently a professional sports writer, and I was pretty frustrated that there was no bibliography of any kind. The book starts out with like "A 2018 study" this and "A recent study" that, to the extent that I was pretty surprised that there was no references either at the end of chapters or in the back. Feels pretty short-sighted, at least for the beginning history section, to not have anything.

[Luis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Craig is pissed at sports, but I would say for the wrong reasons. He's gripe (albeit not wrong) is that this is a billionaires against us thing, again not wrong, but he wants the sports to be what he wants in the sense that a kid wants things the way he wants or he'll take his ball home. There are many reasons to question the attention and resources we give sports (time with family, relationship with China/BLM, wokeness at universities, etc.) but he picked the wrong ones. At least twice he mentions conservatives as part of the problem, which tells us clearly what his biases are. This is just a big rant and Craig's thoughts are absolutely interchangeable with those of Keith Law or Jay Jaffe or many other social justice sport writers. There is some good industry insight info here and there, other than that, there is not one original thought or argument.

[Lucia · Rating 4 out of 5]

absolutely loved reading this! definitely thought the first half of the book (which outlines the problematic nature of being a sports fan rn, and gives specific examples of the sports-industrial complex at play) was stronger and more fleshed out than the second half of the book (which provides recommendations for how to be thoughtful about being a sports fan). it seems like the author doesn't think that there's much one can do to challenge the sports-industrial complex besides rethinking one's own fandom on the individual level (he doesn't really propose any kind of collective fan actions). that said, though, i really enjoyed his suggestion that fans should embrace what he calls "metafandom"—finding parts about sports to enjoy that go beyond watching the actual game itself (e.g. what fans are talking about, player transactions, the lore surrounding the game). this book caused me to examine my relationship to the team i currently follow the most closely (the yankees) and ask myself if they're taking up the amount and kind of space i want them to be taking up in my life.

overall, this book was such a joy to read because of the author's witty, conversational writing style. he shares lots of personal anecdotes, makes lots of entertaining comparisons, and is very open about how he feels politically. this book doesn't go super deep, but it feels like a really good jumping off point to explore ideas about the intersections of sports + activism, sports + labor, sports + social justice, sports + the military, etc. so grateful that it exists!

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been reading Craig for more than a decade, so much of his views here are known to me. It was a treat, however, to read this nominal blogger at book length, fleshing out the ideas he's taken from Shysterball to NBC to his email newsletter. I'm left with the thought that the fans who most need to read this book won't do so, I'm afraid.

[Darin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sports according to your hyper-political uncle that you dread seeing at Thanksgiving. Read chapters 1 and 8 and skip the rest.

[Taylor Franson-Thiel · Rating 4 out of 5]

In reality this is a 5 star read and one of my favorites of 2025 so far. This is a series of essays that read like blog posts or research focused articles.

Okay so why 4 stars and not 5?

Because I have principles.

It’s losing .5 for no sources in the back of the book. This was probably a money saving venture (this book is 228 pages—you can read it in two hours if you focus) but still, a lot of “this happened” and “this person said this” with zero citations to fact check.

It is also losing .5 stars for a lack of examination of the misogyny within the sports-industrial complex. There were TWO singular lip service sentences (one about three female athletes who are paid less than male counterparts, one about gatekeeping women from sports) in this entire book. Again, only 228 pages, this author was able to connect classism and racism to sports, but couldn’t write one measly article about the vitriol within the sports community toward women? (It was written in 2022 so post-Covid-height, but pre Caitlyn Clark, still no freebies here….)

Okay not that my ranting is done

THIS BOOK FUCKS. IT IS SO GOOD. like truly i was just reading it like finallyyyyyyyy someone is addressing these issues. Thank you sir Calcaterra for finally bringing some damn common sense to the table. It was so refreshing. It was so wise. Sports fans with decent literacy or actual experience playing sports will get it. BILLIONAIRES DONT CARE ABOUT YOU!!!!!!!! EVEN THE ONES WEARING THE SAME LOGO AS YOU. STOP SUPPORTING RAPIST SPORTS PLAYERS!!!! It’s so easy.

ah okay fr loved it seriously read this (but don’t forget the women in the next edition sir)

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thing I say a lot is some variation of: "Sports are the best thing and stupidest thing."

