Global Games: Culture, Political Economy and Sport in the Globalised World of the 21st

Century
Author(s): John Nauright
Source: Third World Quarterly , 2004, Vol. 25, No. 7, Going Global: The Promises and
Pitfalls of Hosting Global Games (2004), pp. 1325-1336
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.

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Third World Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 7, pp. 1325-1336, 2004 ? Carfax Publishing
fIIlp" Taylor &Francis Group

Global games: culture, political

economy and sport in the globalised
world of the 21st century

JOHN NAURIGHT

ABSTRACT During the past three decades sport has assumed an ever greater
role within the globalisation process and in the regeneration of national,
regional and local identities in the postcolonial and global age. With much of
global culture displayed by the media, events, particularly significant sporting
ones such as the Olympic Games or the soccer World Cup, have become highly
sought after commodities as developed countries, and increasingly some leading
developing countries, move towards event-driven economies. In the process,
however, many countries are left behind without the necessary infrastructure or
visibility to compete successfully. Furthermore, the process of displaying a
culture in the lead-up to an event and during the event itself has had to focus
on ready-made markets, thus reinforcing stereotypes about a place and its
people. This paper discusses the paradoxes and inequalities brought on by the
sport-media-tourism complex that drives the emphasis on global sporting
events.

Since World War II and the advent of the television age there have been
significant transfornations in sport and sporting cultures (see Whitson, also in
this issue). During the 1980s and 1990s this process intensified as governments
increasingly diverted large sums of money into national sporting programmes
aimed at succeeding on the international stage. As demonstrated in Australia,
countries with the resources to dedicate to elite programmes can generate a
greater profile through sporting successes in international competition. Sportive
nationalism intensified in the late 20th century as states sought ways to position
themselves in the global hierarchy of nations.' The number of nations that can
spend the necessary resources on elite sporting programmes across the board,
however, is limited to a small minority of the over 200 participants in the
Olympic Games and nations must often choose whether to divert limited public
resources into supporting international sporting success or the attraction of
international sporting events.
During the 1990s and early 2000s media corporations invested at unpre-
cedented levels in sporting coverage and team/league ownership, particularly as
pay television companies became global entities and media corporations sought

John Nauright is in the Department of Sport Management, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA
30460, USA. Email: [email protected].

ISSN 0143-6597 PrntIISSN 1360-2241 online/04/071325-12 ? 2004 Third World Quarterly

DOI: 10.10801014365904200281302 1325

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 JOHN NAURIGHT

2
cheap and ready-made programming. In the case of rugby league this led to one
media corporation virtually buying the entire sport globally. In rugby union the
result was near immediate professionalisation, while in soccer greater media
ownership fostered expanding pan-European competitions, premier leagues and
the concentration of wealth among high profile European clubs to the detriment
of smaller clubs in Europe and leading clubs in Latin America, Africa and Asia.
Media magnate Rupert Murdoch, for example, almost succeeded in adding the
world's best known sports brand, Manchester United, to his stable of sports and
clubs.3 Soon afterwards, however, United formed a marketing partnership with
the USA's most successful franchise, the New York Yankees, to synergise the
global marketing strategies of these two brands.
Sports and sporting events have become integral components of a global
political economy, which has seen production shift from developed to less
developed societies and an expanding focus in the developed world on the
'branding', 'theming' and consumption of image and lifestyle.4 From the
restyling of individual matches as entertainment extravaganzas to specialised
tournaments like the Olympic Games, sporting competitions have become
spectacles as they compete with other leisure activities for the consumer dollar.
In addition, these large-scale events have become key factors in local and
national development strategies. In this process traditional sports fans, local
communities and democratic practices are often ignored as growth is promoted,
and business and governments align in support of events-driven economies.5

Sporting events and competing interests: a level playing field?

