‘Baseball has Been Very Good To Me’
Transformations of producer-consumer relations: 4 eras Emergence of professional team sport Organization of major league structure Articulation of professional sport with pro-growth politics of cities Attempts by local sports consumers to influence decisions of professional sports franchise owners
The production of culture The economies of cities Anchored in history The content of social relations & processes of professionalization Social power & control over distributions of resources, power, prestige, goods, services – Cartelization – Monopoly – Monopsony – several sellers – one buyer
The production of audience as consumers Research on sport fans – 1930s Fan emotional attachments The fan as political activist? Franchise Relocations Fans don’t count Consumers have demands – capitalist culture
Popular Culture and Capitalist Culture Professional sports phenomena an extension of capitalist producer-consumer relations Contemporary sports events as commodities produced for the market Driven by reorganization & institutionalization of sport Sports fans as “consumers” – power & social relationships (market exchange)