A DECISIVE, BUT NON-ENDING GAME

THE DISPUTE FOR THE CITY’S SENSE ON SOCCER STADIUMS

Abstract

Considering the possibility of recognizing a soccer stadium as a city’s time-space, we examine its undergoing transformations, such as privatization, elitization, as well as an increased control over various bodies, within the contemporary urban capitalist production context. In order to ensure total fulfillment of the proposed merchandise, a rising normative apparatus aims to eliminate, or rather, subjugate popular uses and practices, in favor of behaviors geared towards passive consumption. The new stadium turns up as an area where the sense of the city is disputed, through the process of spectacularization and the growing imposition of exchange value over the value of use in social spaces, though also displaying signs of resistance from football fandom.