Resumen de On the Waterfront: Retrospectives on the Relationship between Sport and Communities
Jason M. Smith, Alan G. Ingham
Arguments for funding new professional sport stadia with public money center upon the notion of community—fans’ connection with the teams and the money that teams bring into the community. Through the lens of community theorists like Wirth (1938, 1964), Bellah and colleagues (1985), and Putnam (2000), this paper locates the professional sport franchise within local community relations and analyzes the ways in which local elites attempt to evoke community support (both emotional and financial) for their franchise. Following Ingham and McDonald (2003), we argue that professional sport is not an effective means for re-building any lasting sense of community. The results of town meetings held with citizens of Hamilton County, Ohio, reveal schisms along class, urban/suburban, and fan/non-fan lines, demonstrating that public subsidization of professional sport not only does not (re)generate a community-as-a-whole, but indeed may further divide residents depending upon their situated interests.
