More than a year after I got in trouble with the Russian Migration Service and the FSB, and 11 months after I was featured in some trashy and sensational articles that claimed I was a foreign agent bent on disrupting the 2018 World Cup, here I am back in the news once again. I’m reluctant to give these people any more clicks, but here we go anyway: so, alongside some fine journalists and scholars (and, unfortunately, some less scrupulous journalists…
Kirill Bezrukov (@KBezrukov) pointed me to this beautiful example of savvy business in Kaliningrad. There’s a bridge (Vysokiy Most, or High Bridge) that connects the main parts of Kaliningrad to Oktyabrskiy Ostrov, a quirky, mostly undeveloped island in the middle of the city. Among other things, the city’s World Cup development agenda involves transforming this island into a viable part of the city. So the new 35,000 seat World Cup stadium is sited there, and other developments are slated to…
In preparation for my talk at this year’s American Association of Geographers annual conference I’ve been thinking about Sochi several years after the Olympics. I think it’s worth taking a look at the city after the circus has left town, when the international spotlight has largely moved on to other events and other places. Sochi 2014 was never just about the sport. Beyond the aspirations to reframe public perceptions of Russia inside and outside the nation, there was a clear attempt…
In April this year I had the opportunity to give a talk at Smith College with Martin Müller and Chris Gaffney. The event was called Sport Mega Events and Urban Development: Cases of Brazil 2014, Rio 2016, Sochi 2014, Russia 2018, and it was hosted by Andrew Zimbalist. If you don’t know him, Andrew is a sports economist, hugely accomplished, a very friendly man and admirably prolific. After the talk, Andrew took us out for dinner. And over beers he started…
In June, I was detained in Volgograd and questioned by the Russian migration authorities and the FSB. I was lucky, all things considered, even though the experience was extraordinarily unpleasant. I know that many others have had it much worse, particularly those Russians who might have differing or minority opinions and may try to effect change based on expressing those views. I was hopeful that the issue was merely one of local authorities flexing their muscles, and that with time…
Mega-events are mega expensive – this is nothing new. And while there are exhaustive lists of the high costs of preparing for the Olympics or the World Cup, there is also evidence that in some cases these are better understood not as the costs of a sporting event, but rather as massive development projects with a sporting event attached. In my view, there is some validity to this argument. In Russia, for example, the 2018 World Cup is clearly being…
Written in a Volgograd café in the aftermath of being questioned by the migration authorities and the FSB I’ve been involved with Russia for a long time. I’ve lived here for several years in total, but even when this country wasn’t my home, I would come for extended visits every year. I’m not naïve. I know how hard the systems are in this country, how too often they are dysfunctional and demeaning, but I also know how beautiful things can…
If you’re feeling critical, it’s easy enough to find problems in the preparations for a World Cup. In seemingly any host nation, journalists and academics alike find ripe fruit in bribery and corruption scandals, tales of misused funds and human rights violations, busted budgets, and the sad parade of white elephant stadiums. In this, unfortunately, developments in Russia for the 2018 World Cup are no exception. But what I find interesting in recent Russian news is a tricky maneuver that…
Here is another article I wrote for Futblograd.com, this time focusing on developments in the host city of Ekaterinburg. http://futbolgrad.com/russias-world-cup-stadium-urban-development-ekaterinburg/
An article I wrote for Futbolgrad.com about some issues to look for in the 2018 World Cup. http://futbolgrad.com/russias-2018-world-cup-conversation-beyond-sport/