Developing the Concept of Financial Modernization within a Historical Review of College Football Stadium Construction

The present study examined the financing approaches employed by football-playing institutions in the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) 1869 to 2025. The goal of the current research aims to contribute to the literature on modernization by presenting a process of financial modernization. Previously, the notion of financial modernization has only been inferred and not explained or theorized. To date, the researchers discovered cost information on roughly 76.4% of the 2,834 new construction or renovation projects produced by the sample. Using a sport-based historical research approach, a seven-stage ideal-type was developed to showcase the evolution of financing practices and to inform the development of a process model of financial modernization. The process model developed for this study was inspired by previous scholarship focused on explaining the modernity of financial systems. The present explanation of financial modernization shows it to be complementary of both reflective and ecological modernization.