Diagram from Eichberg (1998), "Body Culture as Paradigm: The Danish Sociology of Sport," in Bale, J. and Philo, C., Body Cultures: Essays on sport, space and identity. London: Routledge.

The segmented and unsegmented world of theatre and sport (from Bale, 1994).

Let us consider each vector of digital representation at the modern sports space as a thread of what I have termed the silicon silk. A quick list of these threads offers the following:

1. official score heading from scorer's table to a central database
2. score is then syndicated to various web sites in real time
3. surveillance of players by television
4. surveillance of spectators by television
5. surveillance of spectators by closed-circuit cameras (Bale)
6. game replays shown on Jumbotron
7. spectators shown on Jumbotron
8. television camera feeds sent to truck
9. video truck to satellite dish
10. radio coverage
11. bar code scan for tickets at front gate
12. ticket info sent to ERP system
13. cell phone calls out of stadium enclosure
14. cell phone calls into stadium enclosure
15. wireless ordering of food/concessions from spectator seats
16. wireless access to real-time in-game stats
17. aerial surveillance photos in football
18. scorer's computer to the Jumbotron and smaller arena scoreboards
19. scores from other arenas on in-house scoreboards
20. technologies to produce virtual graphics like the 1st-and-10 line in football
21. a referee's use of instant replay during game
22. speed radar gun in baseball
23. RFID chips to measure offsides in soccer
24. RFID chips to measure race times in marathons and other road races
25. GPS technology attached to golf carts

We cannot forget other affiliated threads of silk, which vector away from the chrysalis only to branch back and return again. These include videogames, fantasy sports, gambling markets, scouting videos and more. And of course there are others, some of which I am missing, and some of which haven't been realized at this point.

Does the chrysalis digitalis, the silicon silk that numbs us to conscious engagement with our sporting environment, comprise the fifth stage in Bale's evolution of the modern stadium?

A reminder to myself: while production can be mechanized, automated, and otherwise relegated to machines and computers, CONSUMPTION still requires the desire of the living human being. Thus, the thrust for human beings to live longer lives, not necessarily as "productive" members of society, but rather as "consumptive", or at the very least, "prosumptive" members of society.

Of course, it is the hysteria of aging that is one of the seeds of this desire, so we end up with up with a very profitable symbiotic arrangement, indeed.

The enclosed space of the sports stadium is to be permeated in an upcoming minor league baseball promotion:

Take me out to the ballgame, and let me play a few innings while you're at it. Minor League baseball clubs are known to have some wacky promotions, but the July 16 game at Community America Ballpark in Kansas City, Kansas, is truly unique. Two gamers will get the opportunity to play the Xbox version of Electronic Arts' MVP Baseball 2005 on the park's big screen to determine the score of the first two innings of a game between the home field T-Bones and visiting Schaumberg Flyers. After two "virtual" innings, the real teams will take the field and continue the game where MVP left off. The gamers will be selected through a tournament being held at local CompUSAs, which are co-sponsoring the event.

(via GameSpot, thanks to MurDog)