Gregory Ramshaw

Living Heritage and the Sports Museum: Athletes, Legacy and the Olympic Hall of Fame and Museum, Canada Olympic Park

Museums are sites of cultural production, although what kind of culture they produce, and to what end, has changed considerably in recent years. Many displays and exhibitions are now constructed in order to meet the specific economic and cultural agendas of their host organizations. Sports museums, in particular, utilize a variety of exhibition displays for numerous practical and pragmatic reasons, often to construct or espouse notions of legacy. This study examines the Olympic Hall of Fame and Museum at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. This museum uses a number of different display mechanisms in constructing legacy, including providing visitors with the opportunity to watch the training sessions of elite Olympic athletes as part of their museum visit, as well as the chance to ‘become’ athletes themselves through sport-simulation displays. Through these different types of displays, this museum positions its host site, Canada Olympic Park, as a current and relevant tourist attraction and integral sport training facility, rather than simply an artefact of a distant Olympic Games. What this museum reveals is that when legacy is a central output of heritage construction, the past – be it historical or otherwise – is only relevant in terms of its relation to the present and future.

On home ground? Twickenham Stadium Tours and the construction of sport heritage.

Constructions of home are powerful from both heritage and tourism perspectives, as ‘home’ suggests a certain type of heritage precedence while also providing a competitive tourism advantage over rival locations. Sport tourism sites also disseminate notions of home as part of their narrative, both to create and solidify particular heritage claims as well as to enhance the tourism potential of a location. Home narratives are used, in particular, during stadium tours, where tourists go ‘behind the scenes’ at a famous sports venue. Tour narratives at Twickenham Stadium were examined in this study. At Twickenham, it was found that the stadium was represented as ‘home’ during tours in three different ways: as the literal home of the English National Rugby team; as the spiritual home of the sport of rugby; and as the home of particular notions of English identity. These representations were created as a means of claiming cultural propriety, particularly with regard to the sport and its heritage, as well as in recognition of the venues role as an international tourism destination. However, the employment of home narratives, which espouse notions of stability and continuity, also mask wider heritage and tourism anxieties, in particular competition from rival sites.

Acquired pasts and the commodification of borrowed heritage: the case of the Bank of America Stadium tour

Contemporary understandings of heritage and heritage tourism have viewed ‘heritage’ as more than just tangible objects and places but also the social values and practices associated with things and places of heritage. As such, sports heritage venues often emphasize the history of the sport or the team to sustain the legacy of the place and create a meaningful experience for the visitors. However, stadiums that are relatively new lack the ‘recognizable’ heritage that could be incorporated into their stadium tour narratives. To understand different forms of heritage construction, this study examines tours of the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, home of the Carolina Panthers of the National Football League (NFL). Being a stadium with little history, its tour narratives are not rooted in the heritage of the venue itself but rather in the more intangible traditions, language, and rituals of NFL fandom. In particular, the stadium tour espouses the identity, experience and performance of being an NFL fan, providing patrons an opportunity to not only reflect on their past spectator experiences, but also to create new personal/collective heritage through continued consumption. In addition, the tour borrows heritage from other NFL-based heritage markers in order to reinforce the authenticity of the location and experience, seemingly until such time that the facility and team can establish a recognizable and commodifiable ‘home-grown’ heritage.

Examining the Olympics: heritage, identity and performance

Sport is undoubtedly a central part of culture. As MacGregor (2006, p. ix) states, ‘it is impossible to know a people until you know the game they play. To understand America, you need to know football. To understand Brazil, soccer’. It would therefore be quite tempting to encapsulate the entirety of a people in terms of a sport: rugby union is an essential aspect of New Zealand culture, just as ice hockey is in Canada, and cricket in India. As we know, however, American, Brazilian, New Zealand, Canadian and Indian cultures are far more complex than their sports alone; thus, it would seem foolish to exclude other cultural practices from an understanding of these nations and their societies. This, for us, presents a clear rationale for considering the nexus between sport, identity and performance, which, we suggest, can be viewed through the lenses offered by a range of heritage and cultural practices. Indeed, it strikes us as odd that, until recently, few discussions of heritage and its relationships to sport could be found within academic circles. Perhaps, though, this should not come as too great a surprise, given that sport seemingly sits so uncomfortably within wider heritage concerns. Indeed, as Moore (2008) points out, in places such as the UK, sport is not readily accepted within the ‘heritage-scape’, in large part due to the tensions that continue to swirl around and between popular culture and the ‘high culture’ of traditional heritage sites like museums. This is a conclusion shared by Gammon (2007, p. 3), who has argued that ‘there may well be an air of triviality connected to sports and indeed a perception of its apparent ubiquity that renders it unworthy of protection and consideration’. The heritage field is by no means alone in this assumption. Historians, too, have often taken umbrage with sport heritage, arguing that public representations are primarily concerned with celebration, veneration and nostalgia, rather than a critical examination of complex sporting pasts (Kidd 1996). Perhaps this discomfort stems from the fact that sport heritage is ‘recent’ and thus falls victim to a broader propensity to eschew and ignore contemporary pasts in traditional heritage circles. Or, perhaps, it is because sport is susceptible to what Snyder (1991) calls ‘flashbulb memories’, the saturation of sports’ coverage in line with our willingness, desire even, to ‘re-live’, memorialise and nostalgise sporting pasts that reside outside of personal living memories.

