Stadiums: Appearances in Sports Films

Sports and films are some of the best forms of entertainment.  Combining the two together, satisfies audiences of both sports fans, but also movie lovers.  There are a massive amount of sports films, making them come in a large variety.  Sports films can be about professional,college, high school, club or even pee-wee sports teams.  Sports film can also be inspirational, funny, or just flat out entertaining.  One of the best parts, not only for me personally, but also for the avid sports film fan is being able to see the stadiums from a whole different prospective.  Also, sports films can be documented for history, and educational purposes.

Some of the most popular sports films take place in the past, making it an old vintage look.  This requires attention to detail, but the outcome has fans ooze with excitement over it.  One of the most famous basektball films ever made was the 1986 film Hoosiers.  Hoosiers is about a small town Indiana basektball team fighting its way to the state championship game.  It is a true underdog story.  The state championship game, at the time was played at Butler University’s Hinkle Fieldhouse.  Arguably one of the most famous scenes in sports films history, is when the team arrives to Hinkle for the first time.  The coach Norman Dale (Gene Hackman) notices that his players are in absolute awe playing in such a big stadium.  So, what Norman does is take a tape measure out and measures the width of the court, along with the height of the basektball.  This scene is remember because even though Hinkle looked so big, that it is the same as the court from back home in their small town of Milan Indiana.

Another film that shows off multiple vintage stadiums in the 2004 Disney production of Miracle.  This films covers the true story of the 1980 United States men’s hockey team.  The film covers the story of possibly the greatest sports upset ever.  In 1980 the United States men’s hockey team defeated the Union of Socialist Soviet Republic (U.S.S.R.).  The USSR was told to be “unbeatable”.  However over the course of the film, it shows of two stadiums that are extremely memorable now.  In the film, the United States plays an international friendly match against the USSR in Madison Square Garden in New York City.  At the time, in the late 70’s and into the early 80’s Madison Square Garden was the mecca for sporting events such as this one.  Later in the movie, as the 1980 winter olympics rolled around the United States played the all powerful USSR at the Lake Placid Olymic Center.  This arena normally holds 7,000 as a max capacity, however for this epic matchup it was recorded that 11,000 people were crammed into the stadium (USAToday.com).  This stadium is always remember because this is where the “miracle on ice” happened.  If the United States did not defeat the USSR that day, and win the gold metal then the Lake Placid Olympic Center would never be remember how it is today.

The film industry has been around for a very long time.  The NFL has been around for a very long time as well.  The NFL is the most popular sport in the United States, leading to the most revenue and success.  In the article “NFL Films and the Art of Selling Football”, Travis Vogan explains how the film industry and the NFL joined forces and became extremely successful.  Vogan explains that the NFL has been recording every game since 1964.  Vogan goes onto explain that the reason was that the NFL was to make a documentary for television shows.  The goal, Vogan explains is to make the NFL look; heroic, dramatic, and beautiful.  The reasoning behind this was because many of the fans looked at the NFL as barbaric and heartless.  Vogan continues by saying that beyond creating, maintaining, and circulating a celebratory image for the league, NFL Films employs various marketing strategies to cast its productions as artworks that are more refined than typical sports television, engage consecrated aesthetic traditions, reflect their producers inspired creative visions, and are unmotivated by commercial interests qualities that critical and audience discourses surrounding the company often reinforce.

Overall, in the film industry, and even the television, sports have had an impact.  Whether it comes from a small town in the great state of Indiana, or a inspiration for an entire country.  Sports movies can be more than just entertainment.  Sports movies can give you as the viewer a whole new perspective of the stadium in which the the film is being taken place at.  It is one thing to be at a stadium rather than on your couch watching it through the television, but it is a completely different thing to actually be on the court, or field.  It is cool as the spectator to be able to see this point of the film, and because of stadiums in sports movies we are capable of going that now.

 

Works Cited

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091217/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0349825/

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/winter/2005-02-24-brooks-rink_x.htm

Vogan, Travis. “NFL Films And The Art Of Selling Football.” Popular Communication 11.4 (2013): 274-288. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 9 Dec. 2015.

