A Foundation for Sports Geography

STAGES	ENVIRONMENT
	PERMEABLE BOUNDARIES WEAK RULES OF EXCLUSION No spatial limits; uneven terrain; spatial interaction between "players" and "spectators"; diversified land use.
	ENCLOSURE Limits of pitch defined; players segregated from spectators.
	PARTITIONING Embankments, terraces, grandstands; payment for entry; segregation of spectators by social class; start of segregation within crowd; specialized land use.
	SURVEILLANCE Enclosed ground; synthetic pitch and concrete bowl; TV replay screen; total segregation within crowd; panopticism; diversified land use. RULES OF EXCLUSION STRONG IMPERMEABLE BOUNDARIES

A four-stage model of the evolution of the modern stadium. Lines refer to possible freedoms of movement for players and spectators (from Bale, 1993).

Date: May 11, 02004
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sportsBabel » Momentous: Temporality and Semi-Colons says:
August 15th, 2009
[...] of the key characteristics of modern sport is its boundedness. While this usually implies a boundedness in terms of spatial parameters, it also often implies a bounded temporality as well. A game begins at a particular time and it [...]
sportsBabel » Pixel to Pellicule says:
February 20th, 2010
[...] disciplining of the sporting spectator during the 19th and 20th centuries (as outlined by Bale) serves to render this mass of individuals a temporary layer or component of the stadium [...]
sportsBabel » Pixel to Pellicule to Projection says:
March 21st, 2010
[...] again. The projection of Olympism onto the screen of ponchos completely smoothed the striations of the enclosed stadium layout, creating from their disciplinary subjects the unity of a single [...]
sportsBabel » Charlotte Sometimes (Mudstep Jam) says:
October 28th, 2010
[...] this is not to suggest an absence of disciplinary techniques. The space is highly rationalized: enclosure, partition, rank. Sometimes the plants are given prosthetic braces, sometimes they are kept in cages. There are no [...]