Increasingly, major sporting competitions and tournaments are regarded as

'events' to be 'marketed' and 'managed', and terms such as 'hallmark' and
'mega' suggest that size really does matter.6 The lure of large and spectacular
events is thought to be an expedient way to attract media interest in a host city,
which, it is hoped, will translate into an influx of capital through tourism and
new investment.7 At the same time sporting events have begun incorporating
cultural elements, such as opera and art exhibitions, in an effort to present
themselves as broader events. These events are commonly used in tourist
promotions to present cities and nations as exciting destinations with interesting
cultures for tourists to consume. It is appropriate, therefore, in the 21st century
to speak of a sport-media-tourism complex that is at the centre of many local,
regional and national development strategies. Although this process has been
highly uneven and confined principally to Europe, North America, Australia and,
more recently, Japan, developing economies such as Mexico, Brazil, South
Korea, Malaysia, India, South Africa and others have increasingly sought major
events by which to promote their countries on a global stage.
Mega-events have differential long-term financial and social benefits for
various groups in host communities. Post-apartheid South Africa provides a
useful example of the way that large-scale sporting events have been sought in
an effort to promote tourism and economic development. South Africa bid
unsuccessfully for the 2004 Olympics and 2006 soccer World Cup (see Swart
and Bob, and Cornelissen in this issue) following its successful hosting of the

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 GLOBAL GAMES

1995 Rugby World Cup (RWC) and 1996 Africa Cup of Nations soccer
tournament. Recently South Africa was awarded the 2010 soccer World Cup.
The 1995 RWC was presented as bringing together 'a world in union' in a
'rainbow nation' finally free from the vestiges of apartheid. Desperate to
stimulate foreign investment, the African National Congress-led government
supported a tournament in a sport that remained central to the identities
of the white minority, and which had traditionally alienated black South
Africans.8
In an effort to unite the nation behind the national rugby team, an 'inclusive'
theme song, 'Shosholoza', was chosen for the Springbok team. Yet, ironically,
the song was traditionally sung by migrant workers as they travelled from
Zimbabwe to work in South African mines. Thus, a workers' song sung by men
who went to their early deaths in the gold mines was a central cultural element
in the presentation of the new and unified South Africa.9 While the event and
ultimate victory of the national team succeeded in temporarily bringing South
Africans together across massive cultural divides, the terms of engagement were
clearly one-sided and the national euphoria proved illusory.
The organisation of the RWC ceremonies presented South Africa in ways that
resonated with white rugby supporters. Ceremony architect Merle McKenna
tried to create a ceremony that would 'make every South African feel proud and
that was difficult because we are so diverse'.1o In the final product history was
eliminated from the display: timeless African 'natives' appeared clad in tra-
ditional dress and were paraded in after the African wildlife segment. As John
Newsinger argues, 'Darkest Africa is a powerful metaphor for the white man's
own repressed fears which he embodies in the form of the peoples and creatures
that inhabit its vast unfathomed forests.'1' South African novelist and University
of Cape Town Professor of English, JM Coetzee, wrote a detailed critique of the
RWC and its representations shortly after the tournament's conclusion. Coetzee
acknowledged the brief moment of unity created by the Springboks yet described
the entire event as 'a month-long orgy of chauvinism and mime-show of war
among nations'. He argued that the making of history in the new South Africa
is so contentious that the organisers decided to be 'history-less'. The ceremonies:

presented a de-historicized vision of Tourist South Africa: contented tribesfolk and

happy mineworkers, as in the old South Africa, but purified and sanctified,
somehow, by the Rainbow. When it got to the paler end of the spectrum, however,
it found that it could not proceed without becoming, intermittently, not only a
pageant but an historical pageant as well. And so to the procession of timeless
Sotho in blankets and timeless Zulu in ostrich feathers it had to add what looked
very much like happy eighteenth-century slaves and slaveowners in knee-breeches,
bearing baskets of agricultural produce to the Rainbow feast.12

Vicky Paraschak shows that the presentation of native peoples in the four
Canadian Olympic and Commonwealth Games ceremonies held between 1976
and 1994 all likewise portrayed native cultures in a 'pre-history' state.'3
Coetzee's critique lamented not only the absence of history, but also that
South Africa was constructed in the RWC ceremonies in the voice of the
foreigner, in images and packaging more reminiscent of American hype than

