From the stadium to the fan zone: host cities in a state of emergency

Abstract

This article focuses on the repercussions of EURO 2008 in the city of Zurich and describes the new urban dimension of large‐scale football tournaments, using two complementary developments as a guide: first, the urbanization of football events, since they increasingly involve the host cities and their public spaces; and second, the gradual eventization of the host cities, as they increasingly attempt to use these events to further their own interests. The main thesis is that the stadium has become a spatial prototype for the temporary and long‐term changes observable in urban spaces, projecting its functional, economic, social and regulatory conditions into public spaces. Finally, the text accentuates the ‘state of emergency/state of exception’ as a key phrase in the multilayered discourses around the large‐scale event and its instrumentalization for a city's political and spatial reconfiguration.