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Despite an ever-increasing number of alternative sports which have begun encroaching into mainstream sport, the process of commodification of such alternative sports has been little examined. In this article, the author will explore some of the dynamic relationships—the establishment of a “pecking order”—occurring in skateboarding and in-line skating as they become commodified in ESPN's 1995 Extreme Games. The author makes the case that an attempt for mass acceptance of a sport articulates with (a) fan identification with the sport's personalities, (b) modeling behavior of younger participants, (c) corporate sponsorship and embracing of certain sports and individuals over others, and (d) an uneasy, contested dynamic between performers' artistic and competitive impulses.
Robert E. Rinehart (Sun,) studied this question.