{"title":"A Security Theater of Dreams: Supporters’ Responses to “Safety” and “Security” Following the Old Trafford “Fake Bomb” Evacuation","authors":"J. Ludvigsen, P. Millward","doi":"10.1177/0193723519881202","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"On May 15, 2016, reports emerged of a “suspect package” inside Old Trafford minutes before kick-off in Manchester United’s game versus Bournemouth. The “suspect package,” causing a full-scale evacuation, and match postponement, turned out to be a “fake bomb” accidently left following a security exercise. Minimal social research investigates responses from supporters to “security” and “safety” at large sports events. Although the “suspect package,” fortunately, never “materialized,” it represents an important case in English football. Theoretically, this study adopts a frame analysis technique pioneered by Erving Goffman and it empirically examines supporters’ responses to security during the chaotic hours of the “fake bomb” incident, as articulated on an interactive message board. Overall, supporters were satisfied with police and security management’s handling of the incident, although it was questioned how the “fake bomb” was not detected. Importantly, supporters agreed that “safety comes first.”","PeriodicalId":47636,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sport & Social Issues","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.5000,"publicationDate":"2020-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"5","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Sport & Social Issues","FirstCategoryId":"95","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0193723519881202","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"HOSPITALITY, LEISURE, SPORT & TOURISM","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 5
Abstract
On May 15, 2016, reports emerged of a “suspect package” inside Old Trafford minutes before kick-off in Manchester United’s game versus Bournemouth. The “suspect package,” causing a full-scale evacuation, and match postponement, turned out to be a “fake bomb” accidently left following a security exercise. Minimal social research investigates responses from supporters to “security” and “safety” at large sports events. Although the “suspect package,” fortunately, never “materialized,” it represents an important case in English football. Theoretically, this study adopts a frame analysis technique pioneered by Erving Goffman and it empirically examines supporters’ responses to security during the chaotic hours of the “fake bomb” incident, as articulated on an interactive message board. Overall, supporters were satisfied with police and security management’s handling of the incident, although it was questioned how the “fake bomb” was not detected. Importantly, supporters agreed that “safety comes first.”
期刊介绍:
Journal of Sport & Social Issues is an indispensable resource that brings together the latest research, discussion, and analysis on contemporary sport issues such as race, media, gender, economics, drugs, recruiting, injuries, and youth sports. Using an international, interdisciplinary perspective, Journal of Sport & Social Issues examines today"s most pressing and far-reaching questions about sport, including: World Cup soccer, gay experience and sport, social issues in sport management, youth sports, sports subcultures. Always provocative, Journal of Sports and Social Issues presents a lively public discussion of the impact of sport on social issues from many perspectives.