Cultural Tourists and Cultural Trends: Commercialization and the Coming of the Storm

Abstract

This paper constructs a brief history of British ice hockey and The Manchester Storm (the self-proclaimed largest ice hockey club outside of North America), focusing specifically on the re-emergence and commercialisation of the sport in the 1990s. The paper argues that ice hockey has a long (but marginalized history) within British culture, but has always been heavily tied to North America in both its style of presentation and in its personnel. However, the 1990s has seen a specific move towards a more, family-based, ‘affluent working class’ core of supporters, and a popularity based largely upon the novelty and ‘family-orientated’ entertainment that surrounds the sports event. A popularity, which I suggest, may be reducing as the novelty of the sport begins to fade with many of its supporters, and these ‘cultural tourist’ move onto new and fresher (cultural) pastures.