Stereo Creative report also finds almost a third of UK fans have “meaningful engagement” with overseas teams or leagues
A majority of sport fans are now following overseas teams and clubs, according to a report from Stereo Creative in partnership with Ideally.
The Borderless Belonging: Stories Over Stadiums report spoke to 2,385 people across the UK, US, Australia and Japan, found that a club or league’s culture can mean more than a geographical connection. You can see the full report here.
56% of respondents across the four countries engaged with sport, with the UK highest at 67% following one or many sports and only 8% not following sport at all. Locality or a family link were the main reasons for following a league or club, with 56% of those surveyed giving those answers in the UK while 10% followed because of a particular player or coach.
However, perhaps of particular note in the UK is the popularity of international sport teams and leagues with younger fans. 50% of 18–24s and 63% of 25–34s closely follow at least one overseas team or league (vs 32% for the whole population), compared to significantly lower numbers in the US (28–34% of 18–34s (vs 22% overall)).
Across the four markets, 40% say style of play and culture is what first drew them to overseas sport, with story/history and specific players close behind (both ~37%). In the UK it’s 42% players, 41% story/history, 39% style/culture, and 33% communities.
Oli Bealby, managing director and co-founder at Stereo Creative, said of these results: “Borderless Belonging captures a cultural shift that’s been hiding in plain sight. Sports fandom hasn’t become weaker or more fragmented, it’s become more expressive. People are following what resonates emotionally, not just what’s closest to them. For brands and rights holders, the challenge now is to understand those emotional systems and participate in them authentically.”
George Robertson, global agency lead at Ideally, added: “What’s curious is how consistent these emotional patterns are across markets, but it took partnering with Stereo Creative to decode what they actually mean for the future of the industry. By pressure-testing their cultural insights against our Ideally consumer panel data, we’ve found that when geography is removed, the same universal stories of resilience and community keep surfacing. It indicates that belonging isn’t random, it has a structure.”
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