From Kansas City and Philadelphia to the Super Bowl crowd in Phoenix, Arizona, football fans are ready for this year's big game between the Chiefs and the Eagles.

"It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," said Adam Kurth, a Chiefs fan who made plans to attend the Super Bowl.

With fate on their side, some fans bought their plane tickets months ago before the football season even started.

"We just hoped and prayed and here we go," said Stefanie Wirths, who bought her plane tickets in June 2022.

While others waited until the Chiefs made it in.

"Our friends said, come on down, tickets showed up, and we’re on our way," said Joe Gilmartin, who's headed to Super Bowl.

Philadelphia fans also found their way to Phoenix.

One "die-hard" Eagles fan in particular got a surprise trip to the game.

As great of a year as it's been for her favorite team, Linda Linderman is missing some of her favorite fans. Her parents both died in the last year.

"On my mom's death bed, I said, 'Mom, look over all of us and our Eagles,' and here we are," she said.

Linda was in Arizona last week, but only because she has some family in the area and not because she had Super Bowl tickets in hand.

When asked where she was going to watch the game, she said, "We're not sure yet. We're still trying to figure that out."

But Linda was in for a shock: It turned out her son already had it figured out.

"So actually, I've already bought Eagles tickets or bought Super Bowl tickets for us. So, we're going to the game," John told her.

Linda has never been to a Super Bowl. And of course, she said she would only ever want to go to one the Eagles are in.

"I really wanted to kind of give this experience to her. I've been going over to her house and watching the Eagles all season, every week, because I know how important it is to her," John said.

A viral Chiefs fan also made the trip to Phoenix, courtesy of Lay's Potato Chips.

Nicki Conrad went viral at Arrowhead Stadium while eating a potato during the AFC Divisional Round game against Jacksonville and was later named Super Bowl LVII's "Lay's Potato Girl."

Two unlikely friends, one a Chiefs fan and one an Eagles fan, will be sitting together at the Super Bowl on Sunday.

John Gladwell and Billy Welsh first met each other while serving together in the Marine Corps at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.

Although they didn't like each other back then, that dynamic all changed when Welsh reached out on social media in desperate need of a kidney and Gladwell responded.

"Never in a million years would I have ever thought that dude would’ve given me a kidney,” Welsh said.

After that kidney donation in October 2020, Gladwell faced his own health crisis.

About a year ago, COVID-19 sent Gladwell to the hospital’s intensive care unit with stage four kidney failure.

Now the two men are embarking on a once-in-a-lifetime trip together.

Even though they’re rooting for different teams, their bond is now much bigger than football.

Lastly, no fan was more ready for this matchup than Donna Kelce, the first mom ever to have her children face off in an NFL Super Bowl as players.

The mother of Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce has stolen the show ahead of the big game in Arizona for her sweet interaction with her world-famous sons.

This Super Bowl, mama Kelce is staying neutral. Her combined Eagles and Chiefs shoes and jersey say all you need to know.

"Obviously, I want each boy to do the best that they can, put it all out on the field so that they have no regrets,” Donna Kelce said.

This week, Donna Kelce was in Phoenix and delivered handmade cookies to her sons while they were on stage Monday night during Super Bowl festivities.

CINCINNATI —

The atmosphere in Cincinnati is super-charged right now and depending on the outcome of Sunday's AFC championship game it could become Super Bowl-charged.

The Bengals bandwagon is getting larger by the hour.

Some fans are downright driven to make it a mighty memorable weekend. TJ Bedacht is one of them.

He runs GCI Digital Imaging and will take his 40-foot Fleetwood RV, a vehicle right out of a "Christmas Vacation" scene, to the Kansas City tailgate.

He will drive the 30,000 pound RV with his wife, his three kids and another VIP on board.
Big Burrow, the popular blowup which stands 30 feet high. It was deflated today for the ride ahead.

"We're going to shove him underneath the bus in one of the large compartments and we'll throw some Skyline chili down there, some Gold Star and let him eat," Bedacht said.

When we reacted in horror at the thought of throwing Big Burrow under the bus, so to speak, he quickly added, "Well, we're gooing take — gently carry him with the bus."

He made us a Who Dey banner and we carried it into the Holy Grail where ESPN shot a Sunday segment Thursday about the game ball that was delivered to the bar.

There's a definite Bengals buzz in the air just about everywhere.

"I just think people really want to be a part of this in any way they can be," said Jim Moehring who co-owns the Grail. "You know, we're expecting a big crowd here on Sunday. And I think this is just a prelude on Friday."

