Honouring Heroes by Branding in Bronze: Theorizing the UK's Football Statuary
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This is a repository copy of Honouring heroes by branding in bronze: theorizing the UK's football statuary. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/86708/ Version: Accepted Version Article: Stride, C orcid.org/0000-0001-9960-2869, Wilson, JP and Thomas, F (2013) Honouring heroes by branding in bronze: theorizing the UK's football statuary. Sport in Society, 16 (6). pp. 749-771. ISSN 1743-0437 https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2012.753527 Reuse Unless indicated otherwise, fulltext items are protected by copyright with all rights reserved. The copyright exception in section 29 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 allows the making of a single copy solely for the purpose of non-commercial research or private study within the limits of fair dealing. The publisher or other rights-holder may allow further reproduction and re-use of this version - refer to the White Rose Research Online record for this item. 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[email protected] https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ Sport in Society For Peer Review Only Honouring heroes by branding in bronze: theorising the UK‘s football statuary Journal: Sport in Society Manuscript ID: Draft Manuscript Type: Original Article Keywords: soccer, nostalgia, heritage, stadium, statue URL: http:/mc.manuscriptcentral.com/fcss Page 1 of 33 Sport in Society 1 2 3 4 5 Honouring heroes by branding in bronze: theorising the UK’s football 6 7 statuary 8 9 10 Christopher Stride 11 12 Institute of Work Psychology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK 13 14 Dr C B Stride, IWP, University of Sheffield, Mushroom Lane, Sheffield, S10 2TN 15 [email protected] 16 +44 114 2223262For Peer Review Only 17 18 Dr Chris Stride is the statistician at the Institute of Work Psychology, University of Sheffield. 19 20 He has published across a wide range of social science disciplines, and is particularly interested 21 22 in the use of statistical methods to support and add rigour to research in areas where advanced 23 quantitative analysis would typically be considered an anathema. 24 25 26 John P. Wilson 27 28 Department of Continuing Education, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK 29 30 Dr John Wilson is a Human Resources consultant with research interests in work, education and 31 32 sport. 33 34 35 Ffion Thomas 36 37 University of Sheffield, UK 38 39 Ffion Thomas is an English Literature graduate from the University of Sheffield, currently 40 working in data analysis at CRU International in London, with research interests in sports 41 42 history, particularly football and baseball. 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 URL: http:/mc.manuscriptcentral.com/fcss Sport in Society Page 2 of 33 1 2 3 4 5 Honouring heroes by branding in bronze: theorising the UK’s football 6 7 statuary 8 9 10 11 Abstract 12 st 13 As of 1 February, 2012, there were 58 figurative subject-specific statues of association football 14 players, managers,For chairmen, Peer owners, or foundingReview fathers sited at stadiaOnly or city centres within the 15 16 UK, with all but 3 of these erected in the last 20 years. Clubs, their supporters and local 17 18 authorities are investing substantial financial and logistical resources in adding to the cultural 19 landscape. Their motivations are posited as a multifaceted marketing strategy that includes 20 21 branding through success, the evocation of nostalgia and the creation of identity through heritage 22 objects; a statement of cultural change, ownership and environmental improvement; and 23 24 sympathy, as part of a developing mourning culture within football. Statues have been facilitated 25 26 by the increasing availability of funding, and by spare capacity in fan organisations. Statue 27 projects may be beneficial in bringing supporters together, but as a conduit for engaging the wider 28 29 public in social history they are limited by subject choices driven by memory or sympathy. 