Iconic Sports Venues

From the Colosseum of Rome to Wrigley Field and Madison Square Garden, iconic sports venues are larger than life. They often exist in a seemingly "sacred" space outside the hustle and bustle of everyday life. At their most basic level, iconic sports venues are revered, idolized, often larger than life. They emanate a sense of persuasion that contributes to how they become meaningful for those who come into contact with them. This book addresses the question of how and why iconic sports venues come to be meaningful. Looking at different venues, the chapters address how the material features of a venue participate in the construction of messages and meanings, in addition to how they influence messages and meanings. Each chapter includes a description of the venue in question; an interpretation of the mystique of the venue; and a discussion of the implications of the interpretation, a set of recommendations for practitioners, or a critique as a result of the interpretation. Representing a unique contribution to the fields of composition, persuasion, and sport management, as well as a timely contribution to the fields of sport rhetoric and communication, the goal of this book is to inspire more scholarly research, essays, and projects focused on the persuasive qualities of sports venues. More broadly, scholars, students, and professionals can use the chapters in this book as models for investigating "iconic" structures both locally and globally.