That's when Randi Rico and Megan Mitchell of WLWT News 5 will emcee a Who Dey rally at the DORA with Bengal greats from the past.

Anthony Munoz, Jim Breech, and Ickey Woods are among the former players who will be there along with the team mascot and the Ben Gal cheerleaders.

Here's why there's a thirst for this kind of thing despite the deep cold.

"People are proud," Moehring said. "The city wants to show their pride in these guys. It's been a long time."

Hamilton County commissioners wore their colors Thursday as they friendly wagered with the county executive in Mahomes territory.

The kibosh on a Sunday stadium watch party was fresh and still stung one commissioner, who lobbied for some Super preparation to get underway just in case.

"I just think we should start now for whether it's a watch party or a celebration," Commissioner Alicia Reece said. "Let's start getting everybody together now so we don't say that we didn't have enough time."

Some fans will head for Kansas City on Friday while others will depart Saturday morning.
Bedacht said there will be two Fleetwood RV's at the tailgate.

"We're gonna just kind of post up into a corner and have a big V and then we'll have the big blowup Burrow in the corner there and it's going to be epic," he predicted.

He knows Who Dey Super Bowl planning could start as soon as Sunday around 6 p.m.

"We might drive to L.A.," he said. "It's been talked about."

DEERFIELD TOWNSHIP, Ohio —

If being a true fan was a sport, the Coxes would surely be in the hall of fame.

"I love the game so win or lose, I love to watch the Bengals play football," said Judy Cox.

Their devotion to the Cincinnati Bengals has been unwavering, much like their devotion to each other.

Rich and Judy got married in December of 1990, right before the last time the Bengals went to the playoffs in '91.

"In 1991, the Bengals had a come pick your seats, and I happened to be in downtown Cincinnati and I picked three seats and came home and surprised her and said, 'We're going to be Bengals season ticket holders.'" said Rich Cox.

In three decades, they've been to 30 NFL stadiums, thousands of games and Judy even went to the historic freezer bowl in '82.

"We had some decent years, we had some drought years. We had this year!" said Judy Cox.

They say this year just feels different.

"There's a feeling that the pieces of the puzzle are coming together," said Rich Cox.

For 31 years, win or lose, these super fans have kept the faith. Now, they say the odds are in the Bengals' favor this year.

"Thirty-one years! 31 years! My dad was a mathematician, you do the odds. Cincinnati is an average team, but every 32 years you should win a Superbowl, by odds," said Rich Cox.

The only stadiums they haven't been to are Lincoln Financial in Philadelphia and SOFI in Englewood, California, where the Super Bowl is this year. They hope to check that one off their list come February.

CINCINNATI —

If you're from Las Vegas, running into a lot of orange tonight and reading this right now, understand you're up against 31 years of "Who Dey" frustration.

"The city's on verge of just breakin' out right now," said Jim Foster, who is known throughout Who Dey Nation as "Bengal Jim."

Raiders fans weren't all that interested to watch Mayor Aftab Pureval officially proclaim Saturday as "Who Dey Day" in Cincinnati.

They were plotting ways their team's defense could interrupt the winning Burrow-to-Chase combination.

Jim Mohring, who has spent the past three days ordering more of everything for the Holy Grail, told us "It is fun to watch this city united behind our Bengals."

I asked him if "Who Dey" is the best sports chant ever and without hesitation, he replied, "Yeah, without a doubt."

Mike Applegarth and his son Bailey didn't think so.

They're Raiders fans who came in from Wyoming.

They got in last night, started checking out the city, and have the highly-partisan audacity to tell us point-blank: "'Go Raiders' is always the best cheer of all time."

Maybe they don't realize this city is bathed in orange and black right now.

And as for the atmosphere, Anthony Muñoz tackled that one for us.

"I just love the excitement of the fans — it's a fanatical group, and that's the great thing about it," Muñoz said. "Looking forward to getting to the stadium and walking around to my seat."

No. 78 said it'll be rocking.

Blake Westlund, 26, will help rock it.

Born in West Chester, he had a sudden thought down in Tampa yesterday.

Quicker than you can say, "Who Dey," he acted on it.

"Bought a game ticket and I'm ready to roll and break this curse."

Ah, the curse.

It has hung like an albatross on the shoulder pads of Who Dey Nation for 31 seasons.

Gary Gruber, a season ticket holder since the mid-80s, was well aware of the Bo Jackson curse. I asked if he's felt the weight of it.