Sports have always been my go-to time waster. I have favorite teams, make time for games, buy merch. I used to read the sports section and subscribed to magazines, now I read websites and subscribe to podcasts. I've had fantasy teams since the league commissioner had to tally stats by hand from the newspaper. I only missed one Super Bowl since I was seven, and I don't care about the commercials.

In many ways this has all been a good thing. Everyone needs some trivial thing to absorb excess mental energy. Sports are generally a good icebreaker and relationship builder. They offer a lot of digestible life lessons, are fun, and have cool uniforms.

As long as I don't think about them too much. Because there are those unavoidable stupid aspects. (Beyond the general absurdity of being interested in watching people perform some athletic feat I've seen a thousand times already and developing an opinion about it.) Most team owners are billionaires doing everything they can to squeeze more dollars out of fan loyalty above all other causes. Blackmail a city to waste taxpayer money on a stadium that benefits pretty much only them? Check. Agree to rich TV contracts that ironically make it *harder* for fans to watch the games? Yay! More money. Burn millions paying crummy humans to play on the team, knowing enough fans will forgive any character issues as soon as they're wearing the right jersey? Done and done.

There are just so many more examples. This book came to my attention at a time when I was ready for its message. Craig Calcaterra calls it the "sports-industrial complex." Basically it's no different from almost any big business. The more money there is to be made, the more ethical concerns you can put aside, because, what are you, petty consumer, gonna do about it? When it comes to my iPhone existing through exploitation, well, there's really nothing I *can* do about it in 2022. I have to try to bank some good karma in other areas of life and hope things are a net good.

But sports are optional. Why put up with them? Part of it is resignation--not too many things are actually purely good, so why hold sports to such standards? Part of it is that loyalty, that emotional connection we idiot sports fans develop for our teams. (When we'd be much better off redirecting that energy literally almost anywhere else.) It's hard to shake that. Sports have been there for me at times I really needed them. But it's also something of an addiction, and at other times, they are a net negative. We need a support group or a self-help book, which is kinda what this is.

I don't know that his arguments are terribly compelling but it's a super breezy read (I knocked it out in a couple hours) and just good to hear the affirmation that, yes, you can opt in however you like, or opt out entirely. You don't have to stay loyal to a bad organization or league that doesn't care about fans, community, trying to win in any kind of honorable way, or even trying to win at all. And ultimately, you don't have to obey the longtime rules of sports fandom. Sports fandom has changed.

[Sam Routhier · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book reads like a long blog post. Or a school essay. I don’t know Calcaterra’s work that well but I do know he writes a newsletter so…I guess that tracks. This is a book long newsletter.

I appreciate that he took the time to….rethink fandom…but it wasn’t for me. A little too much “this is how I do if and it’s great so you need to do it too” for my liking. But I respect the ideas.

I hate being negative. Sorry Craig. Great effort Craig, you’ve written more books than I have.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A friend of mine recommended this to me when I was spouting off on social media about my frustration with the Red Sox and identified what was upsetting me as what Calcaterra calls the “sports-industrial complex." Specifically, this year has disillusioned me as a baseball fan, first because of the owners’ lockout and its major bone of contention, the gutting of the Minor Leagues and refusal to pay minor leaguers fairly. Then, as Calcaterra so eloquently describes here, it became increasingly clear to me that Red Sox ownership has broken the social contract of, “we win; you buy tickets.” So I was told about this book at the exact moment I needed it. I like the practical suggestion it offers of focusing on meta fandom - an abundant thing when it comes to all pro sports teams in the Boston area - and even more the idea of rooting for players rather than laundry. I’m still not quite over the way the Red Sox handled things with Mookie Betts, and had been living in dread of how they will approach Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers. It was helpful to envision a fandom where their uniform doesn’t dictate whether I still follow them.

[Gideon · Rating 1 out of 5]

I CANNOT BELIEVE NO ONE HAS EVER GIVEN THIS BOOK 1 STAR BEFORE.

