Abstract
This chapter considers how stadia fill a significant social space in the lives of sports fans and athletes. Sport scholars have examined stadia in terms of their cultural significance as public spaces, contributing to both identity and heritage. Yet commodification, corporate naming, public subsidation, and relocation have worked to erode the aforementioned social attributes of stadia. Building upon that tradition, this work documents how one particular stadium, Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, has become a significant feature of the US–Mexico Men’s National Team soccer rivalry. An exploration of how the US media through print, broadcast, and web content have promoted a particular mythology of the Azteca as a once impenetrable fortress and signifier of Mexican dominance in the US–Mexico soccer rivalry is provided. An analysis of media content illustrates that several recurrent themes infuse the Azteca stadium with a socially significant role in the rivalry narrative.
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Kassing, J.W. (2017). An (Im)penetrable Fortress: The Mythology of Estadio Azteca in the US–Mexico Men’s National Team Soccer Rivalry . In: Kassing, J., Meân, L. (eds) Perspectives on the U.S.-Mexico Soccer Rivalry. Global Culture and Sport Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55831-8_8
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