Sport's Relationship with Other Leisure Industries by Dion Georgiou Benjamin Litherland

Author:Dion Georgiou, Benjamin Litherland [Dion Georgiou, Benjamin Litherland]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780367109288
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 41879960
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-01-04T00:00:00+00:00

The EXPO: A coming-together of a globalized lifestyle community

In its capacity as the largest bodybuilding and fitness industry event of the year, the EXPO is an integral aspect of the Mr Olympia Weekend. A considerable business venture in its own right, the EXPO has been held at the Mandalay Bay Convention Centre (1999–2004) and the Las Vegas Convention Centre (2005–present). Apart from the extensive infrastructures, a hallmark of Las Vegas's conventions industry, which accounts for a considerable part of the city's economy, promoters of the event make use of local companies and services specializing in trade shows, corporate events and exhibit installation.

Looking at the format of the EXPO experience, one could identify it as one of a variety show. Thus, apart from the formal spectacles/competition events around which the Mr Olympia weekend is predominantly structured, and which are held in the main arena, a range of other smaller shows are hosted in the space of the EXPO. Entries in recent years have included Men's Fitness Ultimate Athlete, Flex Bikini Model Search, Pro Powerlifting Championship, Olympia Grappling, Muscle & Fitness Model Search, MHP's Olympia Strongman Challenge, Kick-boxing, Olympia's Military Xtreme Fit Challenge, Olympia Arm Wars Super Series (including Gunfighter Super Matches, Super Heavyweight World Title super match, and Heavyweight Battleground), and Olympia Sumo Open.21 The precedent for this opening-up of the sport competition and exhibition format currently witnessed in the Mr Olympia weekend was set by its rival event in the industry, the Arnold Sports Festival. The latter now hosts more than 40 different sports that have eclipsed in participation and attendance numbers the Arnold Classic; that is, the bodybuilding contest that used to be at the heart of it all. In both the Mr Olympia and Arnold EXPOs fan participation in some of these competition events is presented as part of the total experience. Particularly emphasized in the last few years of the Olympia weekend, this aspect fits a wider culture of participatory forms of entertainment in the Las Vegas context.

Importantly, many of the shows are presented as demos, in other words exhibitions whose objective is to provide not only entertainment but education, too. ‘Edutainment’ appears in effect to be one of the central concepts around which the EXPO experience is assembled. The vast floor is taken up by companies exhibiting the greatest array of products and systems of bodybuilding, not merely as embodied practice but full-blown lifestyle. My participant observation at this and other events of the same nature corroborated what all my respondents claimed: that is, in their vast majority, visitors are practitioners of bodybuilding themselves.22 Subsequently, they are attuned to the requirements of recreation as a domain for self-reform, approaching such events as an opportunity to see up close and use the latest developments in bodybuilding technologies. Ranging from nutrition supplements to training equipment and apparel for beginners and advanced practitioners alike, these technologies are framed with the same rhetoric and imagery that applies to the ‘elite’, ‘extraordinary’ bodies of the culture: novel, spectacular, state-of-the-art, propelling the boundaries of human nature towards bigger and better things.

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