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2018 NASSS Annual Conference
Sport Soundtrack: Sport, Music, & Culture
GY

Grace Yan

University of South Carolina
The Political Economy of Air Pollution and NFL Attendance: A Reflection on Corporate Environmentalism
The Political Economy of Air Pollution and NFL Attendance: A Reflection on Corporate Environmentalism
Environmental practices have become popular among sport leagues and teams. These practices often promote the knowledge that sustainability is good for both the environment and businesses in a marketplace requiring increasing sensitivity to consumers’ environmental concerns (Poncelet, 2004). The NFL recently announced that the league has joined the Green Sports Alliance to support sustainability efforts, including recovering trash on game days, recycling stadium waste, among others (Hermes, 2018). While such practice of “corporate environmentalism” has certainly enabled the NFL to “greenwash” (Lubbers, 2002) their image, it serves to disguise the conflict between sport market behaviors and environmental issues, leaving the fundamental power relations surrounding the sport market, revenue, government, and citizens unchallenged (Wilson, 2012). With these understandings, this study uses a regression model to analyze the relationship between air pollution and sport market behaviors through data collected from the EPA’s air monitors alongside NFL attendance and market metrics. By exploring the economic and political dynamics of the air pollution generated by NFL games, we seek to critique corporate environmentalism which, by pacifying consumers and un-tackling market relations, reinforces the centrality of neoliberal logic and assumptions.