Groundhopping
Groundhoppingis a hobby that involves attending sports matches at as many different stadiums or grounds as possible. Participants are known as groundhoppers, hoppers or travellers. Groundhopping is largely afootball-related pastime. Generally, groundhoppers are football fans who usually have a neutral opinion regarding football clubs and try to attend as many football games in as many football stadiums or venues as possible, seeing the whole process as a leisure activity.[1]
History
[edit]The term 'groundhopping' originates from the late 1980s. From the late 1980s fans inGermanystarted groundhopping as well. Currently it is especially popular in theUnited Kingdom,Germany,theNetherlands,Belgium,SwedenandNorway.
Organisation
[edit]Generally, groundhopping is not officially organised. However, there are some formal organisations for groundhoppers, includingThe 92 Clubin England, which consists of groundhoppers who have visited matches in all stadiums of thePremierandFootball League.[2]With this there are also (mostly) charity based races to see who can go round the 92 Football League Stadia in the shortest amount of time, initially being called 92 Grounds in 92 Hours, the current record is 72 hours, set by four fans ofSwindon Townin 2015.[3]
Groundhoppers usually organize themselves as a group of friends or through online forums or social media (e.g. Facebook and Twitter) in particular. Other groundhoppers do not organise with others at all and visit grounds alone by themselves.[1]
Enthusiasts of the hobby sometimes use apps such as Futbology[4]or Europlan[5]to track their progress. The Europlan website[6]also acts as the digital mouthpiece of the Association of Groundhoppers in Germany (German:Vereinigung der Groundhopper Deutschlands;V.d.G.D.)[7]
Rules
[edit]There is no universal set or rules for counting ‘hopped grounds’, although an unwritten rule is that a groundhopper must have seen a full football match at the ground.[8]
See also
[edit]
References
[edit]- ^abBauer, Christian (2018).Tourism in Football: Exploring Motivational Factors and Typologies of Groundhoppers: An example of a German Groundhopper Online Community.
- ^"Ninety-Two Club. Home Page".ninetytwoclub.org.uk.Retrieved4 October2017.
- ^the92.net (14 September 2015)."Doing the 92 League Grounds in 72 hours for a good cause".the92.net.Retrieved20 July2020.
{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^Baumann, Tobias (22 December 2022)."Vom Kybunpark über den Dorfsportplatz ins San Siro".Herisauer Nachrichten.Archived fromthe originalon 5 January 2023.Retrieved5 January2022.
- ^Sykora, Mämä (13 October 2022)."300 Kilometer für ein 0:0".Beobachter.Retrieved5 January2022.
- ^"Groundhopping auf Europlan-Online".Europlan-Online.Retrieved5 January2023.
- ^Zinsel, Rüdiger (28 June 2020)."Groundhopper: Vom Notizbuch Zur App".Fussball.de.Retrieved5 January2023.
- ^"Your Ultimate Guide To The World's Football Stadiums".Groundhop.Archived fromthe originalon 26 May 2022.Retrieved23 August2022.
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