34 Toronto Raptors Fandom: Participatory Culture of One Fandom at Different Times

Introduction

The 2018-2019 finals of the NBA is a time that most fans of the Toronto Raptors will never forget. There are people who have witnessed the Raptors be a bottom team in the league, people who have seen them when the championship, and people who have witnessed both. While the Toronto Raptors are still the Toronto Raptors, this paper will examine the change in participatory culture from the 2018-2019 NBA finals compared to the beginning of the 2023-2024 season. In order to examine this change, it is necessary to look at the subjects associated with participatory culture.

First, it is important to examine the fans of the Toronto Raptors and how they are a part of a fandom, seeing them as produsers and prosumers, and the participatory culture as a whole as it has changed over the years. Next, sport fandom will be analyzed to point out the different kinds of fans during these two time periods and the different concepts surrounding sport fandom that may affect how people consume the Toronto Raptors. Finally, it will be interesting to see the aspects of anti-fandom during the 2018-2019 NBA finals and how time, affect, and emotion can play into the change of that anti-fandom.

It is crucial for this paper to take into consideration all variables when studying the change in the participatory culture of the Toronto Raptors. The 2018-2019 season is a time where the team was one of the best in the NBA, they were in the finals, and one step closer to winning the championship for the first time. This would have been an extremely exciting time for long-time fans and would have introduced a large amount of new viewers. Comparing that to today though, it is evident that the Raptors are a mediocre team at best and not in the running for the championship. Although this is true, “all cultures are participatory to some degree, but different configurations of culture invite or facilitate different degrees of participation (Jenkins, 2018, p.21).

The Toronto Raptor’s 2018-2019 Finals Fandom

The goal of this paper is to examine the change in the participatory culture when it comes to the Toronto Raptors. In order to do this, it is necessary to understand the fandom and the circumstances in which why things may change. First, it is important to look at where the Toronto Raptors were at in the 2018-2019 finals. Fans were on top of the world as their team was close to winning the championship. These fans were not only seeing it as the Raptors winning the championship, but seen it as themselves winning the championship. During this 2018-2019 run, one fan even tweeted “We Did It!! Toronto Raptors Eastern Conference Champions!! (See Appendix A). This is where we begin to see fans as produsers and prosumers. Fans are tweeting about the games and bringing engagement to them. They are also tweeting as if they themselves have won the game because they identify so much with the Toronto Raptors. People are identifying with this team and feel like they win when the team wins.

“The concept of produser foregrounds the agency and creativity of human communicators acting individually and collectively” (van Dijck, 2013). Fan engagement was at an all-time high during this time and that resulted in a large amount of user generated content and support for the team. This user generated content can be seen as free labour for the NBA, but it can also be seen as examples of an active audience. These people feel connected through these times and identify with the Toronto Raptors. One Twitter user thanked the Raptors by saying “Thank you 2018-2019 Toronto Raptors for a Championship season” (See Appendix B).

Additionally, this welcomed an entire new group of people into watching the Toronto Raptors. Toronto is the only team in Canada that has an NBA team, so a lot of people will choose to consume the sport based off of that. Through Henry Jenkins, it is understood that within participatory culture, there is more of an emphasis on the public rather than the audience. He states that “Participatory culture refers to a culture in which large numbers of people from all walks of life have the capacity to produce and share media with each other, often responding critically to the products of mass media, and often circulating what they create fluidly across a range of different niche publics” (Jenkins, 2020, p. 87).

So, while there is the audience that are fans of the Toronto Raptors who will support them at every game, buy their merchandise, comment on every post, and do things to support their team, there is the public. Participatory culture welcomes different audiences under a non-unified public sphere. During the 2018-2019 finals, people would see that a team from their country is about to win a championship, so they would tune into the game and cheer them on. This is why the participatory culture can be viewed differently from what it is today. People change, teams change, and identities change. It is a completely different atmosphere being a fan of the Toronto Raptors today, which will be examined further in the next section.

The Toronto Raptor’s Fandom Today

When looking at the participatory culture of the Toronto Raptors and how it may have changed over the last few years, it is important to compare the atmosphere today to how it was during the 2018-2019 finals. Today, the Raptors are not as good of a team as they once were. It is unlikely for them to even make the playoffs this season, let alone win the championship. In reality, this part of the analysis is comparing a championship team to a team of mediocracy. At first, that may not seem important, but it has an effect on the participatory culture. People identify with the fandoms that they are a part of. Being a part of a losing team does not feel as good as being a part of a winning one. After losing a game on December 1st, 2023, a fan commented on the Toronto Raptor’s post saying “This team is so mid it’s insane. This team is almost as unwatchable as last season. Maybe Masai should’ve invested in another point guard, and a couple proven shooters” (See Appendix C). There are a lot of examples to be found on Twitter of angry fans, but they key thing here is that they are still fans.

Looking at these kinds of fans within the Toronto Raptors fandom relates to van Dijck when he says that “user agency is a lot more complex than these bipolar terms suggest; we need to account for the multifarious roles of users in a media environment where the boundaries between commerce, content and information are currently being redrawn” (van Dijck, 2009, p.42). So, although the Toronto Raptors are not as good of a team as they once were, there are still fans on social media making content, commenting, and being a part of that community. As noticed, opinions are going to be constantly changing depending on the team and how they are doing, but the active audience will stay there for the most part.