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 JOHN NAURIGHT

South African realities. He argued further that: 'Now that rugby has fallen into
the hands of an international cartel embracing a "philosophy" of growth, we can
expect the inherent intellectual muddle of the Rainbow Project to be com-
pounded by floods of images of South Africa as an exotic sports-tourism
destination, different certainly, but only in a piquant, easily digested way.'14
The case of the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in 2002 is further evidence
of the packaging of an imagined vision of local culture for global consumption.
The focus of broadcasters and image makers upon the Mormon history and
identity of the city and the state of Utah was misrepresentative. Despite the
presence of the Mormon Tabernacle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints in the city centre, only some of the inhabitants of Salt Lake City belong
to the Mormon Church. In contrast to the South African RWC case, history was
not written out, but rather a history was written in, one that prioritised the
Mormon migration to the West in general, and Utah in particular, at the expense
of non-Morman Utahans. This demonstrates how global sports events can lead
to the promotion of imagined, partial and fictional representations of local
identities and histories. Whether it be 'timeless natives' or an in-group-focused
history, ceremonies have done little to alter pre-existing stereotypes about places
and peoples.
Imagined histories and the incorporation of cultural difference within the
production of events is now commonplace. The process of appropriating indige-
nous cultures to brand destinations is a significant feature in postcolonial settler
societies. South Africa differs in that the aboriginal peoples are the majority,
although South Africa's global tourism and investment marketing strategies are
still largely shaped with a predominantly white Western audience in mind. It will
be interesting to see whether alternative visions of South Africa and South
Africans can be sold successfully to the international market by the time of the
2010 soccer World Cup, when South Africa will receive its largest and most
sustained level of international attention since the anti-apartheid struggles of the
1980s.
Dean MacCannell argues that the global system and its dominant ideologies
are the products of several centuries of development, particularly of 'white
culture'. He argues further that, within this white culture, 'ethnicity' is the only
form that indigenous groups can assume in order to be part of the totality of
white culture.15 This 'ethnicity' has also become a powerful marketing tool in
the branding of destinations as exotic through ceremonies surrounding major
sporting and other events, advertising and in the promotion of ethno-tourism, as
the South African and Canadian cases of major event ceremonies have clearly
demonstrated. Just how to interact with this historical reality while selling
destinations during events and for investment is a dilemma that South Africa and
any other society hosting a major global event faces (see van der Westhuizen,
and Dimeo and Kay in this issue).
'Ethnicity' has become significant in event marketing and destination brand-
ing, with bid and organising committees increasingly seeking to harness previ-
ously excluded groups when promoting events. An indication of this trend took
place in Sydney during the lead-up to the 2000 Olympics. Organisers of
Sydney's Olympic bid used Aborginal Australians in their campaign for the
Games, sending Aborigines to perform at the bid presentation. The then

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 GLOBAL GAMES

Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Deputy Commissioner Sol Bellar argued
that the performers were 'tourist curios-like koalas and kangaroos'.'6
Sydney's Olympic bid documents emphasised that Aboriginal peoples and
multicultural communities fully supported the bid and would be included
through an Olympic cultural programme.'7 The Aboriginal human rights cam-
paigner and former government bureaucrat Charles Perkins was appointed to the
Sydney bid committee and he and Aboriginal tennis great Evonne Goolagong-
Cawley were used in Sydney's formal presentation to the International Olympic
Committee in 1993. Through the incorporation of many leading Aborginal
personalities the bid committee sought to pre-empt any protests. At the time of
the 2000 Games many groups-ethnic communities in particular-were not
given the chance to contribute effectively to the decision making for cultural
programming. As Darren Godwell points out, no Aboriginal Australian was
included as one of the directors for the bid or on the subsequent Sydney
Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG). Rather, SOCOG
created the National Indigenous Advisory Committee (NIAC) and developed a
list of Aboriginal 'elders' to liaise with indigenous communities. SOCOG also
created a Multicultural Commission but, as with NIAC, its role was merely
advisory and poorly adjusted to the changeable agendas of decision makers.18
Once they reach local communities, sporting events are about much more than
merely boosting tourism, local investment and employment, however. They can
provide opportunities to challenge dominant social structures. For example, from
the moment the Games were awarded to Sydney, local resident groups and
indigenous people more broadly responded.19 Protests and meetings took place
in the lead-up to the Games; yet these voices were quickly silenced within
Australian public debate. Indeed, many academics and universities decided to
pursue a largely uncritical stance, choosing rather to exploit the presence of the
Games as an opportunity for developing event management skills and to promote
the Games and Australia. The University of New South Wales, for example,
purchased a corporate box at Stadium Australia, the main Olympic venue, in
order to entertain officials from leading international universities.20
Internationally, however, a critical eye turned to Australia and its policies
towards Aboriginal Australians and its treatment of asylum-seeking boat people.
Without the Olympic focus there would have been much less international
awareness of these issues. Australian Olympic, business and governmental
figures clearly anticipated this possibility and attempted to forestall or silence
internal opposition. In the run-up to the Sydney Games, Australian Prime
Minister John Howard labelled protests an 'un-Australian' hindrance to promot-
ing a successful Games as evidence of Australian unity of will, spirit and
expertise, and of its love-affair with sport. In promoting national characteristics
for domestic and international consumption, Howard and other public figures
placed sport at the centre, thus helping to legitimate the vast sums of public
money diverted into the elite athlete production system and the building of
facilities and infrastructure to support the Games.2'
Howard's reaction demonstrates that nationalism is often harnessed to reduce
difference and promote commonality of purpose in imagining the nation for
global consumption. Joseph Maguire's study of globalisation and sport con-

