Play in the Australian Football League is not what it was. At the game’s founding Australian football was exactly what the AFL’s Latin motto tells us it is today – ‘the game of the people for the people’. In its formative years it was played and watched by Australians who loved the game because they understood the way it was played. It was made by them in the image of their community. However in the age of commercialisation and professionalism play in the AFL has changed. The AFL is now a big business. Play is less spontaneous and more structured. It is now more organised and measured. Footy Grounds to Grandstands examines the important link between play in the AFL and its communities and explores how play and community have changed as the AFL has transformed into a multi-billion-dollar business. To do this Footy Grounds to Grandstands draws on the ideas of theorists and scholars as well as the insights and reactions of the people who matter most – the fans.