Stadiums: Playing Surface

Throughout history, sports have always been one of the most popular forms of entertainment.  Stadiums have always been around to house these events.  Dating back to 70 AD is when one of the most popular and well know stadiums in history was built, the Roman Coliseum.  However with lack of knowledge, and funds the surface in which the Romans would watch people fight to the death was dirt.  Advancements in technology in present day has now made it so sports stadiums now hold different playing surfaces.

Normally, if a NFL team, or an NCAA football team has an open air arena, then they playing surface would be typical grass.  But, his grass would be some of the most well kept grass.  Grounds teams for the NFL, NCAA, and MLB have taking care of their grass down to a science, and an art.  This is especially true for the MLB season.  The MLB plays 162 regular season games meaning that each team plays 81 home games.  Baseball is different than other sports because during the regular season the MLB plays series, meaning that a team will play a three or four games series during the week or on the weekend.  This puts pressure on the grounds crews to get the field prepared for the next day, which means a lot of late nights, and early mornings.

Within the last ten years artificial turf has become the more popular playing surface.  Artificial turf is extremely expensive to install, but it cuts out all the maintenance, and labor costs for at least ten more years.  The lifespan for artificial turf is about ten years before it completely needs to be redone.  Also artificial turf can be beneficial to not only football, but for all sports.  My high school installed brand new artificial turf during the summer of 2011, and all the sports teams took advantage of it.  Football, and men’s & woman’s soccer had priority during the fall, but when the season were over the mens & woman’s basketball teams would find their way out onto the turf for agility, and conditioning workouts.  As spring rolled around, if the snow was melted in time the baseball and softball teams would be able to go out and throw and long toss.  It was beneficial to all sports, and a great investment.

The debate of which playing surface, grass or artificial turf, is never ending.  The top priority of sports is safty.  It is so important to keep the athletes as safe as possible.  A study was conducted to see which playing surface had more injuries.  In the article, “An Analysis of Specific Lower Extremity Injury Rates on Grass and FieldTurf Playing Surfaces in National Football League Games: 2000-2009 Seasons”, Elliot Hershman goes into detail about NFL games during the 2000-2009 seasons, to discuss which playing surface causes more injuries.  Hershman picked the NFL to conduct this study because the NFL is the most violent, and most popular game that is played in the United States.  Hershman explains the the majority of the injuries comes from the knees.  Hershman’s data went as such, on grass there were 1082 total injuries that occur in the knee.  Hershman went into more detail by explaining that 615 of those injuries were from the medial collateral ligament (MCL),while only 166 of the knee injuries were anterior cruciate ligament’s (ACL).  Hershman moves on to explain the data from the artificial turf.  Hershman explains that 446 total injuries occurred on the artificial playing surface.  Hershman explains that 215 of those knee injuries were MCL, while only 94 were ACL injuries.  Hershman goes into detail that the he believers the reason that there are so many more injuries that occur on grass rather than artificial turf is because the grass gives out for the athlete.  Grass gets torn up and can move.  For example if it rains the day of a game, the grass will be a sloppy, muddy mess.  The grass will be all over the place, while the artificial playing surface will not move.

Being an athlete myself, I have come accustomed to the artificial playing surface.  As I have said earlier in this blog, my high school has got turf, and it is used for all purposes.  The reasoning behind getting the turf was because the football team,and  men & woman’s  soccer teams would all share one field.  By the time mid October rolled around the field was an absolute mess.  The divots and holes on the field was so deep that injuries were a higher possibility.  Every since 2011, I have been blessed to be able to play on the artificial turf, and I do not want to go back to grass.  Now that I am in college, every team in our conference is playing on artificial turf, except for one team.  I find this nice, not only because it is my personal preference, but is makes for an even playing field.  Literally.

 

Work Cited

Hershman, Elliott B., et al. “An Analysis Of Specific Lower Extremity Injury Rates On Grass And Fieldturf Playing Surfaces In National Football League Games: 2000-2009 Seasons.” The American Journal Of Sports Medicine 10 (2012): 2200. Academic OneFile. Web. 9 Dec. 2015.