It is noteworthy that one aspect in examining the change in participatory culture in terms of the Toronto Raptors fandom is understanding the popularity of the team and how people will associate themselves with that. As seen during the 2018-2019 finals run, many people associated with the Toronto Raptors, not because they enjoyed basketball, but because a team that represented their country was about to win a championship. That is why, as noted by Rhiannon Bury when studying the participatory continuum, “Those fans who are not part of a community are also legitimate subjects of study as are those practices on the ‘less’ participatory end of the continuum” (Bury, 2018, p.130). So, while there may have seemed to be a heavy change in the participatory culture from the 2018-2019 finals to the current day, it is more likely that consumers on the end of the participatory continuum are simply not as engaged as consumers near the top of the continuum. Overall, as stated before, audiences are constantly being welcomed within the non-unified public sphere of the Toronto Raptors fandom and that can have an effect on the participatory culture over the years.

Sport Fandom and Participatory Culture

In order to get a better understanding on the potential change in participatory culture, it is necessary to examine sport fandom and how different aspects of that can have an effect on the Toronto Raptor’s fandom. Most importantly, the online atmosphere when it comes to being a fan of a sport’s team plays a role in participation. Heather Kennedy et al. note that “the engagement of fans online has allowed them to experience a shift in their role – no longer just fans, rather they are increasingly involved in the design and production of the sport experience” (Kennedy, et al., 2022, p.264). As a person goes from a sport consumer to a sport fan, they become emotionally invested and passionate towards their favorite team or athlete. This next level of engagement is shown online when fans are posting, commenting on, and watching sport content.

Looking at fan engagement in relation to the Toronto Raptors during the 2018-2019 finals compared to today helps understand why there is a difference. A major aspect to look at is the amount of sport consumers there were compared to sport fans. During the finals, there were a lot of people who were engaged with the Raptors primarily as a product or service. There still were a lot of sport fans that had that emotional connection to the team, but with the popularity of Toronto being in the finals, it changed the digital atmosphere. There are many cases of people being more of a consumer rather than a fan online whereas today it is a more fan-heavy digital space, which has also in some ways brought anger with it. It seem that when the Toronto Raptors are not doing good as a team, fans get angry and disappointed and express themselves online digitally. One fan on Twitter tweeted after a rough start to the season saying, “I’m ready to go scorched earth at this point” (See Appendix D).

Interestingly enough, when examining a potential difference in participatory culture, emotions play a large role. After looking at many tweets during the time of the 2018-2019 finals and today, there has been a change in the mood of many fans. The digital sphere for Toronto Raptors fans is filled with much more frustration and disappointment. Nicolas Bommarito states that “Anger often manifests what we care about. Richard is angry that the Red Sox have lost the World Series because he cares about the team doing well. Julia is angry that she must work on Christmas because she cares about celebrating the holiday with her family. By contrast, someone who does not care about American sports or Christian holidays is unlikely to be angry in similar situations because these things just do not matter to her” (Bommarito, 2017, Vol.11, Issue 3). Fans become so emotionally attached to their sports team that it has an effect on them. In the 2018-2019 finals, Raptors fans felt amazing because they were winning. Today, the Raptors are not as good of a team and the fans get angry because of it.

In general, emotions play a huge role when looking at sport fandom and how that can affect participatory culture. It is evident online that the Toronto Raptors fandom has changed due to the amount of emotion that is evoked by the way the team performs. The engagement of these fans then play a role in all of this. As seen in the 2018-2019 finals, there was a larger majority of casual fans and sport consumers. Now that the atmosphere is different for the Toronto Raptors, the digital sphere has become filled with more dedicated sport fans. This has led to fans being more critical of the Raptors and being angry towards the team. If the Raptors were to look different next year and be better, then the participatory culture could also change with them.

Anti-Fandom 2018-2019

When looking at the participatory culture of the two time-periods being analyzed, an aspect that was very interesting to examine was anti-fandom. Now, looking at the 2018-2019 there was a lot of aspects of anti-fandom. The Toronto Raptors were in the final facing a popular team after defeating all of the other teams in the Eastern division of the NBA to get there. A major thing to come out of this is the rise of competitive anti-fandom. Jonathan Gray states that while sport rivalries may seem simple at times, they can arise just from trying to advance in the playoffs or just wanting your country to win.

So, “as is the case with this latter rivalry, sporting competitions can be about much more than just wins and losses, as geographic rivalries are often superimposed onto the realm of sports” (Grey, 2019, p.27). This is where it gets interesting for the Toronto Raptors in the 2018-2019 finals because all of the other teams in the NBA are in America and there were people who didn’t like a Canadian team winning. One user tweeted “America never lost an NBA championship under Obama” (See Appendix E). While a lot of social media activity was not saying directly that they did not want a Canadian team to win, there were posts and comments that implied it.

