Beers and blurred boundaries: The spatial and gendered organisation of pre-match venues for English football fans

Conceptualising (gendered) boundaries in sports fandom

This use of the concept of boundary within a sports fan community has been applied by Bale (1993a, 1993b, 1996, 2000, 2002a, 2002b), who highlighted that sport with its enclosures and rivalries is an important site for spatial analysis. Bale recognised that although sports fans may support the same team, a categorical and physical distance separated different groups of fans inside the stadium. The focus of boundary in his work remained predicated on social class, in which fans from primarily the working classes were spatially segregated from other fans because the more socially and economically desirable groups of spectators were located in corporate boxes (Bale, 1993b). We broaden his perspective to account for the continuity, shifts and strains in the construction of gendered boundaries in the contemporary football crowd. This focus builds on recent academic interest in how physical and social spaces can reflect gendered norms within society (Carr, 2017; Mowl and Towner, 1995; Pavlidis, 2018; Van-Ingen, 2003; Waitt, 2008). Recently, an edited collection by Koch (2017) explored the issue of sport, space and power and advocated the importance of advancing a critical geography of sport. Turcott (2018) suggested that the collection provided a much-needed 21st century rendition of Bale’s work. Written as a diverse set of case studies from a wide range of sports, the collection foregrounds gender and the role of sporting spaces in (re)producing gender hierarchies (Koch, 2017). Building on such work, this article also extends Bale’s work in response to socio-spatial and cultural changes to the match day routines of football fans. ‘New’ spaces, such as official fan zones, remain largely absent in his work, but we consider these as offering an alternative experience on a match day, celebrating ‘family friendly entertainment value’ (Myrdahl, 2009: 294).

Scholars exploring the relationship between space and gender within a sporting context have built on Bale’s (1993a, 1996, 2002b) concept of the sportscape, which refers to the monocultural space within a city that is devoted to sporting practices. This includes the football stadium and also the immediate material surroundings that encompass the sports field/stadium (Bale, 1996). The sportscape is often the focus of intense power struggles over, for example, the building of stadiums and/or the temporary or permanent closure of public space for sporting events (John, 2015). In the modern context of football, the sportscape includes the stadium as well as ‘spaces’ such as pubs, takeaways and the streets that surround it that are frequented and transformed on match day. Traditionally, it has been the local pub that has provided the setting for pre-match gatherings of fans and, as detailed by Collins and Vamplew (2000), it has a long association with football. Fans (predominantly males) have gathered at pubs for many years (both pre- and post-match) and these spaces have been described as ‘an enduring site for fandom practice’ (Dixon, 2014: 382). More recently, pubs have also become venues for watching ‘live’ sport on the television, particularly for those without access to sport on subscription television (Weed, 2006, 2007, 2008), further highlighting the importance of this space and the evolving nature of fandom.

However, the need for football clubs to improve aspects of safety following stadium tragedies in the UK, such as the Hillsborough disaster and the resulting Taylor Report (Turner, 2014), has necessitated changes in the built environment of sportscapes (Finnegan and Rookwood, 2008; Malcolm et al., 2000). Recent stadium developments have also been driven by the commercial viewpoint that venues need to be used for a variety of business activities and even other sports (Church and Penny, 2013; Kennedy and Kennedy, 2010). Weed (2006) has argued that this ‘sanitising’ of stadiums has resulted in a culture of ‘pub supporting’, with pubs assuming greater importance as a male-oriented ‘third-space’. As a site, the pub is considered a public space where men can ‘mobilize and exert forms of control’ (Campbell, 2000: 564). Yet, these developments are also shaping stadium spaces for fans to frequent. Subsequently, new spaces such as official fan zones are considered in this article as legitimate sites of match day engagement. It should be noted that Bale (2002a: 135) remains somewhat critical of changes to traditional football stadiums, charting how earlier suburban grounds are slowly being replaced by new multipurpose football stadiums that he describes as ‘tradiums’ – commercialised spaces centred on mass consumption. He considers such landscapes to be ‘inauthentic’, warning that modern football stadiums may become synonymous with concrete bowls or bland forms of container architecture (Bale, 1993b: 128). However, we argue this criticism only applies when describing the atmosphere favoured by those who follow the traditional match day routines discussed earlier.

