Broadcast media: live and in-person

Abstract

Radio broadcasts brought fans into the drama of the football match in real time for the first time. The indelible impact of radio shaped the development of football fandom in the early to middle 20th century. While television is now the biggest financial supporter of top-level football, owners used to worry that TV would diminish gate receipts. Mass media are often suspected of contributing to social alienation, this chapter shows how fans use television broadcasts to create social events. This essay discusses various viewing contexts such as pubs and fan clubhouses in order to illustrate how media is used by fans to create social bonds.

Notes

1. See Adorno and Horkheimer, ‘The Culture Industry’.

2. Cuban, ‘The Fan Experience’.

3. Perhaps it would help American fans to organize to demand, for instance, cheaper tickets.

4. I must note that the team takes its name from the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The team now plays its matches in Bridgeview, over 10 miles from the site of the conflagration.

5. Soundersfc.com, ‘Alliance’.

6. Johnston, ‘Juve Seek Bite out of Premier League’s Asia Apple’.

7. See Supporters Direct.

8. Kraszewski provides a model for such work as he documents the ways that fans of the American football team evoke Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, when they watch their team at a bar in Texas.

9. Goldlust, ‘Sport as Entertainment’, 43.

10. Ibid., 45.

11. See www.radiomarconi.com.

12. see Museum of Broadcast History, www.museum.tv.

13. Merkel, ‘Milestones in the Development of Football Fandom in Germany’, 66.

14. Irriducibili Movie: L’amor per te mi fa teppista [My love for you has made me a hooligan], DVD.

15. This is also the name of the Irriducibili’s newsletter.

16. Andrews, ‘Sport’, 137.

17. Scott, ‘English Premier League’.

18. Andrews, ‘Sport’, 140.

19. Ibid., 142.

20. Ginsborg, Italy and Its Discontents, 113.

21. Serie A TV rights sold for 943 Euros per season from 2015 to 2018. See Gladwell, ‘Serie A’.

22. Ginsborg, Italy and Its Discontents, 132.

23. BBC Online, Reign of Two Halves.

24. Reign of Two Halves for Berlusconi. BBC Online. 14 May 2001. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1325122.stm (accessed April 4, 2014).

25. Hooper, J. 'Murdoch takes Sky to Italy'. The Guardian Online. http://www.theguardian.com/business/2003/jul/31/citynews.rupertmurdoch (accessed April 7, 2015).

26. Ibid.

27. Gladwell, B. Serie A Clubs Back New TV Deal'. 27 June 2014. http://www.espnfc.us/italian-serie-a/story/1916857/serie-a-clubs-agree-new-tv-rights-deal. See Giulianotti, Football: A Sociology of the Global Game.

28. Chandler, ‘The TV and Sports Industries’, 66.

29. See Giulianotti, Football: A Sociology of the Global Game.

30. Duncan, 90–91.

31. Trans. Ciao Tommy, Vittima del mondo ingiusto.

32. The Champions’ League is an intra-European tournament among the top European club teams. Qualification is based on domestic league finish in the previous season. The lucrative tournament is organized by the European football association (UEFA). The tournament runs in parallel with most national competitions, starting in August and finishing in May. Ultimately, Fiorentina would finish fourth in the standings, but would subsequently lose their spot due to their involvement in the referee scandal of 2006.

33. According to the OECD, 2005, in comparison, US GDP/capita was $41,800.

34. The UEFA Cup (now called the Europa League) is the second-tier intra-European tournament that is organized similarly to the UEFA Champions’ League, the top-tier European tournament.

35. Kuper and Szymanski, Soccernomics.

36. Weed, ‘The Pub as a Virtual Football Fandom Venue’, 246.

37. Kraszewski, ‘Pittsburgh in Fort Worth’, 155.

38. The indoor game featured lots of goals but could not, alas, sustain a niche in the US sporting scene.