Sports Mega Events

For many years there has been wide recognition of the economic impact that major

sports events can generate in attracting visitors and event-related construction

investment. This article seeks to provide a brief overview of the key approaches that

have been used to assess the economic impact of major events over the past two

decades including multiplier analysis, input
–
output modelling, and computable

general equilibrium (CGE) modelling. The article also discusses some of the

advantages and disadvantages of these approaches. In order to provide a platform for

future research that draws upon existing research, the article then presents the

findings
of a meta analysis undertaken to examine the key patterns in economic

assessments of major events based on previous studies reported in the literature.

These reviews have been
classified
into three stages that are ordered chronologically

and it can be seen that the range of issues covered, the depth of analysis, and the

comprehensiveness of the evaluations increased across these three stages. This article

finally
summarises the key advances in approach that were made across these stages

and proposes a future research agenda.

Using a life stories approach to examine the career path of volleyball legend Lang Ping, this article analyzes how the " narrative self " is constructed in her growth into a transnational sports leader. Situated in China's sports media culture, the article examines major components of authentic leadership development in her coaching career, including leader self-awareness/self-regulation, leadership practice/follower development, and sustained performance. While the media narratives around her success ranged from patriotism and professionalism to Olympic spirit over the decades, she has maintained a reflective perspective in her identity articulation and engaged in transformative leadership practice. The paper also discusses the implications of Lang Ping's success for empowering women in the globalization of China's sports system.

Sport in the Middle East has become a major issue in global affairs. The contributors to this timely volume discuss the intersection of political and cultural processes related to sport in the region. Eleven chapters trace the historical institutionalization of sport and the role it has played in negotiating ‘Western’ culture. Sport is found to be a contested terrain where struggles are being fought over the inclusion of women, over competing definitions of national identity, over preserving social memory, and over press freedom. Also discussed are the implications of mega-sporting events for host countries, and how both elite sport policies and sports industries in the region are being shaped.

This paper examines the politics of mobility which surrounded the London 2012 Olympics. We provide a critical discussion of the mobility conflicts, problems and criticisms which emerged from our research with local people in the Stratford and wider Newham areas of London, where most Olympic events were located. The paper is divided into four broad parts. First, we identify and discuss the relevant components of the ‘mobilities paradigm’ in social science which underpin our analysis. Second, we briefly outline our research methods, centring particularly on fieldwork and interviews with different social groups. Third, we examine in detail the six main themes of mobility politics which were evident at London 2012, relating to social context, event construction, event mobility systems, commercial mobilities, the mobile politics of exclusion, and contested modes of mobility. In doing so, we seek to extend the mobilities paradigm by introducing various concepts and keywords – notably on the three-speed city, entryability, mobility panics, instrumental mobility, and corporate kettling – which may be utilized by social scientists to examine mobility systems in other social contexts. We conclude by reaffirming the significance of mobility-focused research at sport and other mega-events, and by indicating future lines of inquiry for social scientists.

The analysis of the impact of mega events has included frameworks that evaluate different impacts under different criteria, for example, separating impacts according to whether they occur before, during or after the event itself. Analysis of the economic impacts of such events has shown that the distributional effects between the host city and the rest of an economy can be important, and can have opposite signs.

This paper introduces frameworks to show the origin of the economic scale, that is, Olympic-related investment and expenditure, and shows how the frameworks can be used with reference to the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

Often recognised as “quintessentially Canadian,” curling has long enjoyed a reputation as a quirky,
accessible, and sociable winter sport (Weiting and Lamoureux 2001; Mair 2007, 2009). While first introduced as a medal
sport (for men) at the Olympic Games in France (1924), sport leaders struggled for many years before its official status
as an Olympic sport was cemented in 1998. Since then, Canadian athletes have dominated the Olympic podium and
exposure to the sport has grown around the world. Nonetheless, efforts to grow the sport at the grassroots level have
been less successful. The paper presents the results of an investigation into the impact of Olympic medal designation on
curling. Twelve in-depth, qualitative interviews were conducted with participants with a variety of connections to curling
(e.g., high and mid-level administrators, high performance trainers, sport journalists, Olympic medal winning curlers).
Data analysis illustrates a number of tensions have surfaced since its acceptance as a full medal sport, especially in
regards to local club development and mid-level competition. Indeed, as curling becomes increasingly professionalised,
the benefits are not being felt at all levels. We conclude by situating these findings within the context of implications for
Olympic medal sport designation and sport development more generally.