Although fan zones have received some scholarly attention (Brannagan and Rookwood, 2016; Klauser, 2012; Lauss and Szigetvari, 2010; Schnitzer and Stickdorn, 2012), the large majority of this work focuses on mega-events and international football competitions. Hagemann (2010: 725), for example, investigated the UEFA European Football Championships in Zurich and describes fan zones as extensions of the carnival where ‘the streets chosen as routes for visitors, referred to as “Fan Miles” or “Fan Boulevards”, carefully stage-manage the walk through each downtown area to the fan zone’. Fan zones at English football stadiums, however, are tailored towards a family matchgoing crowd, for which offerings appeal particularly to young children. In these spaces, fans often engage in activities that include football-related games for children, bouncy castles and other inflatable obstacles, and ‘meet and greet’ sessions with players prior to the match. Therefore, we define fan zones as bounded spaces external to the stadium that are set aside for family-friendly fan engagement activities.

We suggest that as football has been institutionally organised with a focus on ‘competition and hierarchy amongst men and the exclusion or domination of women’ (Connell, 2005: 54), further consideration should be paid to the gendered nature of the football sportscape. More specifically, attention should be paid to how masculinity is not only constituted through fan behaviour inside and around the stadium, but also to how the spaces where these engagements take place actively encourage or discourage particular fandom performances. In English football, these behaviours have included violent and exaggeratedly aggressive practices in resistance to authority and the use of language that is often sexist or homophobic (Jones, 2008). Jensen (1992: 15) paints a colourful image of typical fan behaviour as being ‘drunken destructiveness, a rampage of uncontrollable masculine passion that is unleashed in response to a sports victory or defeat’. Such behaviours have forced female fans to downplay their gender identities (Jones, 2008) for fear of being labelled as ‘inauthentic’ sports fans (Pope, 2014). Sport is considered a crucial site for the demarcation of gender as it ‘serves to reproduce males as the standard and hegemonic hyper/masculinity as the norm’ (Meân, 2010: 144). Each of the spaces, traditional and new, explored in this article will be shown to have created boundaries that mark belonging and exclusion. This study contributes new insights into match day experiences of sports fans and gender relations in society more widely, demonstrating that space is political and contestable. We contend that the dynamics of gender power relations exert control over who belongs in particular spaces as well as the nature of particular interactions that occur within these spaces. Pseudonyms are used throughout.

Method

An interpretivist, qualitative case study method was adopted for this study. Case study research is a stand-alone method that involves an in-depth investigation of a phenomenon within its ‘real-world’ context. Multiple sources of evidence are used and the case study method is often seen as synonymous with qualitative research (Edwards and Skinner, 2009). In this instance, an ethnographic approach was adopted, utilising participant observation and qualitative interviews. Drawing on data generated for a study that focused on the match day experiences and spatial location of Everton fans, this article describes the process of travel to and subsequent engagement in spaces surrounding Everton’s home stadium of Goodison Park (hereafter Goodison).

Participant observation has been used to study marginalised subcultures in sport, with a particular focus on dysfunctional fans and hooligans (Armstrong and Harris, 1991; Giulianotti, 1999; Hughson, 1999). Fieldwork data were collected over three Premier League football seasons. In total, 20 matches were observed at Goodison by the lead author. Each match generated approximately 4.5 hours of observation (including travel time), which totalled approximately 100 hours in the field. The field consisted of Goodison and various sites that fans favoured on match day. In this way, observations extended to the streets leading up to Goodison and food and merchandise stalls, as well as the pubs and fan zones. Due to the confines of a research article, we have chosen to discuss observations of a typical pub frequented by fans on match days and Everton’s fan zone. The selected pub is a large white building that is a short walk away from Goodison. It has eaves painted in the blue of Everton’s club colours, with some black paint forming a deep line at the bottom of the building. The bright and dominant colours of blue, white and black are associated with Everton and act as symbolic markers (Cohen, 1985) to reaffirm to local residents that this is a ‘blue’ pub.

Recording fieldwork notes would have been impossible to do whilst actually in the field and so the researcher wrote them after match day observations, usually on the night of the match. A mobile phone was often used for writing down ‘buzz words’, or what Bernard (2006: 389) refers to as ‘jotting notes’ during observations. These, in effect, were short sentences or words that would later act as trigger material and assist in recalling events that had happened during the observations (Richards, 2015). The use of mobile devices by sports fans is now relatively common at sports matches, with many teams and stadiums offering free Wi-Fi and encouraging their use (Turner, 2014). Therefore, using electronic devices to make initial observations and record thoughts did not need to be furtive and was seen as acceptable fan behaviour by those around the researcher. Using a mobile device with a built-in camera had the added benefit of allowing events to be recorded ‘in multiple modalities’ (Yin, 2011: 161).

