Sports = Culture
When traveling, taking in a local team's vibe is key.
If you’re a friend of mine in real life (or IRL as the kids say), I’m going to apologize for this week’s sandwich in advance. Why? Because I’ve shoehorned what I’m about into talk about in about every conversation I’ve had about ‘global citizenry.’ The rest of you are in for a treat, I suppose. But not like a freshly baked good treat, more like that sticky strawberry bonbon that was in every grandma’s purse back in the day:
The world we live in is both big and small. It can take days to get from one side of the globe to the other, but at the same time you realize that most people on the planet want the same thing. Whether it’s the feeling of being safe, a healthy sense of community, gainful employment, or a place to blow your money on if you’re about that life, nobody is truly living different lives. And I feel retail stores and experiences kind of follow suit. I’ve been traveling “in earnest” since 2022, and I’ve seen a lot of things that a conspiracy theorist would believe prove we’re living in a simulation. American fast food chain Five Guys is in England, Japanese clothing brand Uniqlo is available in the United States, and Gucci is available in the United Arab Emirates. The days of going to a far-off land and bringing back something unique are getting more difficult when most things are indeed made in China. While that could put a damper on taking a slice of the world home with you, I’ve learned a workaround that I just love talking about: Sports Tourism.
The long and short of it is this: One year I was in the UK in a town called Bath, and all of the souvenirs in the city didn’t really speak to me. Nothing really looked like “I’ve been there.” I stumbled into the Bath Rugby club shop, and it hit me. Yes, team merchandise is also made abroad, but if you’re with a team small/unique/quirky enough, it more or less becomes a local purchase. Alternatively, if you visit the grounds of a team, it’s like you’ve stumbled across a living anthropological museum of a particular community. Since then I’ve traveled abroad and seen all 30 Major League Ballparks:
30 For 30: Quest to see America Through Baseball Parks Complete
When I decided to traverse the country (and Toronto) to see all of Major League Baseball’s ballparks, I had…
I actually had a similar experience on a recent trip to Madrid, Spain. Real Madrid is the global brand that was the long-term home of Cristiano Ronaldo, but I was immediately drawn to the crosstown rivals Atletico Madrid. Now, “Atleti” isn’t a small team by any means, but it is the one you don’t hear about as often, and as a Mets fan, I was instantly drawn to that second-team-in-town energy. What I got to see was a club that quietly (and sometimes loudly) really was a part of a city community for 100 years and really was an eye-opening experience about the layers of soccer in a given soccer town.
What I like about sports tourism is that you can either take it “really small,”. That is, maybe catching a game with a discount ticket. Or, you can go really “big” with it: hospitality suites, stadium tours, clearing out the merchandise stand, signing up to be in the fan club. Either way, you typically walk away with a localized experience around where you are.
I mean more or less. More and more we got these private equity firms ruining sport, but that’s another tale for another time. Indeed, majority owner of Atletico Madrid, Apollo Sports Capital, just signed on to be a minority owner of the New York Yankees so you can forget the image of a sole mom and/or pop running these things:
They don’t even look like my dad.
In either event, if you’re traveling into a new town and you have only a couple of days to spend. I recommend a four-prong approach: 1) a walking or guided tour to get the lay of the land 2) a touristy landmark/activity 3) a local landmark/activity and 4) a view of the local sports scene. I suppose you can swap the fourth one for music or “mAkInG nEw fRiEnDs,” but ugh, I’d never.
Who needs friends when you got signed Bon Jovi jerseys…?