ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on key events in sports that, in contrast to World Cup events, may be thought of more as individual than team events and with more appeal, in distinct ways, to more particularized groupings of fans. Focusing on the Monaco Grand Prix and Indianapolis 500 automobile races, the book shows how these two events are built upon mediatized projections of European glamour and global Americana, respectively. It further examines the AFC Asian Cup, an event that foundational media and sport scholar David Rowe argues is simultaneously national, regional and global. The book helps people to offer an extended range of case studies and distinct vantage points on the sporting mega-event as a political, economic, and cultural phenomenon.