"I really haven't," he said as he sat with a full table of friends. "I never really felt the Bo Jackson curse. I was more concerned with the Pedro Bourbon curse on the Reds that he finally took off."

Trading stories, saying "Who Dey" everywhere you go, that's the colorful vibe of orange and black that has this community turbo-charged right now.

One fan we spoke with at the Banks will cheer from Cabo San Lucas tomorrow.

"We're going to be landing two hours before the game," said Erin Walton as she celebrated her 10th year with Taste of Belgium. "Going to be watching it on the beach somewhere."

Bengal Jim said he understands the connection. He considers the game with the Raiders the biggest Who Dey Day in 31 years.

"There's people that are coming to the tailgate and going to the game tomorrow that haven't been to a game in ten or fifteen years," he said. "They're back."

Fans from all over are converging and conversing.

Canada, Europe, Florida — they all want to be there to witness what they hope will be a special moment in Bengals history.

At the team's pro shop Friday, fans were gathering whatever merchandise the supply chain had provided.

Grown sons of a diehard fan will be wearing their colors tomorrow.

They don't know what a Bengals playoff celebration feels like.

"Three of my four boys will be in the stadium with me tomorrow," said Bengal Jim, a bit wistfully. "So, when that final whistle blows and we got the dub, we're winnin' tomorrow, I will be crying and hugging every one of my boys."

So, welcome to the Jungle, Raiders fans. That’s what you’re up against.

HEBRON, Ky. —

"I'm going to the bowl game!" exclaimed Kevin Tatum at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport on Thursday.

"I got two boys at home, the grandparents are watching them. So go UC! Hopefully, my boys will cheer for them on Friday. And all I'm doing is waiting for my wife, so we can go through to the game," Tatum said.

"We have high hopes," said Monica Wenstrup, wife of Congressman Brad Wenstrup, who we saw at the airport on their way to the game.

Brad Wenstrup has been a long-time UC fan.

"I've been a season ticket holder since the late 80s," said Brad Wenstrup.

For him and his wife, Monica, it's been a thrilling season.

"We knew every game had to be won. So you just stayed on the edge of your seat all season long," said Brad Wenstrup.

Friday's bowl game is no different.

"We're the underdog. That's not a bad position to be in. We've got high hopes because this team has outperformed every time they've had to," Brad Wenstrup said.

Tatum said he and his wife, Molly, knew they'd be packing their bags once the game was announced.

"I was immediately searching for tickets, searching for flights. And I cannot wait," Tatum said. "I'm a huge UC fan. My wife graduated from there. I'm married into the UC family and I cannot be more excited for the team and the community."

UC students Ryan Sawyer and Claudia Wright said they're ecstatic Cincinnati's being put on a pedestal.

"Cincinnati, Ohio. No one thinks of Ohio whenever they think of football. So I think this is going to be cool especially with Ohio State and stuff. It's awesome that Cincinnati is getting some recognition," Wright said.

As for game predictions?

"UC by four," Tatum said.

"UC's gonna win. I think so," Wright said.

"UC's gonna win. What kind of question is that?! Come on!" Sawyer said.

And, of course, the politically correct prediction: "We got a great team with a lot of talents. And obviously Alabama does too. So I don't want to make any predictions," said Brad Wenstrup.

I guess we will all have to watch and see.

CINCINNATI —

Bengals fans saw Sunday's win as another sign the team will get a spot in the playoffs.

They said this season is bringing people together as Joe Burrow and the team forge ahead.

There is growing excitement at Paul Brown Stadium.

Fans were glued to the game and could be heard chanting and roaring at nearby bars, too.

It's an energy you can't beat.

"The vibes out here are immaculate. If you're not here, you're doing something wrong," fan Marushwa Kingu said.

People said it is fun watching the Cincinnati Bengals this season.

It is a party that is bringing in lifelong and new fans alike.

"We've been huge fans since I was born. Season tickets since '88," fan Kate said.

The 'Who Dey Nation' comes from near and far.

"We have the NFL channel in England and I watch every Sunday and started following the Bengals and then got right into it now," Scott, another fan, said.

The party roared on in the evening after the Bengals conquered the Baltimore Ravens.

People are enjoying watching Burrow do what he does best.

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"This whole season's been great, you know, last season we weren't very good, especially with Joe Burrow getting injured but he's come back with a vengeance this year and he's shown it today," Logan Schulte said.

Sunday's plays kept everyone energized well after the final score.

"We got some crazy, crazy wide receivers. They catch anything you throw at them. Anything," Ben Sweeney said.

