My master's thesis at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville works off of the assumed connection between regional identity in the US South and SEC football fandom. One facet of this fandom as an expression of regional identity and pride is a fan's attendance at the games themselves. I used GIS and PostgreSQL database technologies along with a complete ticketing dataset from the 2014-19 seasons of Tennessee football geolocated at the ZIP-code level to map just from where Volunteer fans come to games.
This type of fandom and identity expression is not, however, inconsequential. Using existing emissions values from existing tourism literature, I approximated a carbon footprint associated with Tennessee football gameday travel. Given our current worldwide climate crisis, it is imperative that we assess what types of human activities contribute to the process. Tourism is a known global economic sector that significantly contributes to climate change, and this study, using geographic quantitative methods and data, presents a new and more precise way of approximating greenhouse gas emissions associated with tourism and spectator travel.
This study argues then that place-based identity is not to be dismissed as it has grounded, tangible, and real consequences. Through an evaluation of how Southern college football tourism affects the environment, we can consider how ideas and theories such as fandom, the region, and identity can affect the world around us.
J. A. Cooper (2020). “Making orange green? A critical carbon footprinting of Tennessee football gameday tourism.”Journal of Sport & Tourism 24(1): 31-51. https://doi.org/10.1080/14775085.2020.1726802.
J. A. Cooper (2020). Making Orange Green? A Critical Geographic Approach to Carbon Footprinting Tennessee Football Tourism. Master’s Thesis, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/5629/