Abstract
In their introduction to Sport in the City the editors review the political and cultural connections of sport and its infrastructure and question the often broadly adopted position that a new stadium will resolve a catalogue of urban failings including lack of identity, community spirit and economic activity. They assert that it is ‘insufficient to simply say that this event or a new stadium will “put us on the map”… rather that the debate has shifted to include discussion of “fostering sustainable economic development or of retaining a pool of social and human “capital”’ (p. 2). Published in 2011 in hardback, Sport in the City is a collection of 10 papers previously published as a special edition of the journal Sport in Society, several of which were presented at the Sport in the City symposium at the University of Otago in November 2007. Three papers (Davies, Kohe, Sam and Scherer, and Spirou) were also published in the International Journal of Cultural Policy in 2008.
Leading with criticism of the weak evidence base for statements of stadium impacts, Costas Spirou reviews these developments and anticipated regeneration in the USA. With the well-documented increase in leisure-related spending, government policy, strategies and funding have followed in the hope of capturing the valuable urban tourism market and of ‘economically rescuing and revitalising neighbourhoods’ (p. 8). From 2000 to 2009, 12 new National Football League stadia were constructed at a cost of US$5.9 billion and 11 new major league baseball stadia totalling US$4.6 billion, including the US$1.3 billion Yankee Stadium. Spirou reviews the development and delivery of four new stadia in Chicago and examines the legislative changes, funding issues, and the impact on communities and how protests against them shaped the outcome of each stadium. He predicts that with ‘the increasingly short lifespan of stadiums in the United States’ (p. 20), another redevelopment phase will occur before 2020.
Following on, Larissa Davies considers the policy shift that views sport-led urban regeneration in the UK and focuses on the economic literature. Davies identifies two themes: ‘macro-economic impact studies of sport and the economy focussing on the contribution of sport to output and employment; and secondly, economic impact studies of major events’ (p. 26) and suggests that most of these studies have been carried out to justify expenditure on sport and events. She concludes that sports-led regeneration does provide value but that the evidence is too fragmented to deliver a comprehensive review and that ‘a more holistic approach to improving the evidence base’ (p. 35) might better serve policy makers.
Michael Sam and Jay Scherer examine the decade of decisions and dilemmas faced by the local government in Dunedin in replacing Carisbrook stadium. They discuss the legislative amendments that required councils to consult on the type of significant changes to the local plan created by the development of an international standard stadium. They detail the working party – criticised for its lack of independence, for ignoring residents’ responses and objections, its disbanding in 2005 and the formation of a new trust – and criticise the ‘promotional politics’ (p. 50) exhibited by the trust to win broad public support. For any local government, striking a balance between being visionary and being fiscally responsible and accountable to their electorate is a challenge; that ‘market[ing] sport and sport edifices to the city … [makes] economic and cultural common sense’ (p. 51), and would ease this dilemma is then often one of the approaches adopted.
In their second chapter, Scherer and Sam continue their review of the debates surrounding the Carisbrook stadium, this time focusing on the role played by electronic technologies in the ‘online battleground’ (p. 59). New media technologies have transformed how news is gathered and presented, and now includes material from local citizens and community interest groups, all seeking to influence the debate. The pro-stadium groups established websites, promoting them as unbiased and offering an accurate portrayal of the debate, while newspapers adopted ‘different and, at times, contradictory positions’ and ‘generally reproduce[d] dominant, taken for granted values and interests’ (p. 57). Among this was a constant fear mongering declaring that ‘Dunedin would slip into economic and cultural oblivion unless a new stadium was built’ (p. 60). Overall they conclude that far from clarifying the debate, these technologies served to encourage ‘citizens to uncritically accept what is easily available’ (p. 66), continuing the book’s overall theme that there is more speculation than evidence in stadium-related debate.
David Roberts explores the policing strategy employed in Durban for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, its impact on visitors and residents in public places and the ‘explicit strategy to use the media coverage accompanying the tournament to rebrand the city as an elite, international sporting destination’ (p. 70). Temporary powers restricted ‘unacceptable’ behaviours in public places, in line with FIFA requirements, avoiding the need for a blanket ban as protests were controlled by a permit process, and volunteer ambassadors were commissioned. Roberts expresses concern for the additional policing powers, suggesting that this ‘is much more about attracting future tourists and business investors than appealing to World Cup tourists’ (p. 70) but finds little argument with the use of ambassadors.
GZ Rohe examines the presentation of sporting artefacts in sports halls and museums and their role in constructing and romanticising sporting myths, employing the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame as his case study. There is criticism of many collections for their edited and even sanitised representations, omitting losing teams, riots, racism and mismanagement and this is particularly evident in halls of fame where ‘sport deities [become] idolized, immortalized and romanticized figures … [establishing their] place in society’s upper echelon’ (p. 86). The New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame is even more selective, with sporting stars only eligible for consideration five years after their retirement. Rohe calls for further work to be conducted into the changes they ‘may need to undertake to retain their academic and civic interest’ (p. 95).
Sarah Gee and Stephen Jackson explore the branding of a locally brewed beer, Speight’s, and its existing associations with New Zealand sport. The first beer to be advertised on New Zealand TV, Gee and Jackson review the ‘Southern Man’ and current ‘Great Beer Delivery’ campaigns, where a boat equipped with a pub was sailed from Dunedin to London, and argue that ‘the notion of Speight’s Space, with its advertising campaigns, branded social locations such as alehouses and pubs, and sponsored sporting teams and fixtures provides men with places and events where they can express and perform the masculinity and, more importantly, where they can escape some of the constraints that they perceive as inhibiting that masculinity’ (p. 112).
Analysing data from Fiorentina season-holders data base, Patrizia Zagnoli and Elena Radicci map the complex network that exists between the local community, club management and owners, suppliers, municipality, fan community, sponsors and media to assess the role that fans play in creating value. They identify strong local support and a network that is good for the team but such localism reduces the money offered for TV-rights. This differs for ‘[t]op class clubs like Milan, Inter FC, Juventus, etc., [who] are able to create top-performing teams not just because of the considerable financial resources provided by selling TV-rights but also because they are backed by large industrial groups’ (p. 125). They note that fans are ‘crucial to the continued growth and survival of the club’ and their ‘commitment, collaboration and social participation’ (p. 132) counteracts changes in the club, particularly for players, managers and ownership.
In the book’s concluding chapter John Hughson and Geoffrey Rohe present their fanciful proposal for a tourist destination connecting Dunedin and Queenstown, based loosely on Will Alsop’s SuperCity concept. Hughson and Rohe’s proposal, directed toward the visitor class, encourages an artistic and creative approach this tourism strategy. Despite its rejection by the New Zealand authorities, the authors do not view such as a deterrent, hoping that it would, in part, ‘generate public debate’ (p. 148).
One clear link between many of the papers is their criticism of the lack of evidence to support assumptions that stadia stimulate or otherwise catalyse urban regeneration or gentrification, increase economic activity or elicit other community benefits, leading the authors to temper their findings and call for further research. Another common theme is the focus on funding and justification of expenditure on sports facilities and events to the wider public, highlighting the differences in approach and funding mechanisms between case studies. Although a collection with a common theme, the papers are diverse in subject and avoid the repetition that can occur with edited collections.