Christ, what a completely useless, lacking, poor version of a terribly interesting topic.

All the people who are criticising this book for its politics? That was the aspect you chose to latch onto as bad? Bro for real? Not the glaring inconsistencies in logic? Not the poor pace and even poorer interest in actually doing any analysis. Not the fact that the author barely seemed to realise that sports exist - get this - outside of America. Not the fact that we’re lucky if we even get a citation, or if we aren’t just being given a dull memoir disguised as some hard-hitting, truth telling, non-fiction.

Was SO disappointed by this book. I went into it wanting to learn, to broaden my understandings. Isn’t it crazy that all of the interesting things this book taught me I’ll need to go and fact check myself because this book is allergic to citations, or the fact that the hollow phrases ‘I feel that’ or ‘but X won’t last’ are the primary ways arguments are introduced (sans evidence of any kind.)

What a waste of time. Why does everyone like this book? We're 4 days into the year and I already know I'm going to be hard-fucking-pressed to find something worst.

[Michael Silliman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most of this is very obvious to anyone that has been paying attention to sports in a capitalist American context. Sports franchises are corporations that get huge tax breaks and city built stadiums to only rent their loyalty to whatever city, until somewhere else is willing to pay them more. Yet they ask for extreme loyalty from their fans. Worse than being obvious, I thought this author setup some straw man agreements. For example, he used Bill Simmons definition of a “true fan” to show that fandom is a bad deal for the fan. All respect for the podfather Bill Simmons, but that definition is far from commonly accepted. If you live in a city or find a team fun, you can call yourself a fan. Don’t worry what the old heads say. I do wish this book had gotten more into the politics. Where’s the history of racism in sports? And where’s the analysis of politicians pandering to sports fans? Mostly this writing style is just annoying though. For example, he says “you may not think it, but Ohio State is a big school.” Like no shit.

[Nana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short, punchy manifesto of sorts that delves into the myriad of ways professional sports have subordinated their original goals (win games, make fans happy) in favor of profits at all costs and at the expense of fans, cities, players, and common decency. The second part goes into the way we as fans can resist such tactics and more generally, how we can change our views of fandom to stand up to some of these things and to bolster our own enjoyment. I enjoy the author’s newsletter and his unapologetically critical eye on sports, and this book put a lot of what i’ve been thinking about into words for a long time, so I enjoyed it. Could have been longer/had more details or interviews and the parts where the author goes on about himself could have had a been a little tighter, but overall, a good read for the critical sports fan such as myself.

[Carl · Rating 3 out of 5]

was hoping for more…..

First half was really good as a collection of the “what’s wrong” in sports. Second half didn’t offer much in terms of what to do and out it.
Coping mechanisms. But not much in terms of “beating” the complex. 🤷‍♂️

[Shirl Kennedy · Rating 2 out of 5]

No new ground is broken here. The author writes well; the book is highly readable, but it is suffers from a lack of citations, which basically makes it a prolonged rant about the mercenary nature of sports. But we already knew that, didn't we?

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

“rethinking fandom” was surprisingly an enjoyable read. it was such a good exercise in critically investigating your consumption. calcaterra uses the first half to unveil the greed/corruption behind sports franchises (from out pricing working class fans to underpaying athletes) and the second talking about how you can change your relationship with sports for the better. while sports are obviously the focus here, the lessons about fandom are broadly applicable to music, tv, movies, etc.

as a (very) casual sports fan, i was surprised to learn about how owners are becoming less invested in winning. the third chapter was especially interesting because i didn’t realize how commonplace it was for teams to bully cities into building stadiums that do more harm than good.

admittedly i was initially skeptical of sports as a place for activism. that ignorance is exactly why sports teams have been able to expand in to real estate and gambling with little to no pushback. loyalty makes you a passive consumer and calcaterra gives fans permission to take it back.

[Josh Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book and its’ core tenet of, “rethinking,” to be very valuable and interesting.

I started this book during the summer when anger over the Luka Dončić trade was still high and I finished it poetically on the day Nico Harrison was fired.

