> People don't attend basketball games, operas, or go eat at Michelin star restaurants because they're lonely.

If you don't think a big part of the appeal of sports fandom is artificial group connection of much the same type as the kinds of artificial individual connection some people seek through the entertainment you are denigrating, I think you are quite mistaken.

But, again just as for sports, just being entertained is a big part of this, too.