Title: Expressing Fenway: managing and marketing heritage within the global sports marketplace

Authors: Michael T. Friedman, Michael L. Silk

Addresses: Department of Kinesiology, 2146 HHP Building, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA. ' Department of Kinesiology, 2146 HHP Building, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA

Abstract: Within a cluttered and competitive global marketplace, product differentiation has emerged as one of the keys to long-term organisational success. The ||expressive|| (Schultz et al., 2000) turn, emphasising the intangible, or symbolic, (e.g., brand image and heritage), has become vital in this battle for market share…and the imagination of the consumer (du Gay, 2000,p.71). Emblematic of this expressive response to the homogenising tendencies of transnational capital on the production and consumption of sports, we focus on the physical and imagined spaces of Fenway Park, Boston. Through addressing the responses of the Red Sox organisation to the perceived global context within which they operate, the contestations over the space of Fenway Park, and the resultant (and at times problematic) capitalisation and management of heritage as in an intangible marketing resource, we address the efforts to maintain, and sustain, competitive advantage in a global context.

Keywords: branding; heritage; Fenway Park; expressive organisation; global capitalism; global sports marketplace; sport marketing; Red Sox; competitive advantage; globalisation; Major League Baseball; MLB.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSMM.2005.007120

International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 2005 Vol.1 No.1/2, pp.37 - 55

Published online: 27 May 2005 *

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