Nations realising the political and developmental possibilities in hosting a mega sport event is a trend that has been increasing in recent decades. To take one example, Qatar is one of the most prolific nations in bidding and hosting sports events as a means of augmenting the nation’s image. Building on Joseph Nye’s conception of soft power, this paper examines how Qatar deliberately uses sport as a tool for global nation branding to promote their political objectives. We set out by explaining how nations can benefit from hosting these mega events and the underlying rationale for Qatar’s investment in them. We then focus on Athletics and explore the links between the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) and Qatar in relation to the bidding process for the World Athletics Championships. We conclude by arguing why the IAAF 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha backfired on Qatar’s soft power and nation branding strategy. The athletics championships, which were the last key test ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, has created doubt as to whether nations like Qatar, with a questionable human rights record and extreme climatic challenges; heat, should be allowed to host sport mega events.

Hosting the Olympic Games demands the efficient and effective sequestration of public space across the city to stage official sports, cultural, and commercial activity. Specifically, this paper examines how fast-tracked urban development processes create exclusive, commercial enclaves to maximise leverageable benefits for external actors. We focus on the case of Rio 2016, drawing on: i) observations across the city and event zones, including Live Site, Last Mile, and transit spaces, ii) interviews with key event, policy and visitor economy stakeholders, iii) documentary analysis of Rio’s plans and promises outlined in official bid documentation, and iv) supplementary sources documenting Olympic planning effects. Our findings illustrate how the legal power of the Host City Contract and highly-circumscribed Olympic regulations create the conditions for managing urban space that enables the circulation of visitor flows to - and the containment of consumption within - newly privatised, temporarily constructed urban zones that favour global interests.

Este trabajo de investigación indaga acerca de las estrategias de diplomacia deportiva de Qatar, comprendiendolas como una combinación entre mega-eventos y políticas deportivas. De esta manera, dividiéndolo en dos décadas de análisis según la proyección de sus políticas (regional en caso de la primera, internacional en la segunda), este trabajo analiza la aspiraciones del soft power qatarí, así como las fuentes de soft disempowerment originadas a partir del contacto de estas políticas con occidente y las estrategias para revertir el orientalismo. Por último, se propone una estrategia a futuro teniendo en cuenta las tendencias analizadas en el pasado.

Snowboarding, as an American sport experience based on fun, risk-taking, creativity, and freedom, entered the Winter Olympics as a youth show a l'am ericaine through freestyle disciplines. The concept of geo-sportivity explains the link between the United States and snowboarding and shows that, despite its Olympic inclusion, snowboarding's ethos has remained fundamentally American in terms of leadership, representation, evolution, and commodification. Inspired by the X Games, the Winter Olympics have provided a new platform for the American sport experience. According to pioneer skateboarder Tony Hawk, snowboarding introduced a youthful energy and a youthful viewership to the Olympics. On the global stage, snowboarding has become a form of American youth culture without borders, which brings about the question of sports as soft power resources. The inclusion of snowboarding as an American-made lifestyle sport, a youth culture , and a performance has had an impact on the Winter Olympics and, ultimately, on the Summer Olympics.

This article examines five common misunderstandings about case-study research: (a) theoretical knowledge is more valuable than practical knowledge; (b) one cannot generalize from a single case, therefore, the single-case study cannot contribute to scientific development; (c) the case study is most useful for generating hypotheses, whereas other methods are more suitable for hypotheses testing and theory building; (d) the case study contains a bias toward verification; and (e) it is often difficult to summarize specific case studies. This article explains and corrects these misunderstandings one by one and concludes with the Kuhnian insight that a scientific discipline without a large number of thoroughly executed case studies is a discipline without systematic production of exemplars, and a discipline without exemplars is an ineffective one. Social science may be strengthened by the execution of a greater number of good case studies.

O texto é a introdução do livro "Operações de Choque: estudos sobre a tropa de restauração da paz em contextos democráticos". Nessa papel introdutório, o texto apresenta algumas noções e desafios afetos ao tema, bem como apresenta os artigos que compõe a coletânea da qual o artigo faz parte.

Purpose: This review was purposed to systematically explore how host communities have been affected by the sports mega-events. This systematic review identified the related literature strengths and weaknesses, identified the existing gaps in this regard, and provided the following researchers with new state-of-the-art strategies and implications. Methodology: The Web of Science databases, Scopus, Google Scholar and PubMed have been thoroughly explored. Moreover, a manual search has been carried out in the most relevant references and documents to ensure sufficiency. Indeed, data surveys and extraction were conducted based on a predefined protocol, and finally, 40 selected documents have been analyzed. Findings: The results revealed that the effects of sports mega-events on the host communities could be categorized into positive and negative ones. Most studies have explored subjects inferred from the findings, including socioeconomic impacts, tourism, heritage, image, media, hygiene,...