Stadiums: Economy

Money.  Money makes the world go around.  Money plays a huge role in the world of sports.  No matter the sport, nothing would be possibly without a functioning economy.  Very rarely are professional sports teams not in a big metropolitan city.  One example of a popular professional sports team that is not in a big city would be the Green Bay Packers.  Green Bay sits in Wisconsin.  The Packers are one of the oldest NFL teams, and are also a special exception.  The Packers could never leave Green Bay, because the franchise is owned by the city of Green Bay.  This is only one simple example on how the economy can affect sports.

Los Angeles(LA) California is arguably one of the most opportunistic cities on the entire earth.  The city is home to two National Basketball Association(NBA) teams, the Lakers and the Clippers.  It is also the home of the historic Major League Baseball teams (MLB) the Dodgers, and the Angles.  Los Angeles is where the National Hockey League team the Anaheim Ducks play their home games.  As you can see Los Angeles is has almost a professional sport going on year around.  However, the city is missing out of possibly the biggest sport, economic wise.  That sport is professional football from the National Football League (NFL).  However this was not always the case for the city of Los Angeles.  Current NFL teams, the St. Louis Rams, and Oakland Raiders both spent time in Los Angeles.  Also present time of this blog going up, the talk of Los Angles getting another NFL team is very possible.  The talk of either the San Diego Chargers, or even the St. Louis Rams returning is all in the discussion.

Regarding the economic side of Los Angeles getting a NFL team, the article “In The Continued Pursuit of Stadiums Initiatives Following Past Failures: An Analysis of The Los Angles Farmers Field Proposal”, Timothy Kellison, and Micheal Mondello discuss the logistics of Los Angeles building an NFL stadium in the downtown area.  Kellison and Mondello begins by explains how Los Angeles is the second largest media market in the United States.  Kellison and Mondello continue by explaining how the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) is in the process new, state-of-the-art, 68,000 seat outdoor football stadium in downtown Los Angeles, along with a significant renovation of the neighboring convention center, in order to return the NFL to the city.  Kellison and Mondello further explain that this project would cost $1.2 billion, and it is coming from a private investment.  However the two explain how there is a risk, if this project takes place.  Kellison and Mondello explains how because this is such a big project, they do not know how everything around the new stadium with thrive or not.  Kellison and Mondello explains how the rise in taxes in the city, and surrounding areas will impact the city.  Also Kellison and Mondello explain how a minor, yet serious factor to consider is the fact that the state of California lies on the San Andreas fault.  In the past, earthquakes have affected the not only sporting events but also the everyday life of the native of California.  Kellison and Mondello explain how the the fear of putting so much money in this project is high.  One of the biggest factors Kellison and Mondello touched on was fan interest.  The two explain how there is so much going on at one time in Los Angeles that they fear that if Los Angeles did end up getting an NFL team they would have a weak fan base, and ultimately lose money off of simple game day essentials like concessions, parking, and seats.  Kellison and Mondello also explain how a perk of having an NFL team in Los Angeles is that Los Angeles always has movie, music, and, athletic celebrities in the city at all times.  Having celebrities at the game would create more revenue for the team.

(These are what the stadium is going to look like not real images)

The biggest economic factor for Los Angeles is the fact that fan interest is in jeopardy.  If you think about it, with the beautiful weather Los Angeles has all year, who would want to go to an NFL game on the weekends?  With so much going on in the city, like going to the beach or other outdoor activities, who would want to give that up to sit in a stadium and watch football for three hours on a Sunday?  I believe that if a NFL team does go to Los Angeles is would be one of the worst financial decision for not only the franchise, but also for the city.  I think this because simple of the lack in fan interest not going to support the NFL team.  As mentioned earlier, the Green Bay Packers are owned by the city of Green Bay Wisconsin, and arguably have the most devoted fan in all of sports.  The Packers do not have the biggest stadium making the seats in the legendary stadium rare.  Also because the Packers are the only professional team in Green Bay, it makes for a special occasion for fans to go to their games.  No matter the cost, fans will spend the money for the Green Bay Packers, because they are not just “another” team like it would be in Los Angeles, even if that mean watching a game in negative degree in January.

