College Football Grounds at Ohio University: The Development of a Social Anchor

College Football Grounds at Ohio UniversityThe Development of a Social Anchor Chad S. Seifried (bio), Benjamin Downs (bio), and Khirey Walker (bio) Located near the northern bank of the Hocking River, Peden Stadium at Ohio University (OU) received recognition in 2009 as a historical site by the Ohio Historical Society. In that declaration, Peden Stadium, located in Athens, Ohio, was recognized as the “oldest of the Mid-American Conference (MAC) stadiums and one of the oldest of its type in the country.” Opening originally as the Ohio University Athletic Plant in 1929, Peden Stadium was renamed in 1960 to honor former football and baseball head coach and athletic director Don Peden, who worked at the university from 1924 until his retirement in 1949.1 Since its opening, Peden Stadium received many notable renovations inspired by both university and external stakeholders. For instance, the most recent major renovation to Peden Stadium was completed in 2018 when the Perry and Sandy Sook Academic Center opened. Designed by MSA Sport (Cincinnati), the Sook Center cost $7 million to complete and offers classroom space, a computer lab, meeting rooms, and offices for staff who support approximately 425 student-athletes and other student groups that use the facility. For stadium attendees, the Sook Center also adds to the gameday experience by offering new, high quality concession stands, additional restrooms, and other fan and/or hospitality services, such as club space and a reception room.2 [End Page 68] Of note, the Sook Center was constructed in partial fulfillment of Ohio University’s “The Promise Campaign,” which importantly sought to raise $450 million for university students and faculty. OU committed to the Sook Center because their own self-study suggested they were deficient in offering academic space to their student-athletes and that fan amenities were lacking in comparison to contemporary facilities provided by MAC peers. The university believed strongly in a report issued by the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) Committee on Academics, which communicated that the emergence of academic centers leads to higher rates of retention, graduation, and overall academic performance.3 Over time, the construction and subsequent renovation of Peden Stadium through 2018 helped establish the facility as a legitimate and significant social anchor for the campus, region, and university fan nation.4 As a social anchor, Peden Stadium supports its fan nation through cultural activities, such as tail-gating, celebrating, and initiating social dialogue, which in turn help to create, promote, or maintain “social capital, identity (group or individual), and/or social networks.” Sport stadia like Peden Stadium can achieve that status because they often generate interaction. In essence, sport stadia “connect entire communities and . . . provide stability for future development, recruitment, and maintenance of communities or fan nations.”5 Stadia can also become social anchors because students, locales, or organizations often feel pride and identification via place attachment because of the memorable and interactional features they offer.6 Inside sport venues, a variety of individuals and groups engage in multiple activities, often simultaneously, to provide people inside those buildings with nostalgic emotions [End Page 69] and practical knowledge that can eventually produce social capital.7 Next, the emotional links between individuals and groups are established through both an interactional past and interactional potential. Interactional pasts include meaningful and actual lived or virtually consumed experiences with a site, people, and events or activities that occurred there. Interactional potential involves the connection to imagined or anticipated experiences with others through pending events and activities.8 In the case of OU, connections to the university students and events, alumni, and the Athens, Ohio, community can form through the football stadium. Lastly, the notion that Peden Stadium is a unique social anchor for the region, school, and fan nation can be further substantiated by the number of times the stadium is featured in Ohio University video and campus tours, in Athens County tourism videos, and during the regular broadcast of Ohio University football games, not just to the local region but often to national audiences across the country.9 To better understand the assertion that sport facilities can be social anchors, the present study reviews the development of Peden Stadium and explores previous football...