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

The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Heritage Research

“…Venue tours of the Molson (né Bell) Centre re-enforce the venue's inherited heritage values through the explicit inclusion of artefacts, plaques, museum displays and narratives about former players and games -many of which occurred at the old venue (Personal tour, 2012). Gammon and Fear (2007) also describe how tours of the new Millennium Stadium in Cardiff feature narratives about Cardiff Arms Park, the former Welsh national stadium, while Ramshaw and Gammon (2010) explain how tours of Twickenham Stadium emphasize the history and heritage of the stadium despite the venue being, for all intents and purposes, a contemporary stadium after numerous renovations and upgrades. Even sports venues with little history and few notable events will, in effect, borrow heritage narratives from other, better-established stadia for use during tours ).…”

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

“…Belanger (2000), for example, describes the transfer heritage -both tangible and intangible -from the historic Montreal Forum to the new Molson Centre in Montreal, arguing that the new venue seamlessly 'inherited' the heritage meanings of the old venue. Tour narratives in the studies by Ramshaw and Gammon (2010), Gammon and Fear (2007) and Wright (2012) primarily espouse legacy, continuity, and heritage, despite the fact that the toured stadia are either very new or have undergone extensive contemporary renovations. Links to heritage, therefore, could be achieved partly through the tangible historic artefacts prominently displayed during tours (e.g.…”

“…Ramshaw and Gammon's (2010) examination of the Twickenham Stadium, for example, found that the tours produced several consistent constructions of the stadium as a type of home, be it of the national team, the sport, or a repository for national identity. Similarly, Gammon and Fear's (2007) exploration of Millennium Stadium tours found that the tour narratives were strongly tied to explorations of Welsh sport, culture, and identity.…”

“…Most stadium tours will include some level of viewing backstage locations such as team dressing rooms, players' benches, media centres, and luxury suites. Some tours allow close access to the playing surfaces (though rarely on the playing surface), and often tours begin and end with some form of retail opportunity, normally at the team's or stadium's souvenir store (Ramshaw & Gammon, 2010). Tours, then, offer those that visit them the prospect to cross the symbolic boundaries that distinguish the worlds of the audience and the worlds of the performer or privileged.…”

Olympic legacy and cultural tourism: exploring the facets of Athens’ Olympic heritage

“…This is also connected with the construction of sport heritage that cities exploit through the use of sport and sports venues as heritage tourism attractions (Gammon and Ramshaw, 2007;Ramshaw, 2010;Ramshaw and Gammon, 2010). However, the interest of the public may wane as time passes after the Games and attention is directed towards new Olympic cities.…”