30 31 32 Keywords: statue, football, soccer, marketing, nostalgia, identity, heritage, stadium 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 1 URL: http:/mc.manuscriptcentral.com/fcss Page 3 of 33 Sport in Society 1 2 3 4 5 Honouring heroes by branding in bronze: theorising the UK’s football 6 7 statuary 8 9 10 Johnes and Mason identify three main sources of the public history of football: oral 11 12 traditions, written and broadcast material, and physical “residues” such as programmes 13 1 st 14 and stadia.For A recent additionPeer to this listReview is the burgeoning UK Only football statuary. As of 1 15 2 16 February 2012, 58 figurative subject-specific statues, collectively depicting 56 distinct 17 association football players, managers, chairmen, owners, or founding fathers,3 had been 18 19 unveiled and sited adjacent to (or infrequently, inside) football stadia, at a central site in 20 21 the home town of the subject, or occasionally the town in which the club is based. The 22 23 use of statues to honour sportsmen can be traced back to the Greek and Roman 24 25 civilisations where they were developed as public artworks celebrating athletic or 26 gladiatorial prowess.4 However, all but 3 members of the UK football statuary have been 27 28 erected in a period of rapid accumulation since 1995 (figure 1) and it is thus a far more 29 30 recent phenomenon which merits detailed examination. 31 32 33 <figure 1 here> 34 35 36 37 Tables 1a and 1b, constructed using data gathered through a literature and web search, 38 39 and interviews with sculptors and statue project organisers, list the existing statues and 10 40 41 others that are commissioned or planned. Each location, primary project instigator, 42 primary funding source, commissioning process, sculptor, unveiler and design are given 43 44 alongside the subject’s primary club and role. The primary instigator is defined as the 45 46 person or body providing the initial vision and momentum, though a ‘statue committee’, 47 48 incorporating representatives of the club, fans, local media, local government officials 49 and often the subject’s family, is typically established to steer the project,5 source 50 51 funding, commission a sculptor, choose a location, and organize the erection and 52 53 unveiling. Where funding is from clubs or football authorities it is from a general budget 54 55 or the chairman’s largesse. Public money can flow directly from local authority budgets, 56 57 or be channelled from regeneration grants, the Heritage Lottery Fund, and funding 58 59 60 2 URL: http:/mc.manuscriptcentral.com/fcss Sport in Society Page 4 of 33 1 2 3 streams for public art e.g. ‘Percentage for Art’.6 Fan funding comes via direct donations, 4 5 collections and fundraising events; commercial funding most often through sponsorship 6 7 of the statue plinth or plaque,7 and the sale of collectable limited edition miniature 8 8 9 statues. 10 11 12 There is a strong association between instigation, funding and location that suggests a 13 14 tentative typologyFor of statuePeer ‘ownership’. Review Statues instigated byOnly the subject’s primary club 15 16 are funded commercially or by the club and located at their stadium, with the sculptor 17 18 almost always chosen purely on reputation and portfolio. Likewise fan instigation and fan 19 funding are usually coincident, with the resulting statues located at stadia or occasionally 20 21 in the centre of their club’s city. A third group of ‘civic football statues’ are instigated by 22 23 local government, primarily funded by public money, with sculptors selected through an 24 25 open or limited competition and the statue sited in the centre of the subject’s town of 26 birth or residence. Similarly a clear typology of form is apparent, with the principal 27 28 designs being action, posed and triumph. All but three existing statues are created in 29 30 bronze. 31 32 33 34 <Tables 1a, 1b and associated footnotes here> 35 36 37 The median cost of statues for which we were able to obtain an estimate was £65,000. 38 39 Where fundraising and planning permission is required, projects may take upwards of 5 40 41 years from instigation to completion. Across the UK at both the highest and lower levels 42 of professional football, clubs, their supporters and local authorities are investing 43 44 substantial time, capital and logistical resources in adding to the cultural landscape in a 45 46 way that represents a two-fold break with tradition. For the first time football’s history is 47 48 being proactively taken beyond the confines of personal memories, archival material and 49 50 artefacts owned by the football community to be displayed in a physical form visible to 51 the wider public. The football statuary also represents the first sustained and extensive 52 53 union of art and professional football; two fields of human endeavour that had previously 54 55 made only ephemeral contact. It is distinguishable from the general public statuary by an 56 57 atypical funding profile: Selwood estimates that the public sector generates three times as 58 59 60 3 URL: http:/mc.manuscriptcentral.com/fcss Page 5 of 33 Sport in Society 1 2 3 much art as the private sector, a ratio reversed for football statues.9 Furthermore, whilst 4 5 small numbers of legendary athletes from other sports have been depicted within the 6 7 UK,10 a nationwide proliferation of subject-specific sporting statues is unique to 8 9 association football.