Fans said they're feeling good about the chances of clinching a spot in the playoffs.

"Who Dey. Beat Kansas City. Patrick Mahomes is coming here. I will be there. Beat them," Brian Williamson said.

They said it's a new 'dey' for Cincinnati.

"Who Dey. Joe Burrow, I love you if you see this," Schulte said.

Fans have their eyes set on a spot in the playoffs.

Some also said they have Super Bowl dreams they hope could become a reality.

They said this win was a great holiday gift.

CINCINNATI —

Cincinnati is energized around the UC Bearcats as they count the days to the Cotton Bowl in Texas.

It's now just about nine days away.

On Tuesday, there was an incredible show of support for the football team with a drone show and fireworks at Nippert Stadium.

The excitement is also keeping businesses around campus booming.

Fans chanted, clapped and rooted for the football Bearcats during the show.

It was a phenomenal display in the sky that seemed to send a bit of a warning to Alabama: this team and its fans mean business.

"We have just been non-stop busy. Extended store hours. Tons of online orders," DuBois Book Store Operations Manager, Ty Bonawitz, said.

Counting down the days to the Cotton Bowl and fans are getting geared up for the Bearcats at DuBois Book Store.

Bonawitz said as soon as they put out new stuff, it's gone, and they have to restock again.

"The biggest problem we're having right now is the cotton shortage that we're dealing which is kind of ironic going to the Cotton Bowl," Bonawitz said.

Even the dogs are rooting on these cats — well, the book store owner's dog — who wanders around as shoppers pick their next piece of gear.

People said they're making a mad dash to get ready for Texas.

"Roll tide cool, but no, they ain't cool for us. We've got to beat them. We've got to beat them," fan, Jason Stewart, said.

Fans have a hearty appetite to see undefeated UC conquer in this historic appearance in the College Football Playoffs.

Over at Mio's, Rich Owens knows the team does, too.

They fed them on Monday.

"We had a whiteboard that we had every player on the team sign and then we're going to laminate it. We haven't titled it yet. We're hoping to put national champs on it," Owens said.

It's a moment in Bearcat history that will stick with the kids.

As the sun went down on Tuesday, there was a bit of an incognito pep rally to "Light Up Nippert Stadium."

There were fireworks and there was also a drone show with messages to root on the team.

"The programming that went into it and the messages up in the sky. They were really neat," fan, Kerri Todd, said.

Of course, there were also the signature UC chants to let Alabama know UC means business.

"I was excited. I was actually up there and he can vouch for me, I was jumping up and down. I was like, 'Oh my God, I can't wait,'" UC employee, Alex Coleman, said.

Fans said some people are driving to Texas and booking houses a couple of hours away so that they can still get close.

Even still, businesses believe turnout locally will be good.

According to officials, more than 150 synchronized drones were used in the show.

They also said a video shot at the event will be featured at some point during the Cotton Bowl.

ANAHEIM, Calif. —

"This has to stop," a Disneyland fan said.

There had been a stream of troubling comments for the past few days in the "Vintage Disneyland" Facebook group. People were getting offended and others were starting to speak out.

It started innocently, with people sharing memories of the park with the phrase “My Disneyland had …” My Disneyland had the Welch’s Grape Juice stand. My Disneyland let you fly through the Matterhorn on the Skyway.

But the internet being the internet, things took a dark turn, fast. "My Disneyland didn’t let wokeness ruin rides" was a common theme, quickly becoming a pile-on of grievances, from removing the scene on Pirates of the Caribbean where women were sold into sex slavery to changing culturally insensitive scenes on Jungle Cruise that stereotyped Indigenous tribes. Don’t even get them started on what’s on deck for Splash Mountain.

"The whole 'My Disneyland' thing was just mind-boggling," Bill Cotter said. As one of the admins of the 114,000 member group, it’s his shared responsibility to filter out the worst of the posts and comments. "I actually posted a picture of my car on Main Street that my Disneyland had better parking," he added.

Cotter is now retired from theme parks, but spent years working at Disneyland, Universal and Warner Bros. Studios. When he was a cast member (what Disneyland calls its employees), on the days Disneyland was closed, you were allowed to drive your car in the park if you had a certain level of seniority.

"I came back later and, my God, the hatred that was flying back and forth," Cotter said. "Like, 'my Disneyland didn’t have whale-sized people stuffing food in their face.' What are you talking about? Body shaming is not acceptable. Why did you feel you had to make that comment? And then it just went downhill from there. Some of the comments were truly terrible. 'My Disneyland didn’t have a pedophile president in the White House.' What the hell? That just went really south."