Year 2. Grade A 73%. Module: Tourism, Culture and Regeneration.

Cities that hosts world-class events grasps a golden chance that can enable a shift in personality and image in a short period of time. Trivial places can become global places and world city’s can reinforce their existing image, position or status. It can stimulate and produce long-term benefits not exclusively to the host city and its citizens, but well beyond the surrounding region and the host country. The opposite is also true, if appropriate policies and strategies are not planned and executed, great harm to the image of the host city and country will be caused, risking future plans of attracting more events. (Smith, 2007)
Mega events such as the Olympic games are a high status international event much desired by nations for a myriad of reasons. Besides the great feeling that team sports can exert over a society combined with the sense of union and global friendship it disseminates, host cities have the opportunity of attract inward investments, extensive media exposure, prestige and perform urban restructuring. (Law, 2002) For this piece of work, concepts such as urban regeneration, events-led regeneration, legacy and the creation of cultural quarters, creative clusters and hubs will be analysed, discussed and evaluated. Moreover, the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics games will be the chosen case study to illustrate the events-led regeneration.

The heightened interest in sport shown by politicians, legislators, sponsors and government carries with it an inherent demand to justify long-term sustainability as well as compliance with best-practice corporate governance principles. A questionnaire based on the seven pillars of good corporate governance identified in the King II Report (Institute of Directors, 2002) was administered to the universum (n=90) of South African sport federations registered with the South African Sports Commission with the aim of measuring the compliance of these federations with the principles of good corporate governance on a five-point Likert scale. Results indicated an overall mean compliance score (x) of 3.77 (maximum of 5.00) with the pillars of good corporate governance but a further detailed analysis of all 83 statements in the questionnaire revealed areas of serious concern regarding the sub-elements of accountability, transparency, social responsibility, independence, fairness and discipline.

The trickle-down effect of major sport events was mostly examined for the host population at large. This study analyses whether some population groups benefit from hosting a major sport event like the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games more than others. The trickledown framework is tested using a comprehensive sample of people in Australia from 2005 and 2006 (n=12,993). Regression results show that younger people, less educated people, and people of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin are more likely to spend more time participating in sport as a result of Melbourne hosting the Commonwealth Games. Younger people with no formal education and people who are not in a relationship are more likely to take up a new activity. Older people, females, and the locals are more likely to gain a positive attitude. The results inform policy makers and sport event managers who plan for the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, Australia.

Phronetic organizational research is an approach to the study of management and organizations focusing on ethics and power. It is based on a contemporary interpretation of the Aristotelian concept phronesis, usually as ‘prudence’. Phronesis is the ability to think and act in relation to values, to deliberate about ‘things that are good or bad for humans’ in the words of Aristotle (1976:1140a24–b12). Phronetic organizational research effectively provides answers to the following four value-rational questions, for specific problematics in management and organization studies: 1. Where are we going with this specific management problematic? 2. Who gains and who loses, and by which mechanisms of power? 3. Is this development desirable? 4. What, if anything, should we do about it?

The Aalborg Project may be interpreted as a metaphor of modern politics, modern administration and planning, and of modernity itself. The basic idea of the project was comprehensive, coherent, and innovative, and it was based on rational and democratic argument. During implementation, however, when idea met reality, the play of Machiavellian princes, Nietzschean will to power, and Foucauldian rationality-as-rationalization resulted in the fragmentation of the project.

Resumen: La organización y expansión del deporte internacional durante el siglo xx se ancló principalmente a la implicación político-económica de los Estados, motivada por su representación en las competiciones deportivas por intermediación de las Federaciones Deportivas Nacionales y Comités Olímpicos Nacionales. Sin embargo, la conflictividad político-deportiva de la Guerra Fría, el cuestionamiento del papel hegemónico del Estado como centro de las Relaciones Internacionales y la propia crisis de los actos deportivos magnos ha propiciado que en la actualidad se esté socavando la centralidad del Estado en el deporte internacional.

Abstract: The organization and expansion of international sport during the 20th century was anchored mainly in the political and economic involvement of nation states, motivated by their representation in sports competitions through the intermediation of the National Sports Federations and National Olympic Committees. However, the political and sports-based conflict of the Cold War, the questioning of the hegemonic role of the state as the center of International Relations, as well as the crisis faced by major sports events, has led to the current undermining of the centrality of the role of the state in international sport.