This research also involved 25 semi-structured interviews with participants aged between 20 and 70. Of those interviewed, 15 were male and 10 were female. One participant had a physical disability, and two of the participants were mothers to young children. The participants were all season ticket holders (club members), apart from two who attend Goodison regularly with friends. In this way, the research subscribed to ‘purposeful sampling’, in which suitable participants were sought out to discover, understand and gain insight into a particular phenomenon (Merriam, 1998). As the research became more refined in its focus, the maximum variation purposeful sampling technique was applied to refine and guide the types of participants who were recruited.

What became apparent was the diversity in the football crowd with notable differences between fans that were not entirely influenced by just gender and age. As a result of this observation, the researchers shifted to recruiting other fans, for example, family fans (identified as mixed gender groups of adults and children), whose match day experiences have often been overlooked (Richards, 2018). This adaptability enabled the research to expand on the typical framework of sports fandom that homogenises the sports crowd as a single unit. The aim of utilising this approach was to build on such work by examining a wider spectrum of fans on match day, rather than focusing primarily on one fan type. Although this approach has limitations, including lacking Geertz’s (1973) ‘thick description’ of one subcultural group that is favoured by many football scholars, in many ways, its breadth, as will be explained later in this article, gave a voice to fans who have typically been silent in academic literature.

County Road: Beer and banter

I met Angus’ wife tonight at the pub. I sat with her and their two children before the match at the tables near the window. Angus didn’t really hang around, but left me there while he spoke to some of his friends near the bar. I can’t remember her name, but we spoke about her son playing football this weekend. I asked why she comes to the pub but does not attend the matches. She remarked that it was ‘his’ [referring to Angus] domain. She noted that she enjoyed coming to the pub and hanging out with everyone but really had no interest in football, and was actually, if anything, because of her family was a Liverpool fan. But I was told in a joking matter to not remind Angus of this fact.

(Fieldwork Note: 1/11/2014 vs Norwich City)

County Road sits just behind Goodison and is an iconic and revered space for Everton fans. The street is lined with pubs and a variety of takeaways, grocery stores and gambling/betting agencies. Observations on County Road revealed fans who spent time here, both pre- and post-match were very familiar with the site. No one appeared lost, no one asked for directions, and no fans were observed taking photos of the surrounding environment. Perhaps this is not that surprising, considering it is not a particularly attractive streetscape. In fact, some fans actively avoided the street due to its unappealing nature or because it was considered to be ‘too busy’ and/or ‘full of young drunk people’. As Cathy notes,

If my plan was to drive in, well there’s nowhere to usually go in Walton, ¹ you know. Whereas in town, you know, you can go to the coffee shop or whatever … but you know, let’s face it, Walton’s not a gentrified area and I think, well I’m gentrified now (laughs).

(Interview: Cathy, 50–60).

However, for some fans, visiting County Road prior to the match was just as important, if not more so, than the match itself. These fans were overwhelmingly young males and tended to be heavily involved in activities such as singing and chanting fan songs in and around the pubs (and at games). As a group, they appeared to embody a hedonistic lifestyle centred on mass consumption of alcohol (prior to entering Goodison). It is pubs that assume the greatest importance for many Everton fans; here, social drinking served to legitimate and reproduce masculine bonding as a ritual (Rowe and Gilmour, 2009). As Chris explained when describing his early experiences of going to the match,

And then when I was old enough to drink or almost old enough to drink … a drink in one of the locals before going in [to Goodison].