Another aspect of anti-fandom came in the form of the opposing team in the NBA finals, the Golden State Warriors. Fans of the Warriors were still watching every game cheering on their team and hating on the Toronto Raptors. At this time, “that hatred can be caused and triggered by fandom, meaning that hatred for the opposing brand is dictated by love for the individual’s favourite brand” (Icekson et al., 2021, p.782). So, during the 2018-2019 finals in the NBA, Warriors fans were opposing the Toronto Raptors and being a part of an anti-fandom. One example of this is a fan on Twitter posting a picture of the Warrior’s point guard ‘shushing’ with the caption “Who the North? [two laughing emojis]” (See Appendix F). This type of anti-fandom differs from competitive anti-fandom as these fans are just cheering for their teams. Additionally, this was all happening in an NBA finals atmosphere where emotions were high, which is why this aspect of participatory culture looks differently than what is seen today.

Anti-Fandom Today

When looking at the anti-fandom surrounding the Toronto Raptor’s today, it is apparent that there is much less hate or anti-fandoms as there once were. This could potentially be due to what has been touched upon earlier when it comes to how well the team is performing. Due to the team not being as dominant as their 2018-2019 season, fans of other teams do not portray any dislike to them as they once would have. One thing that is interesting is to see the different variety of fans within the Raptor’s Fandom. There are some fans who are happy to watch the Raptors play every night, while there are other fans who dislike what they are watching but watch it anyways.

This relates back to what Jonathan Gray when he states that “fan studies have proven that fandom never requires that one loves absolutely everything about a text, and thus we should expect that many people who watch this or that television show, for instance, and who like it and who are engaged in no productive repurposing of the text, may still have parts of the text that they abhor or dislike” (Grey, 2019, p.31). Fans of the Toronto Raptors are still tuning in for each game and cheering on their team, but when they are losing and doing bad, fans dislike this and react badly about it online. This a key feature that differentiates this time from the 2018-2019 finals because the Toronto Raptors were a much better team back then. There was much less for a fan to dislike which led to more positivity within the participatory culture.

The participatory culture now, when comparing it to the 2018-2019 NBA finals is a much different scene after examining the aspects of anti-fandom. When the Raptors were in the finals, they had opposing fan bases displaying anti-fandom, competitive anti-fandom, and hate watching the team. While all of this was going on, the Raptors fanbase was very positive online and cheering on their team, displaying little anti-fandom because the Raptors were doing so good. Now, when you look at The Toronto Raptors today, fans from opposing teams do not care to hate towards the Raptors because they are not a threat towards their favourite team. Additionally, fans are more critical towards the Raptors and get mad when they are not doing good. An example of this is when one fan tweeted “When it comes to the Toronto Raptors this year…..this is going to be VERY bad. They haven’t had a #1 since Kawhi left…. they have a worse coach….. a worse point guard….. ZERO chance this team makes the playoffs” (See Appendix G). As seen, fans, at least for the Toronto Raptors, grow to become much angrier and more frustrated when the team underperforms.

Findings

This paper has analyzed major aspects of participatory culture in relation to the Toronto Raptors fandom. When comparing the two time periods of the team in the 2018-19 finals and today, there were several differences that were discovered. First, when researching the 2018-2019 fandom, it was apparent that there was a wider variety of fans within the public sphere of the fandom itself. Many people were tuning into the Raptors games because their country was about to win a championship, not because they are emotionally attached to the team. This then leads to the fandom today, where we see the team has changed, the people have changed, and the atmosphere has changed. The Raptors today have more fans near the top of the continuum who are more engaged compared to 2018-2019 where a lot of people were closer to the bottom of the continuum.

This research also used sport fandom to compare the two time periods. Sport fandom demonstrated the importance of emotion within fandoms and participatory culture. It shows how participatory culture can change depending on the different emotions that are evoked through watching the Toronto Raptors. In the 2018-2019 finals, there were a lot more casual fans and less emotions because the team was doing so well. In the Raptor’s current season, they are not performing as well, and it leads to the sport fans who are emotionally involved to express those emotion within the fandom. All of this helped lead into how anti-fandom had a role in changing the participatory culture.

It was discovered that anti-fandom within the Toronto Raptors is very different today compared to what it once was. During the 2018-2019 finals, there were many fans participating in a competitive anti-fandom and regular anti-fandom by disliking the Raptors for beating their favorite team and being the only Canadian team. There were so many reasons for people to hate on the Toronto Raptors during that time, except for the Toronto Raptors fandom themselves, who were enjoying themselves. The Toronto Raptors now though, experience much less anti-fandom from opposing teams, but fans of the Raptors are much harsher and more frustrated due to the team performing poorly.

Conclusion

An analysis of this magnitude provided so many lenses into the Toronto Raptor’s fandom. At first glance, a good assumption would be that there would not be much of a difference within the participatory culture between the 2018-2019 finals to today. Surprisingly, the participatory culture is constantly changing and evolving. There are so many factors that play into how it differs over the years. Whether it be through the different ends of the fandom continuum, the different emotions evoked, or the performance of the team themselves, participatory culture seems to be constantly evolving for the fandom of the Toronto Raptors. This is apparent through research of the Toronto Raptors and may provide insight into other fandoms as well.

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