Globalisation, stadiums and the consumerist city. The case of the new Juventus stadium in Turin

Contemporary football is crossed by relevant changes that may be interpreted as outcomes of the globalisation process. The transnational dimension of football, its financialisation, and the normalisation of the supporters’ practices appear as some of the most important outcomes of this process. In this paper, based on the case study of the new Juventus Stadium in Turin, we will explore the transformation of football as a consequence of a specific aspect of globalisation, namely the growing importance of consumption processes in contemporary societies. All over Europe a strong convergence can be observed towards a single model of organisation for football. This model involves the management of clubs and sporting events, and the organisation of specific spaces, i.e. stadiums. After having briefly retraced the genesis of the new Juventus Stadium, the article highlights how the planning choices–about spaces and the activities acted in those spaces–tend to transform the stadium into a place of consumption and to select its visitors on the basis of their spending power. We will also see how the selection mechanisms observed for football fans (in Turin as in many European cities), are then put into practice outside the stadium and correspond to general trends typical of modern global cities.