Sports and the Rhetorical Construction of the Citizen-Consumer
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THE SPORTS MALL OF AMERICA: SPORTS AND THE RHETORICAL CONSTRUCTION OF THE CITIZEN-CONSUMER Cory Hillman A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY August 2012 Committee: Dr. Michael Butterworth, Advisor Dr. David Tobar Graduate Faculty Representative Dr. Clayton Rosati Dr. Joshua Atkinson © 2010 Cory Hillman All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Dr. Michael Butterworth, Advisor The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate from a rhetorical perspective how contemporary sports both reflect and influence a preferred definition of democracy that has been narrowly conflated with consumption in the cultural imaginary. I argue that the relationship between fans and sports has become mediated by rituals of consumption in order to affirm a particular identity, similar to the ways that citizenship in America has become defined by one’s ability to consume under conditions of neoliberal capitalism. In this study, I examine how new sports stadiums are architecturally designed to attract upper income fans through the mobilization of spectacle and surveillance-based strategies such as Fan Code of Conducts. I also investigate the “sports gaming culture” that addresses advertising in sports video games and fantasy sports participation that both reinforce the burgeoning commercialism of sports while normalizing capitalism’s worldview. I also explore the area of licensed merchandise which is often used to seduce fans into consuming the sports brand by speaking the terms of consumer capitalism often naturalized in fan’s expectations in their engagement with sports. Finally, I address potential strategies of resistance that rely on a reassessment of the value of sports in American culture, predicated upon restoring citizens’ faith in public institutions that would simultaneously reclaim control of the sporting landscape from commercial entities exploiting them for profit. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would first like to thank my parents, Robert and Lee Ann Hillman, for the encouraging support through the often frustrating journey through graduate school and for always being optimistic that I could finish my doctoral degree. I would also like to extend a warm thank you to my girlfriend Abigail Flores for believing in my ability to complete all of this work and for showing patience and understanding as I spent many hours with my books, notes, and computers. I also want to thank my friends Matthew Lamb, John- Paul Staszel, Ryan Anderson, Bruce Lillie, Jacob Turner, Mark Flynn, David Morin, Jenny Armentrout, Franklin Yartey, Precious Yamaguchi, Chuck Debone, Matt Meier, Chris Medjesky, Brion White, Brian Krol, Christian Vukasovich, and Brian Bohn for helping me maintain my sanity all of these years and survive while doing it. I would also like to send a special thanks to my advisor, Dr. Michael Butterworth, for helping me personally and professionally through the dissertation process and for always sharing his professional insights with me. I also want to thank Dr. Clayton Rosati for his willingness to meet with me when he was both stressed and extremely busy and Dr. Joshua Atkinson for approving my fourth year of funding without which I would never have finished. I also want to thank Dr. David Tobar for serving as my Graduate Faculty Representative. If there is anyone I have forgotten, I apologize but as they say, “you know who you are.” v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER I. DEMOCRACY’S CRISIS AND THE ROLE OF SPORTS IN MANUFACTURING THE CITIZEN-CONSUMER............................................................ 1 Democracy on Life Support ....................................................................................... 4 The Democratic Disease ............................................................................................ 9 Sports and the Cultural Position of the Spectacle………………………………….. 22 Ballparks, Video Games, Fantasy Sports, and Jerseys……………………………... 29 Concluding Remarks……………………………………………………………….. 41 Notes……………………………………………………………………………….. 43 CHAPTER II. NEW SPORTS STADIUMS AND THE RHETORIC OF CONSUMPTION AND SOCIAL CLASS…………….. ......................................................................................…… 58 The Effect of Suburbanization of Sports ................................................................... 63 The Stadium Game and Taking Back the City for the Suburban Class ..................... 69 One, Two, Three Beers Yer’ Out: Sanitizing the Sports Experience for the Suburban Class………………………………………………………………………………… 79 Sports Stadiums, Spectacle, and Rituals of Consumption………………………….. 