I agreed with many of the findings Calcaterra has both experienced and witnessed. I don’t want to give away anything, but I feel that he does a great job of encapsulating the child-like wonder we look at sports with as a “younger” fan, and the disillusionment and frustration we gain as we venture deeper into the rabbit hole.

Above all else, Calcaterra’s book gave me a wealth of perspective in my own fandom, and allowed me to laugh at myself when I saw myself in his anecdotes.

I’d recommend this book to anyone who has let themselves feel things they’d rather not regarding sports.

It was helpful for me in finding a new was to approach sports more for enjoyment and less for any other way it gets distorted along the way.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is pretty similar to my experience with my sports fandom. I had to do a lot of reevaluating of my relationship with my favorite sports teams as I got older and more aware of the world at large and how businesses operate. As a sports business major (class of 2012) who interned for an NHL team and took classes with another, I saw the inside operations and business models when it comes to the approach of monetizing everything and the shift to higher ticket prices and more luxury options and upcharges and add-ons and purchase privileges. Seeing the inside of that plus the outside stuff in the sports world that really impacted me (concussions, social justice issues and the league's responses like the blackballing of Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid, etc.) had me sincerely shift my approach towards sports fandom. This book is a nice, short read that every diehard sports fan should consume, but the people who would benefit from it most definitely wouldn't read it. Oh well.

[Ryan Almodovar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been a fan of Calcaterra’s writing for years. I had a mind-numbing call center job right out of college, and after telling a coworker I was a baseball fan (barely true at the time) was showed a complicated way to navigate the company’s internet blocker which allowed access for some reason to NBC Sports, and HardballTalk. Funny enough, this led to the kind of meta fandom discussed in the book - my interest grew mostly a fan of writing and also as a way to pass time at work. The sports industrial complex (take a shot after every time that is read) still seems unbeatable, but this book shows a way of making things somewhat more bearable.

[David H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic book on how fandom is taken advantage of and how to reset your relationship with sports. Despite the book's heavy focus on sports, I think some of the lessons in the second part could easily apply to other areas of fandom (movies, books, etc.). Even if you're not familiar with most sports (as I am not outside of baseball), Calcaterra gives you more than enough background for the issues he discusses. I would say that only thing I would've also appreciated is citations for some of his references (various studies, etc.) as there's no works cited page.

[Ryan Read · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short but sweet, this dives into how the sports industrial complex has corrupted many of the values that we see in sports. I wanted to read it to reflect on my relationship with Formula 1. Nearly all the examples are from mainstream American sports, but most of the examples still hold true throughout all sports. The short but helpful second half describing some strategies for more ethical fan activity is good though.

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exactly what I needed as someone who loves being a fan of sports but doesn't like the some of the owners, executives, commentators, players, and even other fans. It is possible to engage with something joyfully and criticize it (and know that under capitalism withholding your attention is meaningful so if you don't like what you're seeing just stop watching)

[Seth Moko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very readable but ideas that will stick with me. Familiar with all the same problems of sports fandom he lists but not as much the solutions. Some of which I’ve done or fallen into naturally but interesting way to read about it. Highly recommend

[Bailey Rhoades · Rating 4 out of 5]

Validated a lot of my feels about sports. Definitely similar views of the world as the author, which helps.
Also, where are all his sources??

[Lindsay JC · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eye opening, definitely provides context and an uncomfortable amount of self identification

[Cyndi T · Rating 3 out of 5]

solid 3... interesting!

[Li · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid read overall, nothing necessarily earth shattering but good reminders and a decent broad overview of some major issues facing the sports industry and sports fans today.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read Calcaterra when he wrote about baseball for NBC and this is a shorty. It’s sort of weird particularly the second part where he gives you helpful tips on how to follow a sport without being fully engaged or supporting billionaires, dirtbags and billiard dirtbags. As for the first part, if you’re reading a book by Craig Calcaterra on Hoopla, you probably already know all that.

[Fresno Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

back the players, metafandom, and make billionaire owners EARN your loyalty, sounds right to me

[Joshua Rosati · Rating 4 out of 5]

Round up, some thought provoking points.