If You Build It, They Will Speak: Public Stadiums, Public Forums, and Free Speech

ROOT, ROOT, ROOT Baseball and freedom of speech are American icons, latter a central element of former. (1) During seventh-inning stretch fans reiterate ancient injunction to root, root for home (2) scoreboard, organist, and players encourage fans to make noise and to actively participate in game. Somewhere in crowd is a man in a rainbow wig carrying a John 3:16 sign. (3) The Wave, in which fans in successive sections of park stand and raise their arms in unison, expresses some message, although I do not understand what that is or why anyone feels a need to express it. (4) Fans engage in what I term speech. (5) Cheering speech is about teams, players, coaches, officials, team executives, or other fans. It supports, opposes, cheers, jeers, praises, criticizes, heckles, and even taunts. It can be in support of one's own players and team, be against opposing players and team (a distinct message), or even be critical of one's own players and team. It can be about events field or about baseball in a broader social context. Cheering speech can be oral, symbolic, or written signs, banners, clothing, and body parts. It can be positive, negative, and everything in between. It can be in good taste or bad, clean or profane, provocative and clever or otherwise. And it will be loud. First Amendment protection for cheering speech comes from two directions. First, speech about baseball is important in its own right. Baseball is a societal force, a symbol of American society, psyche, and aspirations. (6) Baseball is American culture--low culture perhaps, but culture nonetheless, with pervasive and meaningful appeal. (7) As federal grand jury investigating 1919 Black Sox Scandal stated, baseball is American institution, having its place prominently and significantly in life of people. (8) Cheering speech is protected as expression that builds a culture on all areas of human learning and knowledge. (9) From other direction cheering speech has political content; it often is pure political speech matters of public import made in particularized context of a baseball game. Political speech of criticizing U.S. president becomes cheering speech if done when president appears at ballpark to throw out first pitch. Cheering speech is protected for its connection to and role in larger public discourse. IF YOU BUILD IT Ballparks are part of mythology of baseball; these are green cathedrals in which religion of baseball is observed, with such timeless nicknames as Friendly Confines and the House That Ruth Built. (10) Major League Baseball franchises have entwined themselves in political process through public financing of places in which games are played. (11) From late 1980s until 2004 no fewer than twenty ballparks were either built or renovated exclusively or partially for Major League Baseball teams (eleven between 1999 and 2004), with approximately two-thirds of funds from public coffers. (12) impetus for this massive public undertaking often is an existing team's threat to leave city; other times it is an attempt by a city to attract a new or existing team. (13) Major League Baseball insists that essential to fielding a competitive team is a new, retro, nostalgic, postmodern, baseball-only park located in a downtown area and with seats close to field. (14) Teams demand additional new park creates to be profitable off field and to have money to compete for high-priced superstar players who will enable team to be successful field. (15) result is a public-private partnership in stadium financing, with public putting a large amount of money up front and team garnering nontraditional revenues generated by special features of modern ballparks. …

Récupéré en direct depuis OpenAlex et désinversé. Les résumés ne sont pas conservés dans cette base de données : les index inversés représentent 8,6 Go des 9,3 Go de texte de la base, et le serveur dispose de 13 Go libres.