87 New York and Detroit: Two Attempts at Rebranding the City for the Visitor’s Class 95 Concluding Remarks………………………………………………………………... 116 Notes………………………………………………………………………………… 117 CHAPTER III. THE SPORTS GAMING CULTURE ......................................................... 137 Advertising, Culture, and Sport ................................................................................. 140 The Evolution of In-Game Advertising in Sports Video Games ............................... 149 vi In-Game Advertising Strategies in Madden NFL Football……………………….. 157 MLB: The Show and the Philanthropic Veil……………………………………….. 163 Fantasy Sports, Vicarious Management, and Competitive Fandom……………….. 169 Concluding Remarks……………………………………………………………….. 182 Notes……………………………………………………………………………….. 183 CHAPTER IV. IT’S NOT HOW YOU PLAY THE GAME, IT’S HOW YOU LOOK: SPORTS UNIFORMS AND FASHIONABLE CONSUMPTION………………………………….. 196 The Origins of the Retro Aesthetic in Sports………………………………………. 198 Keeping it Real: Hip Hop and the Retro Merchandising Craze……………………. 206 The University of Oregon Phenomenon…………………………………………… 216 Identification, Consumerism, and Democracy……………………………………… 223 Concluding Remarks……………………………………………………………….. 229 Notes……………………………………………………………………………….. 230 CHAPTER V. RESISTING THE COMMERCIALISM OF SPORTS: RECLAIMING A MORE DEMOCRATIC FUTURE………………………………………………………………… 242 The League of Fans: Taking the Power Back……………………………………… 242 The Democratic Potential of Sports………………………………………………… 245 Directions for Future Research……………………………………………………. 255 Notes………………………………………………………………………………. 257 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………… . 262 1 CHAPTER 1: DEMOCRACY’S CRISIS AND THE ROLE OF SPORTS IN MANUFACTURING THE CITIZEN-CONSUMER According to many academic, political, and social critics, democracy’s funeral has already been planned and paid for with little hope towards its recovery in any meaningful sense. One way to frame the issue is like this: what hope is there for the future of democracy if, alongside the wholesale dismantling of democratic freedoms such as free speech, the right to a free press, and privacy, Americans continue to believe that they are empowered in the “free market” as consumers?1 Public skepticism toward the government and society has been coupled with an astonishing faith in the market to coordinate the nation’s well-being and preserve its sense of freedom. The effects of capitalism within a deregulated market have intensified economic disparities which have positioned local, state, and federal governments as incompetent compared to private enterprise to provide for increasingly needed yet underfunded social services.2 If schools are faced with budget issues, for example, administrative logic is either to resort to more cuts or seek needed revenue elsewhere, often within the private sector.3 As a result, society becomes more dependent on the corporate state whose only obligation is to its shareholders in pursuing profit by any means. Meanwhile, democracy has failed in providing an inclusive and participatory political space allowing groups to debate about which actions best promote the common welfare in its redefinition as the ability to consume.4 Consumption, reshaped as the essence of liberty and democracy, promotes a more self-absorbed, narcissistic identity that privileges one’s pursuit of gratification and pleasure, in disregard and sometimes at the expense of the public welfare.5 2 Sports are not exempt from the reconfiguration of citizen identity around consumption as they serve as a cultural ritual in which dominant ideologies regarding race, gender, and social class are expressed, naturalized, and reinforced as common sense.6 Sut Jhally argues that all societies require various rituals to celebrate their dominant values and that sports function as a key institution in this process in many of them.7 For example, the Super Bowl celebrates hypermasculinity and nationalism, while aligning itself with the virtue of consumption as naturally complimentary to the event itself. Furthermore, the increasing synergy between sports and advertising, at both the professional and amateur levels, have transformed sports into a commercial spectacle.8 Whether it is the sale of naming rights to sports stadiums and arenas, the commodfication of certain athletic accomplishments (“That stolen base is sponsored by…”) or the use of sports-based video games as a viable advertising platform,9 this growing commercialization of sports has also transformed the way in which sports spectatorship is defined and practiced. This is not to suggest that these trends have not been accompanied by some level of resistance; the sale of stadium naming rights, for instance, has been critiqued as trivializing the link between a stadium and the surrounding community that signifies crass commercial opportunism at its worst.10 As Josh Boyd argues,