20th Century Britain (1990-1999)

• background

  • urbanisation
  • communication greatly improved
  • more time for leisure & sport
  • scientific & technological innovation
  • wealth increased & unequally shared
• social class

  • sport was divided by social class, such as tennis for upper class & football for lower class
  • amateurism was dominated by the middle class, such as rugby union
  • professionalism was associated with the working class, such as football
  • middle/upper classes associated with public/grammar schools
  • less time & money for working class
• law & order

  • fields of play were enclosed & boundaries were made more formal
  • games were timetabled
  • there were written codes on conduct
  • most cruel sport had disappeared apart from fox hunting & shooting
  • sport held on a saturday not sunday
• gender

  • women were expected to fulfil a traditional role, housewife, therefore having little free time for sport
  • sport was stereotypically masculine
  • women still viewed as the weaker sex
  • crowds at football & rugby games became predominantly male
  • working class women were excluded from professional sport by the constraints of both time & money
• education

  • physical development was a crucial component of the emergence of modern sport
  • part of the schools curricular was PE
  • secondary modern schools also ran a range of sports teams
  • sport was also promoted through extra-curricular activities
• time, money & space

  • with gradual increase in leisure time, men played sport as well as watching
  • space was a key requirement of sport
  • mass population needed entertaining & with increasing free time & disposable income so spectating became popular
  • entertainment value was exploited by regular sporting events using radios & early TV to reach the masses
• transport

  • public & private transport began to be much more available to everyone
  • this made sport accessible & increased the number able to travel to participate/spectate
  • lots of sports & activities became more easily accessible
  • radio coverage encouraged sport as a spectate in the 1940s (rugby, football, boxing cricket)
  • passenger planes became popular in the 1950s
• spectatorism

  • cup & league competitions involved town & area rivalries which gave added purpose & excitement to matched/games
  • growing number of spectators began to be charged to watch in purpose built grounds & stadiums
  • clubs could afford to pay players due to increase in spectators
  • spectatorism soon took over participation