The members who participate in that kind of thread can get so toxic that even just speaking out in a mild way against the negativity — by saying something as innocuous as "this has to stop" — is to risk having thousands of people pile on their criticisms, starting with why the problematic comment wasn’t a problem in the first place and ending, quite often, with personal attacks on that person and their family that can extend outside the group and sometimes into real life.

But it’s not just isolated to this one Disneyland Facebook group.

There is a serious issue with toxicity in Disney social media as a whole, and it has increased so much over the past few years that the topic has become a growing area of academic study.

"It’s become quite fascinating to me to look at the toxicity in a fandom that a lot of people would think is just very happy, and everyone’s always on the same page with things, when they’re obviously not," said Rebecca Williams, senior lecturer in communication, culture and media studies at the University of South Wales in the United Kingdom. She focuses extensively on participatory cultures and fandoms, especially Disney fans, publishing the book “Theme Park Fandom” last year.

Williams first started noticing a larger-than-expected reaction to what she thought were relatively benign opinions about Disney when she was doing her own planning for a family trip to Walt Disney World.

"It was the first time I'd really seen a sense that a lot of the locals thought of tourists as being foolish or as not really knowing the right thing to do or the right place to go. And I'd never really thought about that before," Williams said. "I'd always thought quite nicely that everyone who liked Disney was going to be friendly and nice."

Since then, in her observation, the criticism has grown from passing criticism to deeper attacks that have become more pointed and personal. Blame the pandemic, sure, but there’s more happening than just that — and the trends in Disney social media reflect what’s happening in society more broadly.

"I think the pandemic has made people generally more angry about the little things," Williams said, but she saw the real emergence of this kind of discourse around the 2016 election. "I think people on social media started to become more divided anyway, and some of that spilled over," she said. "They’d never really been that vocal about their politics before on the Disney sites or on Twitter accounts."

Look on Twitter any day, especially on posts under the #DisTwitter threads, and you’ll see people attacking each other in vicious ways. Sometimes it’s about how "wokeness" is ruining the Disney experience — as Jonathan VanBoskerck famously opined in the Orlando Sentinel earlier this year. He received massive backlash as well, when he said, "Disney cares more about politics than happy guests."

But sometimes fans attack for seemingly innocuous things like Williams mentioned, such as restaurant preference, or for daring to prefer a park that others think is inferior. "Epcot fanboys" are regularly raked across the coals for loving a park with fewer rides than other Disney World parks and that has been under construction for several pre- and mid-pandemic years.

"These kinds of conflicts usually end up turning on ideas about who are the real fans and what does real fandom look like or mean," said Benjamin Woo, associate professor of communication and media study at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. Woo, the author of "Getting a Life: The Social Worlds of Geek Culture," sees this kind of flare-up as a way of comparing who’s the better or more deserving fan.

"One of the reasons why online spaces have provoked, or made visible, or accelerated these kinds of conflicts is that it’s much easier to find and see people who are enjoying the thing that you enjoy in a way that’s different than you enjoy it, or who are criticizing those things," Woo told SFGATE.

"That discoverability of online fan activity means that you're kind of confronted by different conceptions of what it means to be a Disney fan or a Marvel fan or a gamer or whatever in a way that you might not have been if your fandom was limited by your own immediately available peers in your school or your city," he added. "I think the central dynamic here is you're just being confronted with these different conceptions of what it means to be a fan or how you are quote unquote 'supposed to think about or enjoy the thing.'"

Fans have spent years building up huge knowledge bases of little-known Disney history, or of learning every corner of the Disney movie universe, or creating their own version of the best way to do the parks. Then they share that information online. People disagree — or worse, go on a personal attack.

Insert whatever insult you want there, because it’s already been said, many times, to many people. They’re throwing their money away. They’re wasting their lives. They’re "creepy" Disney adults who refuse to grow up. They’re any version of fan the attacker doesn’t see as worthy.

"It doesn’t explain the particular vitriol in which some of [those opinions] get expressed," Woo said, "but I think that is a really important piece of understanding" that kind of behavior.

Academics studying the phenomenon can see any number of examples themselves. "On Facebook, I’m in groups for Disney cruises, and it’s amazing how somebody will ask the most innocent question and just get destroyed," said Dan Wann, professor of psychology at Murray State University in Kentucky. "I'm like, man, some people don't have near the magic you should probably have."

