This book examines the largely unexplored social and cultural history of Middlesbrough and the leisure habits and opportunities of its people. It adds to existing studies of urban Britain and provides a specific study on the relationship between leisure and urbanization and industrialization. The book furthers understanding of urban sport and urban history by demonstrating how sport can be shaped by urban growth, whether directly or indirectly, and equally, how sport can also affect the way in which a town develops. This book shows how the study of sport in a particular setting provides another means of examining relationships between different social groups and within a large urban landscape. This book views the town’s sporting history alongside the development of Middlesbrough itself and within the context of the growth of sport in Britain more widely. Furthermore, as a study in urban history, this book addresses existing gaps in our knowledge of the development of towns and cities by examining the town’s sport. Through a detailed examination of local newspapers and archival sources, this book reveals the depth and diversity of the town’s sporting culture. In particular, it illustrates the role of the middle classes in the development of clubs, and the importance of class and social relations in determining an individual’s access to sport. As a consequence, the study also relates how the town’s working class populace was often excluded from the sporting culture, and shows the lack of sporting opportunities available to women. Amateurism is explored through the initial rejection of professional football, but the book also demonstrates the increased popularity of the professional game during this period. In addition, in view of Middlesbrough’s migrant population, the extent of football’s role in forming and reinforcing local and regional identities will be examined.

Cities now seek to attract major sporting events and activities to re-image themselves, and frequently invest in community sports development to fund economic growth and regeneration. Including a range of case-studies from global (the Sydney Olympics) to local (urban school sports), this book looks closely at how sport has been used in contemporary cities across the world, and evaluates policies, strategies and managment. Five key areas are examined: * sport and urban economic regeneration * sports events: bidding * planning and organization * Urban Sports tourism * Sport and urban community development * Urban politics and sports policy. Sport in the City therefore represents an essential resource for urban policy makers and the sports policy community. It will be invaluable reading for sports studies students and urban geographers.

This lively and deeply researched history - the first of its kind - goes beyond the great names and moments to explain how British sport has changed since 1800, and what it has meant to ordinary people. It shows how the way we play reflects not just our lives as citizens of a predominantlyurban and industrial world, but what is especially distinctive about British sport. Innovators in abandoning traditional, often brutal sports, and in establishing a code of `fair play', the British were also pioneers in popular sports and in the promotion of organized spectator events.Modern media coverage of sport, gambling, violence and attitudes towards it, nationalism, and the role of sport in sustaining male identity are also explored, and the book is rich in illuminating and entertaining anecdotes, which it combines with a serious historical understanding of a fascinatingsubject.

Sport is seen as an increasingly important aspect of urban and regional planning. Related programmes have moved to the forefront of agendas for cities of the present and future. This has occurred as the barriers between so-called ‘high’ and ‘popular’ culture continue to disintegrate. Sport is now a key component within strategies for the cultural regeneration of cities and regions, a tendency with mixed outcomes - at times fostering genuinely democratic arrangements, at others pseudo-democratic arrangements, whereby political, business and cultural elites manipulate a sense of sameness and unity among their fellow citizens to smooth the path for the pursuit of what are actually vested interests. Almost any active enactment of a ‘sports city of culture’ risks divisiveness. Recognizing controversies, with both potentially positive and negative outcomes, this book examines sport within contexts of urban and regional regeneration, via a number of rather different case studies. Within these studies, the role of sport stadium development, franchise expansion and sports-fan (and anti-sport) activism is addressed and articulated with issues concerning, inter alia, public funding, environmental impact, urban infrastructure and citizen identity. The ‘sport in the city’ project commenced as a research symposium held at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand and number of the essays originate from this occasion. This book was previously published as a special issue of Sport in Society.

This book gives a fascinating history of the English experience of sport, following its development through the centuries from its earliest beginnings in social play and pastimes, via its adoption as an alternative to the clock-watching routine of urban life, to its modern incarnation as a global business. Key themes and issues in the evolution of sport are examined, including: social structures, such as the division between amateurs and professionals the growth of the popular press and the influence of television the post-war emergence of sports 'welfarism' and 'sport for all' globalization and commercialization. Looking ahead to the future, the author asks whether our sports experience is turning full circle, and if in the twenty-first century we are returning to a forgotten view of sport as a pastime and recreation.

This well-illustrated book is the first to explore the stadium as the principal container of the modern urban crowd and a place where thousands of people gather to take part in what often appears to be modern 'religious' rituals. Is the stadium a prison, a garden or a theatre? Do new stadiums contribute economically to the places in which they are built? Drawing on examples from Europe, North America and China, this book ranges from historical studies of stadium growth to current reviews of stadium development, exposing the stadium as a major element of the modern urban scene.