the GaminG world This page intentionally left blank how sports are reshaping global politics and culture GaminGTHE world andrei s. Markovits & lars rensMann PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON AND OXFORD Copyright © 2010 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW press.princeton.edu All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Markovits, Andrei S. Gaming the world : how sports are reshaping global politics and culture / Andrei S. Markovits and Lars Rensmann. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 978-0-691-13751-3 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Sports and globalization—Europe. 2. Sports and globalization—United States. 3. Nationalism and sports—Europe. 4. Nationalism and sports— United States. 5. Sports—Political aspects—Europe. 6. Sports—Political aspects—United States. I. Rensmann, Lars. II. Title. GV706.35.M3525 2010 306.483—dc22 2010006187 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data are available This book has been composed in Janson and Bank Gothic Printed on acid-free paper. ∞ Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For Kiki Ina Samira and Cleo Rose This page intentionally left blank Contents Preface and Acknowledgmentsâ ix chapter 1 Introduction: Going Global—Sports, Politics, and Identities 1 chapter 2 The Emergence of Global Arenas: Mapping the Globalization of Sports Cultures between Cosmopolitanism, Nationalism, and Localism 43 chapter 3 The Transatlantic Transfer of Sports and their Cultures: Institutionalization and Diffusion 107 chapter 4 A Silent “Feminization” of Global Sports Cultures? Women as Soccer Players in Europe and America 157 chapter 5 A Counter-Cosmopolitan Backlash? The Politics of Exclusion, Racism, and Violence in European and American Sports Cultures 207 chapter 6 The Limits of Globalization: Local Identity and College Sports’ Uniquely American Symbiosis of Academics and Athletics 271 Conclusion 316 List of Acronyms 327 Index 331 This page intentionally left blank PrefaCe and AcknowledGments this project started in June 2006 when Andrei Markovits, to his immense delight, assumed the summer position of “Fußball-Professor” (soccer pro- fessor) at the University of Dortmund when that city featured one of host Germany’s most eminent venues of the World Cup soccer tournament. Dortmund also happens to be Lars Rensmann’s place of birth and the home of his parents. It was Markovits’s honor to meet Gerd Rensmann, Lars’s father (now deceased), and one of Germany’s most renowned sports journalists, before the two proceeded to the city’s famed Westfalenstadion, home to Rensmann’s beloved Borussia, to watch Brazil defeat Ghana. That fall, Rensmann commenced his position, co-sponsored by the German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdi- enst—DAAD) at the University of Michigan. We are very grateful to the DAAD and the University of Michigan for giving us the institutional pos- sibility to expand our friendship into a scholarly collaboration that both of us enjoyed immensely. Our being colleagues at the same university led us to coauthor a number of publications, not least a book on sports entitled Querpass: Sport und Politik in Europa und den USA (Verlag Die Werkstatt, 2007). This book constitutes at best a distant sketch to our current work and is in no way its German precursor, let alone equivalent. Above all, being colleagues at the wonderful University of Michigan has provided us many hours of priceless visits to the Big House to watch football, Yost Arena to attend hockey games, Crisler Arena to witness a long-overdue resurgence in Michigan basketball; and the professional sports’ offerings in the Detroit metropolitan area, including our enjoying the Red Wings at “the Joe,” the Pistons at the Palace of Auburn Hills, and the Tigers at Co- merica Park. Alas, we have yet to attend a Lions game at Ford Field to- gether. But we are certain that this will happen soon. Permit us to say a few words about the sports terminology that informs this book. As bicontinental sports fans, we know that our readers in Britain would have preferred our using the word “supporters” instead of “fans.” We are fully aware of the common language that divides us, none more gravely than in the world of sports. We know that “pitch” has a different meaning in Britain than it does in America. Since this book was coauthored x Preface anD Acknowledgments by an American and a German teaching at an American university, pub- lished by an American university’s press, and meant mainly for American audiences, we have chosen to follow the language common to the Ameri- can sports world. Thus, when we speak of football, we mostly mean the game played with