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 JOHN NAURIGHT

cludes by speculating on the tensions between the global, national and local. As
Maguire argues, 'a question that arises is whether.. .as a result of Europeaniza-
tion and globalization, I/we [in the sense of individual and collective] national
identities are being strengthened, weakened, or pluralized'. Drawing upon Hall
and Cohen, Maguire speculates on the potential for globalisation to provoke an
'ethnically assertive and defensive nationalism'. 22 More research is needed to
test Maguire's assertion, although it is clear that attempts to promote national
identities through events such as Sydney 2000 or international soccer tourna-
ments are often narrow and nationalistic. Importantly, Maguire argues that
globalised sport can lead to a strengthening of local cultures by re-marketing the
same global product within a new niche. While the brand may be global, the sell
is local.
Globalisation does not produce homogenisation; quite the contrary. Globalisa-
tion reveals the inadequacy of sameness as communities assert their uniqueness,
although this process is uneven and is often produced by conservative impulses
launched from above. In discussing the concept of 'glocalisation', Roland
Robertson argues that what is known as the 'local' is 'in large degree constructed
on a trans- or super-local basis'. 23 The assertion that global sport can yield a
greater opportunity to re-image the local seems crucial to the importance of
hosting prestigious sporting events (see Black and van der Westhiuzen in this
issue). As the most fully global example of a localised event, the Olympic
Summer Games is championed as a means to entirely reinventing a city, as has
been argued in the cases of Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000.24
In many cases the bid to host international events takes place as part of a
national strategy where more than one city in a nation initially submits a bid, as
is the case for the European Capital of Culture event under the auspices of the
European Commission. The UK was selected as host for 2008, and British
authorities were left to choose the city that would be honoured with the title.
Twelve UK cities applied. In the lead up to the selection process for the 2012
Olympics, the US Olympic Committee (USOC) ran an internal competition in
which at least 10 cities or groups of cities vied for the USOC's support, some
of which had already established organising committees and websites as early as
1997, some 15 years out from the event.
Sporting events provide opportunities to try and force a sense of community
through a collection of values that often has little to do with the people who are
supposed to adopt them. Arguably, the values associated with the Olympics-
humanity, peace, fair play-are easily transferable between communities. In-
deed, this is an important reason why the Olympic Games are able to sustain a
collective and unified veneer of support from one city to the next. In principle,
the broad liberal values of the Olympic Movement allow for the appearance of
a unified community, consolidated by the celebration of sport, culture and the
environment, the three dimensions of Olympism.25 In practice, however, the
Olympic Games deal in global values that are external to local communities and
which are unable to reflect their particularities. The consequences are an event
that is valued more for its financial pay-off than for worldly ideologies, although
each host city does seek to differentiate itself from previous hosts.
Global cities increasingly resemble one another in terms of their architectural

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 GLOBAL GAMES

features and the services provided, and yet individual identities are 'imagi-
neered'.26 Multinational corporations are aware of this and 'micromarket' their
products differentially to consumers in various locales because diversity sells.
Cities employ major spectacles to promote their national and global images,
thereby differentiating themselves from other cities in the hope of attracting new
investment and tourism and gaining competitive advantage over rivals. As with
the promotion of host venue uniqueness, diverse traditions are constructed and
even invented to sell products and promote tourism.27 This strategy is also
employed through professional sporting teams located in cities.