Wann studies the psychology of sports fandom, how groups of people interact over their love of sports and how they react when their team is losing. What he sees is that fandom is a deeply ingrained form of self-identification.

"Fans take this stuff personal, right? If you are a diehard Disney fan, or a diehard Giants fan, or a diehard ‘Star Wars’ fan, or a diehard fill-in-the-blank fan, it's a part of their identity," he said. "It is literally a part of who they are."

Some people choose a long-term commitment to Disney because their family likes to go, or because it’s a way to stay connected to the past. But there are also long-term financial commitments that people make to the company, through investments or through purchasing membership in Disney Vacation Club, which is essentially a timeshare at Disney hotels with a contract that can last up to 50 years. So, Wann points out, you’ve got good reasons for wanting things to stay positive at the parks.

"When things go wrong with that part of their identity, their choice is either to pretend they don't care or to make it seem better. Well, they're not going to pretend they don’t care, right?" Wann said. "If you’re a Disney Vacation Club person, you don't get to say, ‘Well, I guess I'll just not care anymore.’ You care psychologically and financially."

"When things happen at Disneyland — for instance, you talk about a ride change or if prices go up or they take away annual passes — Disneyland fans go crazy because you’re taking something that they hold very dear to their heart," said Stephanie Williams-Turkowski, assistant professor in the department of mass communications at Stephen F. Austin State University, who wrote her dissertation about Disney fandom. "It's like if I came into your house and rearranged all your furniture without you knowing, that's how deep it hits them. So there can be toxicity about that. There’s also toxicity and negativity towards the things that don’t change."

She especially sees fighting in online Disney communities about which groups should and shouldn’t be represented at the parks, and what the "real" Disney fan is. "There are so many different facets of being a Disney fan and you don't have to fit that one description," she said. "That's where a lot of the negativity comes in — like, 'You don't look like the typical Disney fan. So why are you pretending to be one?'"

"It’s really phenomenal and disappointing, " Bill Cotter said.

Though there are several other admins in the Vintage Disneyland group, many of them choose not to identify themselves publicly, some even going so far as to use a pseudonym to avoid backlash for enforcing the rules of the group. Those rules include specifying that posts need to pertain to a certain time frame to be considered "vintage," but also include "be kind and courteous" and "no politics," which are less followed than you might think.

"Some of them are just scared to death of being attacked by people on a personal level," Cotter said. "They start calling you Hitler for being a dictator. So many things you couldn’t print."

“It bounces off you in the street, but I just don’t like it when it happens here, it’s a whole new level of hurt,” he added. Cotter has a particular visibility in the group. He has written several history books, including one on the 1964 World’s Fair when Disney debuted It’s a Small World and other now-iconic park rides. “What frustrates me is that you’re trying to say you want to go to the happiest place on Earth,” he said, “and people just feel absolutely compelled to bring the outside world into it.”

Cotter, too, sees a correlation in vitriol with the 2016 election. “You’ll post a picture of something like, ‘Here’s myself at age 3 standing next to Monstro the Whale,’ and somebody has to post, ‘He’s almost as bad as Donald Trump.’ Why did you feel you needed to do that?” he said. “Then somebody else will post a picture of a kid sleeping in a stroller and somebody goes, ‘Oh, look a baby picture of Joe Biden doing what he does best, sleeping.’ You just don’t need that crap.”

But it’s not just politics. People attack each other over their parenting at the parks, their ride preferences, even the clothes they choose to wear to Disneyland. Cotter also said he sees a significant amount of race-baiting and homophobia. “Some people are so anti-gay that anything that suggests somebody might be gay sends them into an absolute frenzy,” he noted.

On the morning we spoke, Cotter checked the admin activity log for the group. In less than two hours that day, three people had been declined from joining the group, two had been banned, and several more had insensitive comments deleted from posts. Remember, though, that’s out of more than 100,000 members, the majority of whom he described as “really decent people and having fun.”

In sports fandom, Dan Wann said, those people are called “dysfunctional fans,” who disregard other people’s feelings or go on the attack when something goes wrong with their team. It might be one in 20 people, he guessed. “The majority aren't that way, but it doesn't take very many to make it seem like a majority,” he said.

“They're the ones that love to call into sports talk radio and diss the local and away games and confront the opposing fans,” Wann said. “They were bullies as kids, or they’re highly aggressive and they drink a lot. I wonder if maybe you haven't come across people [who] are just dysfunctional Disney fans and they're not nice outside of Disney. Their job is to take away the magic.”