(Interview: Chris, 30–40)

The relationship between hyper-masculine, boisterous fan types and pubs has been well documented in literature, with Weed describing the relationship between football, alcohol and male bonding as ‘the holy trinity’ (2007: 400). Armstrong (1998: 195) notes that pubs form the meeting spot before the match and ‘the ones favoured by fans were within walking distance of the football stadium’. Similarly, Pearson (2012: 66) described pubs as ‘factories’, where these fans would work together to create songs and build social solidarity before the match. Bale’s (2002b: 19) work on sportscapes highlights the fact that locations such as pubs work to evoke the different senses, mainly sight but also smell, sound and nostalgia, that contribute to a positive sense of place for a sports fan. Dixon further noted how pubs are also a site for masculine bonding in relation to football that he contends is ‘an acceptable leisure pursuit for men that is passed down by football fans from one generation to the next’ (2014: 388). The findings of this research suggest something different. Pubs on County Road were not just for hyper-masculine fans and men generally, but were rather a melting pot of a variety of fan types on match day.

Historically, pubs are conceived as a space for male bonding on match day (Brown, 2010; Wenner and Jackson, 2009). Leyshon (2008) describes how they are highly territorialised places colonised mainly by different groups of men, resulting in women and the spaces they inhabit occupying marginal areas such as the corners, along the sides and in beer gardens. Within this pub there was an organised structure in relation to where particular fans were situated. For example, family fans sat together at the front, with the standing area immediately around the bar dominated by mostly male fans. Female family fans were observed to be more likely to take on primary childcare responsibilities in the pub setting, reflecting how gendered norms pertaining to motherhood and parenting remain in match day settings. Male family fans were observed to be more fluid, moving between sitting/standing at the tables and standing around the bar located in the centre of the pub. They were not bound by the space and had the ability to move freely between sections. This fluidity of movement between social groups and locations was not afforded to female family fans during observations. In this way, gendered spaces do not just simply exist, but are produced through the expectations of gender stereotypes inscribed into those spaces. As females had the primary responsibility for caring for children they are confined to peripheral space and become marginalised. Put simply, the front section of the pub was designated as the family space and, therefore, this is where females were ‘expected’ to sit. As a result, family fans were located in a peripheral position in relation to the main bar and overall space of the room, seated at the front tables. From observations, female family fans used this space to socialise; football was secondary or sometimes completely absent from discussions.

Female family fans often sat with others at the front of the pub where groups of young children would play, at times unsupervised. As such, the front section of the venue is an example of a feminine community of practice, in which children are taught localised masculine and feminine practices through the constant production, reproduction and negotiation of what it means to be a male or female in this environment (Paechter, 2003). As the vignette at the start of this section reflects, Angus took his young son into the middle standing section where he was encouraged to interact with other older, ‘traditional’ male fans. This group were distinguished by the longevity of their support and their in-depth sports knowledge associated with Everton. His daughter (of similar age), on the other hand, remained seated with his wife and the (female) researcher at the table. Therefore, his son was introduced to the masculine and engaged space of football and being a football fan, whereas his daughter remained on the fringes by being seated with her mother and the other family fans in the front section of the pub.

I think it’s the culture of the game. It’s how it happens in England. It’s a case of the way families are perceived. It’s like the boys go with their dads to the game and the girls go shopping with their mum but you know on the day of the game. That’s how it has always been sort of thing but I think it’s starting to break, you know, you can see a difference but it’s slow in coming. But I think that’s the only reason why, it’s just a habit, nothing more.

(Interview: Alison, 30–40)

Paechter (2007) argues that relations within and between localised masculine and feminine communities of practice underpin strict gender relations. As the above quote reflects, this resonates with how fans perceive the gendered landscape of football culture in England. This assumption is further supported when juxtaposing the family section of the bar with the area behind it. The section behind the group of tables that family fans occupied was a standing area (there were no seats and tables here) where mostly male fans formed a tight circumference around the bar that was at times five people deep. Although some females were present in this section of the pub, fans here embodied hyper-masculine displays regardless of their gender (Butler, 1988, 1990).

I overheard a male fan decline a beer, with his friend calling him ‘soft’ and ‘weak’ and suggesting that he was ‘unworthy’ of being an Everton fan.

(Fieldwork Note: 1/2/2014 vs Aston Villa)

This accusation aligns with working class masculinities discussed above, through which the public performance of drinking alcohol and dominant understandings of legitimate masculine behaviour are reinforced and defended (Campbell, 2000; Connell, 2005). This type of fan behaviour is described as a masculine celebration of community, displaying strong forms of local identification and an equally strong tendency to denigrate other (opposing) suburban communities by means of songs and chanting (Bale, 2002b: 18). It was observed that female fans who stood in this section were always in a group, and that the group was mostly composed of men. Rowe and Gilmour (2009: 214) describes this as one of the core features that makes the space of a pub a masculine domain or a ‘symbolic site from which women are excluded, marginalised, or required to be accompanied by men’. Significantly, even when these female fans were not physically marginalised and restricted to the front section, they were still symbolically marginalised, as will be detailed below.