 

Work Cited

Kellison, Timothy B., and Michael J. Mondello. “In The Continued Pursuit Of Stadium Initiatives Following Past Failures: An Analysis Of The Los Angeles Farmers Field Proposal.” Journal Of Venue & Event Management 4.2 (2013): 36-46. SPORTDiscus with Full Text. Web. 8 Dec. 2015.

 

Stadiums: Size Effect, and Facilities

Bigger is better right?  Everyone always wants to raise the bar and have the next best thing.  But is that the case when it comes to sports, and teams stadiums and facilities?  Professional teams, and even collegiate pour millions of dollars into their sports stadiums and facilities so that they can have the best possible resources for their athletes to succeed.  From stadiums, locker, weight, and training rooms sports teams keep upping the ante.  However, is bigger and newer better? or is smaller and older more preferred, and does teams tradition have an input in it?

Two primary examples, that are clashing opposite is the NFL team the Dallas Cowboys, and the NCAA Duke University Blue Devils, more specifically the mens basketball program.  Both teams have a rich tradition, however when it comes to their respective stadiums it is like comparing apples to oranges.  The Cowboys built their brand new $1.2 billion stadium in 2009.  Owner Jerry Jones said “I want it more familiar than the White House”. (USA Today)  This colossal does not only hold Cowboy home games, but concerts, NCAA college football bowl games, Texas high school football state championships, and the stadium also held the funeral for United States Navy SEAL Christ Kyle.  While the Cowboys colossal AT&T stadium sits in the heart of Texas, in the hills of Durham North Carolina sit Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium.  This stadium opened in 1940, and hold a maximum capacity of 9,314. (GoDuke.com)  Inside Cameron, everything is lined in a classy look of wood with a trim of golden plates.  The indoor stadium crams people in for an atmosphere of being right on top of the court (literally).  I had to opportunity to drive to Durham, and go to a Duke basketball game.  Not being a Duke fan, but rather a basketball fan in general I was in aw.  During the game was I was standing in the student section, at eye level with the legendary Coach Krzyzewski.  Looking up at the rafters it felt like a high school gym.  There are Indiana high school gyms that have a bigger capacity than Cameron Indoor.  Nevertheless, having such a small old gym defines who Duke is, and what they are all about.  It gives them an identity so that everyone knows who Duke is.

Within the stadiums houses training, weight, and locker rooms.  All three of these play a key role in making the athletes the best they can possibly be, so they can preform at the highest level on the main stage during competition.  Through years of science, and research weight rooms and training rooms have been had millions of dollars poured into to keep improving the athletes ability, and safety.  In recent years colleges and university’s in the NCAA have come to the conclusion that improving their sports facilities to try and sway athletes.  This happens at all levels of college, from big division one schools, to small division three schools in northwest Ohio.  Not only does this try and sway recruits to commit to the respectful institution, but it is also for fans and the attempt to raise attendance.  In the academic journal “Novelty Effects Of New Facilities On Attendance At Professional Sporting Events”, Dennis Coates explains how investigations of professional sports teams in baseball, basketball, and football.  Coates states that with research that in eight years baseball’s overall revenue increased by 2.500,794.  Football was sitting at a total revenue at 137,792.  I find that this is interesting for the soul purpose that football has become the most popular sport in the United States.  However baseball is “America’s past time” meaning that it has the identity of baseball is America.  I personally think that when the MLB went on strike in 1994, the fanbase became upset.  When baseball returned the next year the fanbase was uninterested and seemed to move onto football, and the NFL became more popular.

Ultimately the stadium in which the sports team preforms does not matter unless the team cannot produce.  However, team organizations try their best to make sure the athletes can preform at the highest level, and have a stadium and facilities to please not only the athletes but also the fans.  Also, whether the stadium is new or old, big or small, sports franchises are a business and they will do anything that they can to promote there team and to make money.

Works Cited

Cameron Indoor Stadium. Duke University, 29 Nov. 2005. Web. 3 Dec. 2015. <http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=218099&gt;.

Coates, Dennis, and Brad R. Humphreys. “Novelty Effects Of New Facilities On Attendance At Professional Sporting Events.” Contemporary Economic Policy 23.3 (n.d.): 436-455. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 3 Dec. 2015.

