Human Society: The Influence Of Sports In Society

Sports can be considered to be an omnipresent aspect of contemporary life. Seeing how pervasive sports is in human society, perhaps it is prudent for us to consider studying sports in greater detail. In his book, Crawford explores specifically the role and influence of sports fans in the business, from both the perspective of a consumer and also as an audience, a fan. The main argument put forward by Crawford is how fans are actually active participants in the consumption of sports, and not merely ‘end-points’ or ‘by-products’.

Crawford proceeds to explain that fans do not simply just receive and consume sports via the ‘syringe’ model explained in the behavioural paradigm. Instead, they also constitute an important entity in the field, with

He explains how the stadiums may hold special meanings for individuals, such as historic occurrences and matches that they might have experienced first-hand, which solidifies their attachment to the sport and the club. This is also known as topophilia. Fans also imbue part of themselves into the stadium through the creation of atmosphere. This is achieved through banners erected in the grounds and also iconic statues of club heroes. This is another valid argument. The history, culture and atmosphere of clubs still shine through despite the ‘hypercommodification’ of sports today, which involves aspects such as advertising billboards and shops in stadiums which were feared to possibly dilute the atmosphere and reduce the venue to a ‘mini shopping mall’. It has been mentioned of how sport is sometimes seen as a religion, with stadiums as the temples and cemeteries, mostly because of the spiritual meaning it holds for

With the ‘premature’ birth of Singapore’s football league (Balji 2010), the sport itself and the stadiums here lack history and significance. Instead, most of them are functional in nature; providing easy sport access to the society. This could possibly be traced back to the government’s tight control over sports, which historically functioned to serve military, economic and social needs (Saunders and Horton 2012). This, coupled with strict laws in the country, effectively strips away the character of the stadiums. The lack of history also means that there are very little aspects of the sport that fans can have emotional attachment to. Again, this is in contrast to our national team. The older generation fondly remembers the history of our national team playing in the old Kallang Stadium in regional competitions, which carries a lot of memories and meanings for them. This explains why it was an emotional experience when the old Kallang Stadium was demolished to make way for the new Sports Hub.

In conclusion, Crawford was successful in conveying the importance of fans in sports, in terms of the ‘software’. This is why he suggested taking a phenomenological approach to the situation. Singapore could perhaps use this method to help them come up with solutions to make local sports a more prominent and meaningful aspect in our society, which will help to promote it