The power dynamics of sports knowledge, as Messner (1988) has suggested, reproduce hegemonic masculinity of which gender difference is shown to be a key part. For example, in interactions in spaces such as pubs, females are more likely to be ‘interrupted and [their] contributions undermined by men’ (West and Zimmerman, 1977 in West, 1996: 359). On multiple occasions the explanation of simple rules to some female fans (including the researcher) was imbued with unnecessary jargon. Interactions such as these position male fans in a privileged, powerful position in the Everton community. This type of ‘sports talk’ further reinforced boundaries that worked to exclude females from the culture of football. These boundaries translate informally into influence and authority that strengthens the masculine boundary existing in this space even more (Cohen, 1985). However, this is not to say that some female fans were not knowledgeable about or capable of ‘sports talk’. As Jones (2008) found, some female fans in this setting adopted traditional performances of masculinity such as excessive drinking and criticising female fans who embodied femininity. On occasion, these female fans would call their presence on match day ‘a waste of a ticket’.

Well, I go as a woman, but I feel I probably behave like a man … I enjoy talking football at the level that men talk about football … I am the only girl and I like that. Because generally, I suppose I think the girls who go to Everton are Scouse girls ² and I don’t identify with them. You see them, women tossing their hair around and in their high heels and I don’t … that isn’t me. So I think you’re here not doing women who understand football any credit.

(Interview: Samantha, 30–40)

In observations, these ‘Scouse girl’ fans and their male peers would usually arrive late at the match, a practice that remains synonymous with the all-seater stadium culture. They would seek to stay as long as possible in pubs where they were able to consume alcohol in a less regulated environment compared to the stadium (Pearson, 2012). The behaviour of these fans on the walk up to Goodison reflected a socio-spatial transition from an unregulated environment (in so far as Everton was not affiliated with the pubs) to the stadium environment. This transition was marked by distinctive changes in behaviour, in which fans were observed to conform to what they perceived to be strict regulations with regard to intoxication within and around the stadium. As the following fieldwork note illustrates, this was mostly achieved by pretending to be sober before entering the stadium.

On the walk up tonight, one of the lads remarks, ‘Oi, sober face on lad, you’ve got to just get through the gates.’

(Fieldwork Note: 1/02/2014 vs Aston Villa)

However, prior to entering the stadium, a large proportion of fans would go through the car park that surrounds Goodison.This location hosts the official fan zone that is organised and run by Everton and Everton in the Community (charity affiliated with the football club). Although Bale does not discuss this type of landscape in his work, we consider the fan zone as a space that prescribes and advances his conceptualisation of the sportscape.

A different kind of atmosphere: Goodison’s fan zone

Stacey tells me today that you just can’t be drunk in the fan bit because there are children everywhere. She described and then actually took me to the entrance of the fan zone, near the van, and points to the main stand entrance and says that drunk people walk past all the time to get into Goodison, but she had not seen anyone drunk in there [the fan zone] before. She then commented on how she hated that people smoked inside the confined area of the fan zone, saying that she didn’t think it was good and that smokers should move outside.

(Fieldwork Note: 6/1/2015 vs West Ham United)

The Everton fan zone on match day is a small, partitioned-off space inside Goodison’s car park. During the week this space functions purely as a car park, but on match day it is transformed into a location where fans can engage in a variety of activities and games and purchase official Everton products from merchandise vans. Framing the fan zone are food stalls, from which fast food offerings similar to that inside the stadium such as burgers, and fish and chips are available prior to the match. It was observed to be mainly occupied by male and female family fans who pass through this space en route to Goodison, usually interacting with the zone for one to two hours before kick-off. Given that this space is primarily created for families and children, inclusion remained predicated on women and girls performing particular types of femininity actions, mostly of a nurturing feminine role type (Richards, 2015).

Although there were some male fans present in this section, compared to the observations made in the pub, there was a stronger female presence. On the one hand, official fan zones can be seen as breaking down the traditional gender-bound divisions of weekend time, and replacing the masculine pre-match ritual of drinking in local pubs with more family-oriented fan engagement. On the other, this introduction ensures that the existing culture of football is upheld with family fans separated from the traditional locales of masculine football culture and spaces patronised on match day.

