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arena proposed by Stockholm city, near the Stockholm Globe Arena. The competing
proposals illustrate the fierce struggle over centrality that goes on between city areas,
with sites for culture, sports and shopping as weapons. It is interesting to note that
neither of the local teams involved want such a large ‘national’ arena: AIK as well as
the Stockholm clubs instead preferred a smaller one that would fit their own needs
and be based on ‘club feeling’ for a ‘home field’. There was thus a tension between
local and national interests among politicians as well as sports organizations.
Certainly since the late 1980s, Solna Centre’s management has made concerted
efforts to establish a sports profile for the mall. A large sporting goods store is the
anchor business at the main entrance, and Solna Centre is the only shopping centre
in the Stockholm region to have all the major sports chains represented under its
roof. The plans for expansion and the presence of large sports shops may seem to have
only a tendentious connection to AIK; the sports shops only sell national and global
brands such as Nike, Adidas etc., and exclude the team’s own products. National
sports chains and global brands nevertheless fit into the framework created by the
conjunction of a high-profile local sports team and the local shopping centre.
AIK does have a large product and souvenir shop in the mall, the only one of its
kind in Sweden, where fans can buy clothing and other team memorabilia. These
products are available elsewhere, in a small shop at the Råsunda stadium, over the net
and at Derby, a shop in downtown Stockholm that AIK started together with two
other Stockholm teams. But the AIK shop in Solna Centre is the only equivalent, if
on a smaller scale, to Manchester United’s Megastore, built next to the team’s home
arena, Old Trafford. The active merchandizing of the club brand near the spot the
club calls ‘home’ marks out the place as a potential tourist site. This raises the ques-
tion of similarities between tourism and sport, specifically in their relationship to
place. A tourist souvenir has a direct connection to the place it was purchased; it
symbolizes the place itself and its value resides in the memories it carries of the
tourist’s visit to the place. A souvenir of a sports team may have the same function,
if the fan’s trip to the site can be seen as a sort of pilgrimage to the place his heroes
have their home pitch or have won important victories. But the sports souvenir’s
primary significance is as a marker of identity rather than place. The purchase and
display of items bearing the club brand are acts of consumption that confirm a social
rather than a geographic identity. The sports fan’s relationship to place is more indi-
rect and, at least in the case of AIK fans, more complex.
In order to understand this relationship and its ultimate connection to Solna
Centre, we must make a brief detour into the history of the AIK sports club, briefly
touched upon in the previous chapter. AIK (Allmänna idrottsklubben = Public sports
club) was formed in 1891 to support an array of amateur sports. The club was
initially located on Östermalm in Stockholm, and soccer matches were played on a
number of different arenas, including the sports field in Råsunda before the stadium
was built. In 1912, the soccer team had the newly built Stockholm Stadium as its
home ground and played there until AIK moved to Solna. Most players were
recruited from the Stockholm region, and although players occasionally moved