Sport in the city: cultural and political connections

There is little doubt that sport holds a prominent place within cities. Clearly the most glaring examples of sport’s influence on the city are in relation to infrastructure. Facilities such as arenas and Olympic-sized swimming pools are what many now come to expect of a modern city. Stadiums in particular are some of the most striking (though not always aesthetically appealing) structures on urban skylines, and are significant for the simple fact that they generate so many spillover effects including: the need to relocate or displace nature, heritage buildings and even citizens; and the need for added public transport and parking facilities. Beyond these structural effects, contemporary civic connections with sport are also significant because they so often reveal a complex process of constructing a credible (but fragile) sense of identity for local citizens. It is telling, for instance, that when civic elites extol (and conflate) sport’s links with ‘community’, they do so for the simple reason that to speak out against one is to speak out against the other. ¹