Twenty-first century football has been accused of lacking atmosphere, attributed to topographical changes in football stadiums and the commercialisation of sport (Charleston, 2008; Nash, 2001). However, this line of argument can only be applied when describing the atmosphere favoured by the hyper-masculine fans discussed in the previous section. Although Bale has discussed at length the modernisation of sports stadiums, particularly those developed and designed with improved satisfaction and performance in mind, he argues that the overall sports experience is diminished in such environments (Bale, 2002b: 159). This article advances these discussions by exploring how the fan zone sportscape provides a ‘new’ atmosphere.

The atmosphere generated in the fan zone is not built on history, memory or tradition, but rather developed from fans engaging with prearranged activities and entertainment, commercial products, and technology-based artefacts and practices. For example, fans were encouraged to take photos of their children inside the fan zone, either doing activities or posing with invited guests. They are then invited to tweet the photos to Everton through the hashtag #EFCfanzone, with a chance that their photo will be projected on to the big screen during the match. This type of fan engagement has recently received attention from scholars, mostly in the light of the advent of digital technologies that significantly increase the ability of sports fans to openly express their identity as a fan on match day. Although Redhead (2015) describes Twitter being used by football fans to vent frustrations, it can also be useful for clubs attempting to appeal and reach out to family fans.

Well, I think they seem to be doing a lot more of the fan stuff now. They seem to be doing a lot more to invite families and get the kids going. They didn’t really have anything like that when I was a kid, well not that I remember anyway. I guess they do a lot more novelty days. They have like vintage day where they have old shirts, I think the sort of thing, like that makes football seem a lot friendlier.

(Interview: Will, 20–30)

I also suspect that the watching population is ageing in this country, and you don’t see as many young, you know teenagers going anymore. The majority of people going to the match would be maybe my age, mid-50s and you wonder where that is going to lead. You wonder whether the support is just going to tail away in the end. That’s why they’ve got the fan zone I think, got to keep the young kids happy and into it, you know.

(Interview: Paul, 40–50)

However, although the demographic of supporters has changed (Cleland, 2010) the attitudes towards these new types of match day routines, particularly the use of digital technology inside the stadium, are less well understood (Tapp and Clowes, 2000). As the quotes above reflect, Everton fans are conscious of a perceived change to the demographic of the football crowd, but spoke generally in favour of these changes because they make football more inclusive. However, Pearson (2012) notes that for some hyper-masculine fans the act of taking photos and videos using mobile phone technology during matches was considered the type of activity a ‘tourist’ or non-authentic fan would engage in. According to some traditional fans, authentic fans ‘should be merely supporting the team’ and not engaging in that type of activity (Pearson, 2012: 179). As a consequence, official fan zones remain on the ‘other side of the boundary’ (Cohen, 1985) of what has been considered traditional football culture and, hence, peripheral to the game’s masculine ethos (Williams, 2006). Exploring how behaviour in and around the official fan zone was policed by the club and also the matchgoing crowd who frequent this space illustrates how boundaries were created and reinforced to ensure this space remains safe for families and young children.

Unlike the spatial arrangements of fans inside the pub, male family fans were observed to stand in a small section at the rear of the fan zone that serves alcohol. Although this involved them being physically separated from female family fans and children, they were now also marginalised away from the focal point of the space – the main stage. Female family fans were again observed to be more engaged with their children and involved in the activities offered in the fan zone. Although traditional match day food and alcohol consumption is encouraged in this zone, all fans are under much tighter regulations and surveillance than those in pubs, not only from the club’s official security, but also from other fans within this space. In this way, family fans are not perceived as passive or delicate objects that need protecting. This finding stands in contrast to how female fans particularly have been perceived within the sporting context, especially within sports crowds (Pope, 2014). Rather, it was observed that female family fans were the ones doing the protecting and gatekeeping, especially when it came to their children – a practice of self-policing that is becoming more common amongst fans (Millward, 2008). The female family fans that took part in this study deemed intoxication, smoking and other supposed ‘anti-social’ activities as inappropriate behaviour within this part of the sportscape, as exemplified in Stacey’s comments at the beginning of this section.

