The Arts 26, American Football 21
The playwright Mark Ravenhill has written a much-needed piece in the Guardian (access the full essay here) about how politicians worry “that an enjoyment of the arts will mark them out as elitist. And yet, statistics tell us, far more of us are attending live performances than are going to football matches.” Ravenhill is writing about Great Britain, where the government provides proportionately more direct subsidy to culture than it does in the United States. But one could make a similar case in this country, beginning with this statistic: more people visited museums in the U.S. in 2005 than attended college or professional football games. Of course, the enormous advantage football and other sports hold is their dominance of television viewing. But it’s always worth keeping in mind that when people have to drag their behinds off their couches, millions of them do imbibe culture.
