Baseball Stadiums and American Audiences
Kenneth H. Marcus
What is happening to America's favorite national pastime? There seems to be something new afoot with baseball stadiums and the audiences who frequent them. A sense of nostalgia characterizes the creation of many new stadiums in the United States, and it accompanies a change in class among the audiences who fill those stadiums. Together, these two aspects are altering a sport that, in the words of cultural historian David Nasaw, traditionally represented a form of social democracy.1 In contrast, baseball today is transforming itself into a middle- and upper-class pastime for audiences, especially families, willing to spend enormous sums to...
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