an oblong ball on the gridirons of North America; and soccer to us connotes its cousin played with a round ball propelled by legs, head, and body though never hands on a slightly larger field. However, we refused to be dogmatic about the usage of such terms and trust the reader’s intelligence and good will in understanding our meaning from the context wherein a particular term appears. We are convinced that our liberal usage of a transatlantic vocabulary will not confuse the reader’s understanding but enhance it, perhaps even shed some light on the complexities of mean- ing that these terms connote to their respective carriers and players. All books owe their existence to many more people than their authors. This one is no exception. Markovits expresses his most profound gratitude to the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) of Stanford University, whose leadership consisting of Claude Steele, Anne Petersen, Lynn Gale, and Linda Jack in 2008–9 made his stay at this unique place possible. Without the Center’s intellectual ambiance and, above all, the luxury of granting its fellows time to think and write, this book would never have happened. Any serious reading of this work will reveal the bevy of knowledge that Marion Fourcade, Kieran Healy, Philip Howard, John Lucy, Gina Neff, Charles Phelps, Woody Powell, Martin Ruef, and Abigail Saguy imparted to Markovits in the course of this enriching experience. Their learned insights and brilliant ideas enhance the book’s intellectual value immeasurably. Markovits would also like to thank the University of Michigan for various mini-grants over the years that, when compounded, have proven to be quite maxi. A book on sports is perhaps a better forum than any other in which to express his utmost gratitude to the University of Michigan, which has been exceptionally good to him in every conceiv- able way. Go Blue! Apart from the DAAD, which has been supportive of his work in so many ways, Rensmann is grateful to the University of Michigan, its De- partment of Political Science and, most importantly, the people that shape it. They have provided an invaluable, indeed superb, academic environ- ment. It is a fabulous place to teach, to do research, and to think “outside the box”—to invoke an image so congruent with this book in more ways than one. There are many colleagues and friends to whom Rensmann owes insights and ideas that appear in this book. He is especially grateful to Seyla Benhabib, Lisa Disch, Klaus Drechsel, Joshua Ehrlich, Samir Gan- Preface anD Acknowledgments xi desha, Malachi Haim Hacohen, Donald Herzog, Christoph Kopke, Mika Lavaque-Manty, Cosimo Ligorio, Cas Mudde, Jennet Kirkpatrick, Anne Manuel, Duston Moore, Anthony Pinnell, Dirk and Jörg Rensmann, Ar- lene Saxonhouse, Elizabeth Wingrove, and Mariah Zeisberg for their comments, criticism, and intellectual presence—and in some cases also for great conversations about sports. Most important, he is greatly indebted to Markovits for his tremendous academic and intellectual support of all of Rensmann’s scholarly pursuits over the years—far beyond the scope of this collaboration. Rensmann would also like to thank his mother Ingrid, who has always been there for him, and his father Gerd, who passed away in 2007. Gerd would have enjoyed reading this work. Both of us would like to express our thanks to our research assistants Ravi Dev, Julian Trobe, and David Watnick who, at various stages of our project, proved wonderfully helpful. David Smith has been an invaluable resource and sounding board for every imaginable topic in politics, cul- ture, economy, society—and sports. His erudition never ceases to amaze us. Clara Platter proved to be a stellar editor in every imaginable manner from the book’s conception to its publication. Our manuscript’s two anon- ymous readers offered us comments and insights that most decidedly im- proved the quality of our final product. We are grateful to them for the diligence and deliberations that they devoted to our work. Lastly, we owe everything to our respective families, who sustain us with their love and humor that transform the travails that accompany the writing of any book into a pleasurable experience. It is to them that we dedicate this work. Ann Arbor, February 7, 2010—Super Bowl Sunday This page intentionally left blank the GaminG world This page intentionally left blank Chapter 1 introduCtion: GoinG Global—sPorts, PolitiCs, and identities Sports matter. They hold a singular position among leisure time activi- ties and have an unparalleled impact on the everyday lives of billions of people.1 We show how, why, and for whom this has been the case for well over a century on both sides of the Atlantic.