The place of the stadium: English football beyond the fans

This paper looks at the way in which perceptions of English football stadiums and the practices that occur in and around them have transformed since the 1980s. Rather than looking at these changing ideas from the perception of the football supporters, the author thinks through these changes from the point of view of the 62% of British adults who do not follow football. She argues that if we are to fully understand the role of sport in society (rather than society in sport) we need to consider those for whom football is central but fandom is optional. To this end she uses the concept of Utopia to analyse the tension between the placeness and placelessness of the stadium for this sector of society. Analysing ideas around hooliganism and the impact of the Hillsborough disaster, this paper argues that the stadium (and by extension football) has been transformed in the public imagination from a dystopic hell to a utopic promise for the future.