Commodification, community and resistance

During the 1980s and 1990s rapid changes in the organisation and function of
professional sports leagues matched the focus on events as central elements in
urban economic regeneration. In North America this led to a bidding war
between cities for new and existing sporting franchises, while in Europe new
stadiums were built to replace dilapidated grounds that were in many cases
nearly a century old. This process was in many cases linked to bids for major
events such as the building of the Stade de France in Paris for the 1998 Football
World Cup. As part of this process of change, sporting leagues sought to attract
greater corporate interest and increase the broader appeal of particular events by
selling them as wider leisure experiences.
In the late 1980s the English Football Association (FA) published its Blueprint
for the Future of Football, which promoted the conversion of 'going to a match'
on a Saturday into having 'integrated leisure experiences '.28 The FA envisaged
that, in the style of North American sport, future attendees at football matches
would be attracted by a festive atmosphere. At a cursory level this approach
appeared successful. In the post-1990 Taylor Report era of stadium reform in
England, many long-serving grounds were abandoned and modem facilities were
constructed to meet the Report's requirements following the 1989 Hillsborough
Stadium disaster in Sheffield. Attendances increased as the game's image
improved, and stadiums were transformed in the public mind from being sites of
hooligan battles to venues for family entertainment. This change resulted in a
near tenfold increase in ticket prices, which placed significant strains on the
ability of working-class men, football's primary constituents, to sustain regular
attendance. Pay television operators and clubs capitalised on this by trying to
convert many to virtual spectatorship. During the 2001-02 season, for example,
Sky TV offered special pay-per-view packages for Premier League matches at
?8-fl2, well in excess of 1980s ticket prices.
In the process of branding football, clubs in England have taken steps to
diversify their product and sell a wide range of leisure and entertainment
activities and financial services to their supporters. Manchester United has an
official e-betting site (Coral Eurobet) where punters can wager on matches, while
their main website advertises the Manchester United Visa Card under the slogan
'share in our success, carry the card of champions'. The promotion of the club's
financial services further entices its supporters to enlist: 'you've supported us all
the way, now it is our turn to support you!'.29 Before reaching the supporter

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 JOHN NAURIGHT

pages of the Leeds United website, web-browsers are directed via the Leeds
Television home page, where fans can subscribe to one of two pay channels to
watch Leeds United. The club also has its own official betting site, travel and
financial services.30 Similarly, Chelsea offers its supporters an on-line TV
service, as well as travel and financial services including loans, insurance, credit
cards and savings accounts.3" The Liverpool FC television website advertises an
e-season ticket for a cost of 11 pence a day. The club also organises weddings
in themed rooms named after Liverpool legends or great moments in club
history.32 These clubs all operate their e-channels in conjunction with Sky and
are not permitted to broadcast FA Cup footage while the BBC holds the rights.
At the same time cyberspace has provided opportunities for football fans to
create new supporter networks and in several cases has enabled supporter
associations to mobilise support for clubs under threat. In the mid-1990s the
supporters' club of Brighton and Hove Albion used the internet to distribute
posters, to arrange boycotts of team matches and to organise a national campaign
to ensure the future of their team in Brighton, particularly after the team's
matches were relocated some 70 miles away to Gillingham.33 On a larger scale
fans of the Cleveland Browns team in the US National Football League (NFL)
ran perhaps the largest e-campaign to date in their opposition to the relocation
of 'their' team to Baltimore in 1995. The fans' efforts resulted in the NFL
awarding an expansion franchise to Cleveland, and the new Browns began
playing in 1999.34 Supporter campaigns have had some success in mobilising
support against mergers and relocations; however, the main structures of the
media-sport complex remain largely unscathed.

Reward and alienation in the age of cyberspace

It is slowly being realised that the extraordinary integration of sport with global
capitalism and its transparent dependence upon commercial sponsorship is
alienating to local communities, as supporters of many professional sporting
teams can attest. As with supporters fighting to protect their teams and spectating
spaces, new possibilities of electronic communication are enabling campaigns of
resistance and challenge, such as the international campaign against Nike's
production practices. Examples of e-petitions and infornative websites provide
powerful tools that have forced responses from corporations such as Nike, and
organisations such as the NFL in the USA. Regardless of whether such
technology allows for the possibility of democratising power, the Internet has
provided a feeling of excitement about individual capability and what new
technology can offer for enhancing communication between disparate groups
and individuals. The cyber-community is thriving and makes possible connec-
tions in sport that previously did not exist. However, the spread of Internet
technologies is highly uneven and serves to reinforce differences between
developed and developing countries and segments of populations within coun-
tries.
We advocate championing the local over the global in discussing the current
state and future possibilities for sport. The social study of events reveals the
ongoing need for a broader social scientific approach that challenges the

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 GLOBAL GAMES

dominant managerial/marketing model of engaging with events and sports

operations. New technologies of communication can provide the impetus for
change, although at the same time sporting organisations and media corporations
are also responding to new possibilities in efforts to further commodify spectat-
ing practice. It is important, therefore, to continue to explore the impact of new
technologies on sport and spectators before making concrete assessments.35