Cowboys Stadium to be renamed AT&T Stadium. N.p., 25 July 2013. Web. 3 Dec. 2015. <http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/cowboys/2013/07/25/cowboys-stadium-at-t-stadium/2586977/&gt;.

Stadiums: Spacing

Sports stadiums of the modern era are always trying to raise the bar.  New stadiums are being built every day, and each year they are becoming bigger and better, always raising the bar.  This is not only in the United States, but also across the world.  This is especially true every eight years for the summer olympics.  The host city always needs to come out with a big and strong stadium to house the summer olympics.  However to build these massive works of art, a big piece of land and space is required.  Economically having a sports team in a metropolitan are makes the most sense, space is not always the easiest thing to come around.

A prime example of a city that has made the most of their space is New York city.  The city holds an amazing number of ten professional teams in its metropolitan area.  Yet, with this number of teams the city only houses four teams that are actually in the city limits of New York.  The ironic part is they all share the same building that lies in the heart of the big apple.  Maddison Square Garden houses the New York Knicks (NBA), Liberty (WNBA) Islanders, and Rangers (NHL) all play in the city under the same roof.  However their are several team that still go by the name “New York” in their title but are not actually in the city.  The New York Yankee’s have their stadium lying on a neighboring island, call the Bronx, along with the Mets being having the same titles but having their stadium on Queens.  The two NFL teams the Jets, and Giants share the same stadium and still go by the title of New York, however the stadium is not even in the state of New York, but rather New Jersey.  New York city is one of the biggest cities in the world, and have found out a way to hold multiple sports teams and yet make it possible to keep everything functioning at a some what smooth level.

 

On the other side of things, some cities run into the problem of having team have to share stadiums, and cross sports.  Until recently, the city of Miami had one stadium to house its MLB, NFL, and college football team.  The Marlins (MLB), Dolphins(NFL) and Hurricanes(NCAA) all share the same stadium, and some how made it all work.  I can just remember as a kid growing up seeing the white pants the Dolphins would wear just covered in a dark reddish brown dirt, because half the field was still the dirt of a baseball field.  It wasn’t until recent years until the Marlins built their own stadium, and gave a big face change to the entire fanchise.  They now go by the Miami Marlins, rather than the Florida Marlins of old, and now have orange colors rather than teal. The sharing of a stadium still occurs in the city of Oakland.  The Oakland Raiders (NFL) share a stadium with the Oakland Athletics (MLB).

In recent news, a financial, and spacing issue has rose in Tampa Bay Florida.  The city holds three professional sports teams, however only two of them are actually in Tampa Bay.  The Tampa Bay Rays play baseball in the MLB, across the bay in St. Petersburg Florida.  The Rays play at Tropicana Field, which is an inclosed dome stadium.  The Rays also have the reputation of never having a good fan base, and yet struggle to sell tickets to their games.  I personally never understood why a Florida team would ever play indoors, leave that for teams up north like Minnesota, or Green Bay.  However from the academic journal “To Build or Not to Build: Examining the Public Discourse Regarding St. Petersburg’s Stadium Plan” Michael J Mondello explains how the city, and franchise is having troubles wanting to build a new stadium.  Mondello explains that the lack of space and funds the project has been stalled.  Mondello explains that the project is projected at $450 million that would be financed by Rays ownership.  Mondello goes on to explain from multiple sources, and bloggers how the fan would want it for a better city image, but the franchise is in fear of not being able to go out and sell tickets.  Furthermore, as of release of the article the project is now stalled until further notice.

To conclude, the cities somehow make enough space to house professional sports teams, whether this means having to share stadiums with other sports teams, or not even in the city they are named after.  Yet all in all somehow it all works out, whatever it takes to keep the fans happy.

Work Cited

Mondello, Michael J., Richard W. Schwester, and Brad R. Humphreys. “To Build Or Not To Build: Examining The Public Discourse Regarding St. Petersburg’s Stadium Plan.” International Journal Of Sport Communication 2.4 (2009): 432-450. SPORTDiscus with Full Text. Web. 2 Dec. 2015.

