Von der XY-Kampfbahn zur XY-Arena. Trends und Einflussfaktoren bei wiederkehrenden Wortbildungsmustern am Beispiel von kommerziellen deutschen Stadionnamen
Résumé
Against the background of an increasing commodification of both language itself, and its use in the public sphere, constant changing stadium names are increasingly becoming the focus of academic interest. The aim of this study is therefore to make an initial contribution to the exploration of recurring linguistic constructions that indicate a changing socio-political context using the example of stadium names. To this end, we extract publicly available variables on Transfermarkt.de that influence the naming of stadiums in order to identify salient data-based correlations using statistical means. In this contribution, we focus on football clubs that played in the three professional leagues in Germany during the 2022/2023 season. The results cited confirm and expand on previous studies. Thus, it can be confirmed that the ongoing naming process of German Stadiums continues and is now also being transferred - albeit less radically - to the lower leagues. However, local but even more league-specific characteristics have so far largely ignored in the construction of stadium names. The patterns of word formation of the vast majority of stadium names corresponds to the usual construction in the Germanic language family [sponsor / toponym+ appellative]. Interestingly, the percentage distribution of the appellatives used - Arena, Stadion, Park - is the same across the three professional German leagues. In addition, the (uneven) distribution of linguistic categories by league affiliation also confirms that sponsors do not acquire stadium naming rights at random, but rather those that increase the visible and audible reach of the naming sponsor due to the expected sporting success of the home team. Finally, our analysis confirms the importance of the factors attendance capacity, year of construction and ownership in the word formation of stadium names.