Conclusion

As sport emerged out of the 20th century significant structural changes, which
accelerated during the 1980s and 1990s, were evident. Teams in professional
sporting competitions in developed countries no longer generated the majority of
their income from ticket and other sales at the stadium, while spectating
practices increasingly were relocated from live viewing to televised consump-
tion. Direct media ownership of clubs and franchises, leagues, events and tours
became common by 2000 as leading media companies attempted to corner
global communication markets.36
At the same time, newer and originally alternative physical practices became
increasingly 'sportised', mediated and linked to productive and consumptive
practices within these new sport forms. As Rinehart argues, the US-based ESPN
sports network constructed an audience through its production of the eXtreme
Games, begun in 1995, which subsequently developed a global following.
Rinehart argues that ESPN drew on accepted television sport coverage practices
in constructing a 'sport-familiar terrain for viewers'.37 Several new sportised
forms have been included in the Winter Olympics in efforts to attract new
audiences, and skateboarding has followed surfing and snowboarding into
structured national and international competitions.
The dramatic changes to sport have pitted economic restructuring against
cultural reproduction, as Ian Andrews posits in his analysis of Australian football
since 1960. Following Gramsci, Andrews argues that 'traditional cultural and
ideological elements exert an influence in the short term, but.. .are typically
rendered impotent in the face of relentless economic forces'. 38 Bob Stewart and
Aaron Smith argue that identities that were once based on locality have been
'superseded by identities based on a club's profile or corporate personality, star
players, team colours or theme songs ... [the] result of strong brand
identification'. 39 Thus changes in the political economy of Australian sport have
echoed those outlined by Gruneau and Whitson in their analysis of Canadian ice
hockey, as sport-fuelled identity is refocused on the consumption of commodi-
ties sold as sporting brands.40
The branding of destinations as desirable sites for new investment and tourist
consumption has included sport and sporting events as key elements of new
economic development strategies. Janiskee argues that we live in an age of
special events.4' It is no coincidence that Brand Australia was launched in 1995
less than two years after Sydney was awarded the 2000 Olympic Games. A
three-year advertising campaign began in 1998 to maxmise potential returns
linked to Sydney's hosting of the Olympics and to draw together Brand
Australia, the Olympic Brand and the brands of Olympic sponsors.42 Under this

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 JOHN NAURIGHT

approach, the integration of brands capitalises on the heightened awareness

generated by a major event such as the Sydney Olympics and focuses on the
development of positive experiences for the visitor that synergies between
brands can generate. Sporting events are particularly attractive in this context as
they can evoke powerful imagery and elicit emotional responses from spectators.
This is not an easy process, however, as it is difficult to create a global brand
beyond pre-held notions of what 'Sydney' or 'Australia' is. Countries with a
much lower level of global visibility, particularly in the developing world, face
an increasingly uphill battle as the global sport-media-tourism complex so-
lidifies. For example, the combined annual income of Tiger Woods for 2003 was
US$76.6 million, while Bhutan's Gross Domestic Product amounted to $68
million. Multi-year baseball, basketball, American football and European soccer
contracts now surpass gross domestic products of countries such as Belize and
Botswana, and this is money paid to a single athlete. The value of leading sport
franchises such as Real Madrid, Manchester United or the New York Yankees
exceeds the GDP of many developing nations such as Paraguay, Honduras or
Zambia to name but a few.43
In the 21st century sport is an integral part of an increasingly global
sport-media-tourism complex that is vastly uneven within and between soci-
eties. While resistance to the global expansion and consolidation of media- and
event-driven sport is possible, and indeed at times successful, it is clear that the
international organisation and presentation of sport serves the interests of global,
national and local elites-the cosmopolitans. Sports spectators and participants,
on the other hand, are increasingly removed from the sporting product, whether
by spatial relocation driven by the need for newly constructed sporting spaces
for major events, relocation of teams to larger cities, increasing continentalisa-
tion of competitions, or new mediated sport forms.

Notes
The author would like to acknowledge the assistance of Beatriz Garcia and Andy Miah in the development
of this paper and some of the ideas contained therein and also to thank the reviewers for valuable suggestions
that clarified some of the discussion.
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 JOHN NAURIGHT

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GDP figures based on World Bank estimates.

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