Stadiums: Home Field Advantage

Home sporting events have become almost religious over the last couple of years.  Whether it is the field, court, or rink, is there really such thing as home field advantage?  Home advantage means that he home team as an clear cut advantage over the visiting team.  Yet teams complete during the season for playoff berths, and sometimes to have home advantage.  This is the case in the National Football League (NFL), National Hockey League (NHL), the National Basketball Association(NBA), Major League Baseball(MLB) and others.  In the NFL teams in the two divisions, the American Football Conference (AFC), and the National Football Conference (NFC) clash against each other, and battle for the six precious playoff spots in each league.  The four division winners, and then the two wild cards.  However, whoever wins the number one seed, will have not only a first round bye, but also home field advantage throughout the playoffs, until the Super Bowl.  This systems works for the NBA, NHL, and MLB.  However it is different for NFL, and MLB teams.  The reasoning behind this is because the majority of the NFL, and MLB are played in outdoor stadiums.  This can cause a clear advantage for the home team simply because of the weather.  An example of this, was in 2001 during the AFC divisional playoff game where the Oakland Raiders battled the New England Patriots in snowy Foxborough Massachusetts.  According too weatherspark.com the average temperature in Oakland California in January is around fifty-five degrees.  Yet in this game is was below freezing, and snow was everywhere.  

I find it interesting that the weather can always play an impact on sporting events.  Whether teams from the west coast come to the east coast during the winter, or southern teams come to the north during winter.  I find this extremely interesting especially in Division One college football.  The South Eastern Conference (SEC) has been the dominant conference, top to bottom throughout history.  Yet the most northern any team in the SEC has to go is Lexington Kentucky, and it is a rare occasion if it gets below forty degrees there.  I have always wanted the blue blood SEC teams like Alabama, LSU, Florida, and South Carolina to have to come up north during December and play teams like Notre Dame, University of Michigan, Penn State, and Ohio State.  I feel like then there really would be a home field advantage to the teams that are accustom to playing in the cold climate rather to the southern teams that are not used to it by any means.

Another argument of whether home field advantage is such thing comes from the academic journal “Location Variations in Professional Football”.  In this journal Jon C Acker discussing whether teams that play in stadiums with domes have more of an advantage than a stadium with an open air roof.  Acker backs his research up by going into into the point spread of the home and visiting teams in professional football games.  Acker explains that this was calculated by 1,568 professional football games between 1988 to 1994.  Acker explains that on average the home team outscore the visiting team by 2.91 points in an open air stadium.  However in closed off dome stadiums the margin of victory was at 3.01 points.  Acker explains that the domed stadiums hold in sound better making it harder for opposing teams to communicate, and in the end making more mistakes that end up costing the game.

I personally can relate to this.  One of the loudest game I ever attended was the San Diego Chargers vs  the Indianapolis Colts, at the RCA dome in Indianapolis Indiana.  This was a special game because at the time Peyton Manning at the chance to break Dan Marino single season passing touchdown record.  I can remember the RCA dome was so loud that my ears were ringing, and yes Manning ended up breaking the record.  This interests me because this year, I attended the Jacksonville Jaguars at the Colts in October.  This was the first time attending the Colts game since the construction of the new Lucas Oil Stadium.  Although the game did not have the expectations of being a historical event, it was still an exciting back and forth game, ultimately ending with a field goal in overtime.  It was no where near as loud as the RCA dome.  The unique structure of the stadium makes it a hybrid stadium.  Meaning it has two huge windows on the north and south ends of the stadium, also with a retractable roof over the top.  It was a warmer day in October so everything was open.  Because of this the sound was not kept in making as loud as the RCA dome, which had no windows.  All in all whether a stadium is cover by a roof, or in the open air with snow flurries, there really is no place like home.

Works Cited

Asker, Jon C. “Location Variation In Professional Football.” Journal Of Sport Behavior 20.3 (1997): 247. SPORTDiscus with Full Text. Web. 2 Dec. 2015.

Weatherspark.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Dec. 2015. <https://weatherspark.com/averages/31096/1/Oakland-California-United-States&gt;.