Heritage sport tourism in Canada

The objective of this paper is to illustrate the opportunities and challenges of heritage sport tourism by examining (1) the Arctic Winter Games and (2) the Canadian Football League as heritage sport tourism attractions in Canada. A review of the heritage sport tourism literature provides the context for this assessment. Key opportunities were found in (1) the manifestation of sport as a meaningful form of culture; (2) sports impact on collective identity and by extension – destination image and (3) unique connections of sport heritage to place that can be positioned for competitive advantage. The central challenges include those associated with (1) processes of globalization and (2) the fragmented nature of the heritage sport tourism industry.

Homecoming or tourism? Diaspora tourism experience of second-generation immigrants

ABSTRACT Diaspora tourism is often considered a form of ‘homecoming,’ but for the children of immigrants who are born in the new country, the question remains as to whether they perceive their parents’ homeland as ‘home’ or destination. Moreover, advancements in transportation and communication technologies allow contemporary immigrants to maintain transnational ties to their homeland, which in turn may affect the nature of diaspora tourism. The purpose of this study is to understand the lived experience of second-generation immigrants when they travel to their ancestral homeland, and explore the extent to which second-generation transnationalism shapes their diaspora tourism experiences. Using a phenomenological approach, 26 second-generation Chinese-Americans who had the experience of traveling in China were interviewed. Four themes were identified from semi-structured interviews: language and appearance, search for authenticity, family history, and sense of ‘home.’ Proficiency in their parental language was found to be a main cause of negative experiences, yet occasionally a source of pride and attachment. Their search for authentic experiences was not unlike other tourists, while familial obligations sometimes limited their experience. Traveling back to the homeland not only allowed them to understand their parents and family history, but also reflect upon their life through experiencing contemporary China. Finally, as the transnational attachment of second-generation immigrants was not rooted in a specific locale, they could feel connected to the homeland without actually visiting their familys place of origin. Findings contribute to transnationalism and diaspora tourism literature by comparing first- and second-generation immigrants and identifying the difference between contemporary transmigrants and classic diaspora groups with regard to their diaspora tourism experience.

The marginalisation of Paralympic heritage

The impact of the Paralympic Games and disability sport upon the lives of people with disabilities and the perceptions of non-disabled society regarding people with disabilities has been immense. Yet examples of this disability sport and Paralympic heritage are all but invisible amongst the wider area of sports heritage. This paper will attempt to outline some of the possible reasons why this might be the case and cite some examples of how this apparent marginalisation of Paralympic heritage might be overcome as we move forward beyond the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

A conceptual model for nostalgia in the context of sport tourism: re-classifying the sporting past

The concept of nostalgia is complex and difficult to measure, in part because of its diverse emotional perspectives. Various authors have attempted to classify aspects of nostalgia to further describe this phenomenon and understand its broader application. However, the nostalgia that sports fans experience, particularly in a tourist context, appears to be unique from its other types and forms. This difference is in part because the relationship between sport – and, by extension, sport-related travel – and nostalgia appears to be distinct. To address this issue, this paper provides a classification and a conceptual model to clarify the concept of nostalgia in the context of sport tourism. Specifically, this research suggests a four-way classification of nostalgia in sport tourism: (1) experience, (2) socialization, (3) personal identity, and (4) group identity. In addition, the conceptual model shows the process of the development of nostalgia by emphasizing the importance of the types of experience. The classification and model suggested in this paper are important for future empirical research to accurately measure the concept of nostalgia and to understand it in the context of sport tourism.

Heritage and Sport

Heritage and sport have a long history, though it is only recently that this relationship has been examined in any great detail. Timothy (2011) argues that sport has played a central role in various cultures and societies for millennia, while the relics, events and locations of the sporting past are celebrated, venerated and protected like any other type of heritage. Bale (2000) further notes that sports teams and athletes hold a special place in the community in which they play, while sport sites, such as stadia and sporting venues, are imbued with special cultural meanings by supporters. However, the relationship between sport and heritage has only come into focus within the past generation. This chapter explores the connections between sport and heritage, noting that the primary focus of sport heritage has been touristic consumption. We then examine sport heritage through recognizable attractions, namely sports museums and halls of fame, sports stadia and sporting venues, heritage-based sporting events, and sport-based fantasy camps, as well as through personal sport heritage journeys. Finally, we consider the future directions for the heritage/sport relationship, both inside and outside of touristic use.

Transnational leisure experience of second-generation immigrants: the case of Chinese-Americans.

Abstract Technological advancements have enabled contemporary immigrants to live in two worlds and maintain virtual and physical contact with their country of origin through leisure and tourism. While the transnational practices of first-generation immigrants have been well established, the extent of transnational leisure in the native-born second generation has not been explored. The purpose of this study is to examine the transnational practices of second-generation immigrants, specifically their leisure activities. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 26 second-generation Chinese-Americans on their immigrant background and transnational leisure experience. Findings revealed two distinct patterns in their transnational leisure: 1) the contrast between “traditional” versus “contemporary,” and 2) the progression from “ways of being” to “ways of belonging.”