So why do people continue to engage when the most benign comments often get attacked? Probably for the same reason cast members continue to work at Disneyland when the park pays wages it’s hard to live on. In fact, 25,000 of them are suing Disneyland right now for a living wage, the majority of whom still work for the Mouse.

It all comes down to passion for the park, a deep and sometimes inexplicable attachment to a place that’s more than just a place. It represents peace of mind, escapism, being able to walk out of your life and walk into one where everything is in vivid color, music plays from the landscaping, and your every need is tended to, as long as you can pay for it.

“People just really want a communal bond over something, and trust in the community and people who are seeking out that community,” said Will Henderson, associate director for the Social Media Listening Center at Clemson University, who studies the social media habits of theme park fans. “Yes, there are certain users that you don't want to engage with, but I think the block button and the report button are not used enough.”

With Disneyland especially, there’s a protectiveness that comes with what people perceive as “Walt’s park,” the only one Disney personally oversaw the creation of. People will complain about changes at Walt Disney World, but when it comes to Disneyland, that discourse is on a totally different level. “We have three times the number of members in Vintage Disneyland than we do in Vintage Disney World, and we must have 10 times the problem,” Cotter said.

In addition to Disneyland being seen as the purest expression of Walt Disney’s personal vision, it’s also more of a local’s park, with a huge portion of its annual passholders within easy driving distance. “Disneyland people are more of a local group,” Cotter said. “Before they eliminated the passes, they had a group that went all the time and started getting very protective of their environment.”

Because so many people grew up frequenting Disneyland, that passion and protectiveness could be linked to their happiest childhood memories. “So many people go to these places first when they are kids with their families, it's almost like, ‘You're attacking the way I was brought up, you're attacking my family,’” Rebecca Williams said.

Hannah Sampson, a staff writer who covers travel at the Washington Post, started seeing the negativity online among Disney fans come to a boiling point when she first reported on changes to Splash Mountain in mid-2019. “When I wrote that story, people were commenting on the piece and saying things like, ‘PC police get a life, leave us alone,’” she said. Some of them were even defending “Song of the South,” the movie Splash Mountain is based on, which is so problematic that the New Yorker called out its racism in its coverage of the movie’s 1946 release.

“People were saying how much they loved ‘Song of the South’ and how it was really a great movie,” Sampson added, “when in actuality they're not even showing it because it [Disney] realized that it's so offensive and culturally unacceptable.”

A story she wrote about conservative backlash to what she called “Disney’s ‘woke’ moves” generated more than 4,300 reader comments (Full disclosure: I was interviewed for this Washington Post article). The discourse was exactly what you’d expect. One reader commented the story was “more fodder for the knuckle dragging right wing outrage machine,” while another responded with, “Diversity and inclusivity is a stupid replacement for competence. Losers of the world, arise!”

“If not seeing a depiction of a woman sold off at auction is going to ‘ruin’ your Disney experience,” wrote one commenter of the change to Pirates of the Caribbean, “then you deserve to have it ruined.”

Sampson sees the fight over changes to Disney as reflecting the broader national discourse around whether it’s better to remove, say, statues of Confederate generals. “There’s very much this broader mindset of there being difficult things in the past that some people want to remove, and others are saying, ‘No, this is our heritage. We shouldn’t be tearing it down,’” she said. “I definitely see that reflected in the discourse around the Jim Crow crows in ‘Dumbo,’ which can be seen as really offensive and racist, and are seen that way by many, and ‘Song of the South.’”

The political right blames the left for erasing the past when changing their beloved childhood rides like Jungle Cruise and Splash Mountain, and the political left blames the right for resistance to those changes delaying what they see as progress. But nobody gets blamed more than Disney CEO Bob Chapek.

Under Chapek’s leadership, the parks have ended free FastPasses, taken away significant guest perks like trams to and from parking garages and free airport transportation to and from Walt Disney World hotels, and replaced the beloved annual passholder program with one widely seen as inferior. To say people dislike those decisions is to put it mildly. But people forget that Chapek, when he talks about the company’s “more aggressive” financial strategy to raise profits, is, well, doing his job.

“He’s not even pretending to hide anything. He’s like, ‘We want your money,’” Rebecca Williams said. “But I think it’s interesting that he’s been singled out in this way.” She said she’s observed Josh D’Amaro, head of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, as being portrayed by the public as trying to do the right thing and do better by guests, but as being held back by Chapek. “We get this weird scapegoating of one person as bad and someone else isn’t,” she added. “It allows people to defend the company to put the blame on an individual when it clearly isn’t just his fault.”

