Fan Perception vs. External Results: A Multi-Method Approach to Correlating Fan Perception of Big 6 Premier League Rivalries to Attendance and Social Media Engagement

Abstract

Rivalries are important in sports for numerous reasons, the main reason is that fans of sports teams are more passionate when they play a bitter rival than when they do not. Lengthy, heated rivalries can evolve over time and lead to fan and player engagement. However, there has not been much research about sports rivalries, especially correlating fan perception of their major rivalries to performance the main research gaps are attendance and social media insight. This paper therefore asks: to what extent do survey data, social media engagement metrics, and match attendance statistics consistently reveal a hierarchy of rivalries for each Big 6 Premier League team? This research combination can accurately portray Big 6 rivalries in the Premier League. I surveyed many Big 6 fans to understand the strength of their allegiance to their chosen EPL team as well as the hierarchy of rivalries, as perceived based upon either local derby clashes or championship contests. Following this, I used Python code to analyze Instagram data that I manually acquired from Big 6 Instagram pages. This data comprises accurate tallies for the number of likes and comments against every Big 6 opponent. I assumed that more likes and comments would project a bigger rival, whereas fewer likes and comments project a smaller rival. By using these measurements, Premier League fans, observers of the game, journalists, and statisticians will be able to understand the intensity of these rivalries and analyze the dynamics of interactions between rival clubs, players and fans. In addition, I have
acquired data on Big 6 teams’ attendance data from the past several years using Python to investigate another aspect of the vitality of stronger and weaker rivalries.