As a new book highlights, the game has evolved over time and continues to bridge many divides
“Cricket is not simply consumed,” Gideon Haigh said at the height of the ball tampering scandal. “It’s nurtured.” The perils of treating sport like a brand and a mass entertainment industry is a recurring theme in his work. “The weird cult of ‘fans first’,” he writes, “is actually shorthand for ‘consumers first’.”
The AFL is not a sport. It’s a brand. And 2018 has been a rotten year for the brand. Women’s football been further marginalised. Grass roots football is increasingly impoverished. The score review system is a fiasco. The Gold Coast experiment is a black hole. Rule changes are afoot, but there’s little consensus on what should be done. Last year’s No 2 draft pick is currently eating through a straw.
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