The fan zone is a space that is dominated by family fans who were observed as maintaining (and at times defending) the boundary between themselves and other fan groups. The symbolic expression and affirmation of this boundary heightens awareness of and sensitivity to fans within this space (Cohen, 1985). Members of other fan groups were observed as respecting this boundary by actively avoiding it so as not to cause a disruption to its ‘social script’ (Goffman, 1959). In the context of this study, this moral standard and reference group refer to family fans and the creation of a boundary between their behaviour, or what they deem to be appropriate match day behaviour, and the boisterous, alcohol-fuelled behaviour of other fans that was discussed above. By keeping this behaviour outside of the official fan zone, the moral standard of the space is upheld. We are not postulating that family fans are inherently critical of hyper-masculine fan behaviour on match day, but rather they create an alternative match day atmosphere that does not rely on traditional (masculine) practices and performances of fandom.

Conclusion

This article has explored the spatial configuration of the match day routine for Everton fans and positioned this discussion within the broader framework of the sportscape. It considered how the traditional practices of a match day still remain popular and attractive for Everton fans, whilst also discussing the creation of new spaces that fans can engage with before they enter the stadium. We suggest that the variety of fan types who locate themselves within the sportscape allows the meanings and significance tied to the match day routine to shift, adapt and change with the currents of social, cultural and commercial influences. Although football remains in many ways a masculine ‘preserve’, we discussed how clubs have made a stronger attempt to encourage a more diverse fan base, namely, one that includes family fans. However, for both male and female fans, inclusion in the sportscape was shown to have limits. Instituted through social and cultural boundaries, this inclusion remains based on gendered norms that, depending on the location, privilege traditional versions of either masculinity or femininity.

The various spaces fans chose to frequent on match day greatly contributed to the behaviours they exhibited. Match day became a way for fans to distinguish themselves as members of a particular fan type within the Everton fan community. As such, the areas surrounding the stadium were shown to enhance, maintain and legitimise particular sports fan behaviours, and in these particular spaces the idealised fan norms for the group were embodied and realised. Spaces such as County Road remain part of a sportscape that encases an interlocking web of localised ideologies and traditional masculinity. The fans observed in this space were typically drawn to it with an expectation and understanding of the cultural traditions and carnival atmosphere it celebrates. The gendered spatial boundaries within the pub ultimately result in both the physical and symbolic marginalisation of all females. Even when they are ‘permitted’ to enter the masculine spaces, females continue to be disempowered because they are ‘forced’ to adopt tenets of orthodox masculinity or are devalued through the use of male-privileging practices such as ‘sports talk’.

The fan zone, however, created a bridge for some fans between traditional (masculine) fan practices and family- or community-oriented culture. Family fans, particularly, were able to create a distinction or boundary between themselves and the undesirable elements of hyper-masculine fan culture. In this way, they created an alternative match day atmosphere and experience that remains centred on a family-friendly or at least family-inclusive culture. In doing so, family fans create social solidarity amongst their members and carve out the space where their performance and embodiment of fandom is not marginalised or ridiculed, but rather protected and upheld by the other members of the Everton fan community. Unlike the pre-match activities that take place on County Road, the fan zone celebrates new types of fan engagement, and commercial artefacts. Although this type of engagement can be seen as problematic in literature, it is set to increase in the contemporary game, due to the large amount of financial investment football clubs are putting into developing fan zones. Whether or not the fan zone will become cemented in the match day routine for football fans remains uncertain, as does the vitality of this particular fan zone if Everton was ever to be relocated to another stadium.

More importantly, perhaps, the fan zone reveals how the social and physical landscape of space remains bounded in gendered norms that influence behaviour and set expectations. With the creation of new spaces, those who inhabit them will develop their own norms and boundaries, which can marginalise traditional practices and create alternative inclusive environments. Although this explanation appears to binarise these two sites as (traditional) masculine and feminine spaces, the situation is much more fluid. As with any spaces, these locations are in a state of flux due to the complex human relations that take place within them. They become sites for resisting, overcoming and negotiating power.

To conclude, this article illuminates the largely overlooked socio-spatial element inherent in sports fandom. In doing so, we have also addressed a gap in our understanding of spatiality, namely, the geography of sport (Mowl and Towner, 1995; Pavlidis, 2018). Hopefully, this article will inspire other researchers to focus on the geography of sport in urban settings.