Applying Habermas to Sport

Abstract

Rugby league’s heartlands are the small towns of the north of England, the towns and villages of south-west France, and the working-class communities of Queensland and New South Wales in Australia. Before the collapse of England’s heavy industries, rugby league clubs had strong associations with the work of their supporters. Many amateur rugby league clubs relied on local factories for financial support and sports facilities. Professional rugby league clubs were sponsored by the local factories, and their players found employment there. A large number of English professional rugby league clubs were in mining areas: Wigan, Saint Helens and Leigh in south-west Lancashire; Workington and Whitehaven on the Cumberland Coast; and the West Riding of Yorkshire’s Castleford, Featherstone and Wakefield. Even in Leeds, there were mines on the south side of the city, and the last one survived until the end of the Miners’ Strike in 1985. Other clubs were in towns associated with other heavy industries: Widnes owed its existence to the ICI Chemical Works that gave the club their nickname; Hunslet was in a part of Leeds famous for its railway engineering; Dewsbury and Batley were part of an area still known as the Heavy Woollen, dominated by textiles.