“When you’re making the point about Disney constantly changing,” Hannah Sampson said, it’s easy to forget that “its main goal is entertainment and making money. It’s kind of funny [that] the attitude people have brought to this conversation is whether you should be replacing Walt’s original vision. You have to assume that he would have recognized the need to change things as the times changed and to reckon with things that were problematic from the start.”

Williams sees this focus on Chapek as the biggest Disney villain as a way of deflecting people’s complicated emotions about the company’s decisions — not just about removing parts of rides or taking away perks, but of allowing more inclusive dress codes for cast members, like letting anyone wear nail polish, not just cisgender women. Or, for the company charging more than $200 a day for a Park Hopper ticket and fighting in court to not have to pay its employees a living wage.

By placing your blame or hatred on Bob Chapek, Williams contends, you can overlook those other problems, or make them easier to contend with. “You can say, ‘Well, you know, it's because of somebody else,’ or, ‘It's not everything, it's just this one person, we can blame this one individual person for it,’” she said. “People try to defend against it because then they can think, ‘It isn't just because of my identity, it's these other things that are happening, it's because Disney has to be woke or, they have to be seen responding to this.’ You can blame someone else for it. You can defend against feeling like your own self identity is under attack.”

Ultimately, the simplest explanation is that people have intense connections to this company that manufactures happiness as its largest commodity, and, as Hannah Sampson said, “there’s always going to be some way in which current Disney leadership is not living up to the expectation of the fandom.”

“There’s a lot of grist for that now,” she added. “You can't blame people for disappointment and feeling like their pockets are getting emptier and emptier, but I also think the real Disney fandom would not be happy if there wasn't something that they could complain about.”

CINCINNATI —

Despite a limited capacity, fans had the energy buzzing at TQL Stadium on Sunday.

They said they are grateful the day has arrived as they welcomed their team into new digs, while getting a taste of it themselves.

FC Cincinnati played Inter Miami, losing 3-2.

Fans said they have a lot of excitement for the future of the team and its stadium.

"There's a lot of excitement. The field, the grass field and everything," fan Greg Thielman said.

A new home and greater energy than ever before.

"We've been coming since the very beginning in 2015. So, to see them expand and grow is something that is super exciting to be a part of," fan Devin Biser said.

Six thousand FC Cincinnati fans came for a new chapter at TQL Stadium and to make some waves in Major League Soccer.

And yes, the Bailey still rocks the house.

"It's really exciting for the city, you know, to see that we put up a beautiful stadium, have something exciting to come out to, especially with COVID ending," fan Jahmar Daniels said.

The pandemic would've made this seem impossible a year ago.

Masks, social distancing and limited attendance were part of the fan experience.

Many came decked out in orange and blue gear, not deterred by the current state of affairs.

"I've got my 2016 inaugural season scarf, you know, for the opening game. It just kind of helps you get ready in your mind for the game," fan AJ Eaves said.

Despite the loss on Sunday, fans told us they've stuck with this team from the start.

They'll keep coming back here.

"It's been a long time coming. I went to pretty much every game I've been able to go to over at Nippert Stadium," fan Kyle Ryder said.

Fans said their loyalty runs deep.

They can't wait to be joined by more fans soon.

"Win or lose or draw, I'm here for FCC," Ryder said.

Fans including Ryder said they expect full attendance will really make the new stadium light up.

CINCINNATI — As TQL Stadium opens for FC Cincinnati's home opener, here's what fans should know about parking before heading to a match.

Season parking pass holders will have access to parking close to the stadium, which includes:

• The East Garage on the stadium site
• The West Premium Lot in the rear of the stadium
• The newly built West End garage north of the stadium with about 800 parking spots
• The Town Center Garage across from Music Hall on Central Parkway.

The Washington Park Garage is also offering parking sign-ups for FC Cincinnati fans, but this garage also has spots set aside for season parking pass holders.

Fans can also get their steps in by parking at the Mercer Commons Garage, the Ziegler Park Garage or the Kroger Garage and walking between 15 and 20 minutes to the stadium.

The stadium is nestled into the West End neighborhood where some might try their luck with street parking, but FC Cincinnati has a map online that shows that parking in residential neighborhoods is off limits. Residents hope fans respect this.

"They’re not going to want to pay to park, so they’re going to think they can come over here, which is free parking, and it’s not," Yona Dowdell, a West End resident, said. "They don’t live over here to park over here.”