The purpose of the study was to examine the motivations to participate in a half-marathon among women-local runners and sport-tourists-and also to evaluate the differences between these two groups of respondents. Most of the research concerns motivation to run among men. With the increase in the popularity of mass running events, the question what encourages women to engage in physical activity, especially outside their everyday place of residence, becomes very important now. The sample comprised 214 women that participated in the 6th Poznan Half Marathon in Poland. To evaluate the motivation to participate in the half-marathon event, a self-constructed questionnaire was used. Results indicated that local runners and sport-tourists have similar forms of motivation and similar meanings to the event participation with some significance differences. A socio-demographic profile of a half-marathon female participant was also examined. In general, the findings of the present study provide an understanding of motivation to participate in a half-marathon event in different women groups. Current research on the motivation of the running event participants was aimed at determining how meaningful some aspects are. These aspects were not only a willingness to stay fit, healthy, and slim, but also to build social relationships and look for the experiences and emotions that come with recreational sport. These results might be useful for sport managers and city government to analyze consumer behavior and utilize the results in the strategic planning, marketing and implementation of physical culture in connection with massive sport events organizations.

В настоящее время одной из характеристик «гуманизации» международных отношений является то, что среди некоторых стран появилась тенденция призывать мировое сообщество к соблюдению норм международного права как главного гаранта стабильности. Примером могут послужить страны БРИКС, занимающие особое положение на мировой арене благодаря своему экономическому и политическому потенциалу. Эти страны также используют схожие инструменты для расширения своего влияния и создания позитивного имиджа в мире. Как представляется, одним из таких инструментов является проведение спортивных мега-событий. С момента появления самого объединения БРИКС (с 2001 по 2011 год называемая БРИК) в каждой из этих стран прошло, по крайней мере, по одному спортивному мега-событию. Однако несмотря на наличие возможностей спортивных мега-событий и их успешную реализацию в развитых странах, нельзя упускать из виду внутренние особенности стран БРИКС, которые могут сместить акцент средств массовой информации и мирового сообщества на негативные стороны и внутренние проблемы. Для развивающихся стран проведение спортивных мега-событий является серьезным риском для их репутации, поскольку средства массовой информации освещают не только спортивные мероприятия, но и внутренние вопросы. В связи с этим, данная исследовательская работа посвящена определению возможностей и ограничений использования спортивных мега-событий в странах БРИКС.

At the same time that case studies are widely used and have produced canonical texts, it may be observed that the case study as a methodology is generally held in low regard, or is simply ignored, within the academy. For example, only 2 of the 30 top-ranked U.S. graduate programs in political science require a dedicated graduate course in case study or qualitative methods, and a full third of these programs do not even offer such a course. In contrast, all of the top 30 programs offer courses in quantitative methods and almost all of them require training in such methods, often several courses. In identifying this paradox of the case study’s wide use and low regard, Gerring rightly remarks that the case study survives in a “curious methodological limbo,” and that the reason is that the method is poorly understood. In what follows, we will try to resolve Gerring’s paradox and help case study research gain wider use and acceptance.

In June 2018 FIFA awarded the 2026 Men's Football World Cup tournament to a transnational bid comprising the United States, Canada and Mexico. We explore this moment of historical conjuncture to understand the interplay of football, SME processes, geopolitical symbolism, and legacy craft. Drawing on a critical document analysis of bid material, media reports, economic analysis, and secondary evaluation, we analyse how the United As One bid's core legacy tenets of certainty, opportunity and unity produced a complex narrative of economic, sporting, and political harmony and prosperity. We contend that while the bid employs common legacy tropes and axioms, United As One exposes the sustained fallacies implicit within bid constructions and paucity of legacy as a currency in the future of SME enterprise. Stakeholder alliances are fundamental to sport mega-event bidding. Yet, collaborations are politically complex as each party balances benefits and risks. Accordingly, this paper forewarns all bid actors to be cogniscent of the roles they may play within the symbolism and rhetoric of bid construction. Beyond the context of football, this paper adds new insights to ways sport megaevent bid visions fuse economic, socio-cultural, and public health advancement rhetoric to consolidate and masque persuasive host and legacy agendas.

The cities of today are anything but virtuous, and the majority of the population currently living in urban areas consume the majority of our planet's energy, producing the great part of greenhouse gases. These figures are sufficient to make us aware of how the quality of life of billions of people will depend upon the extent to which urban agglomerations will be capable of becoming virtuous. Transforming the cities of today into sustainable cities, therefore, has become an inevitable course of action. In this context, planning mega events can be the occasion for the transformation of large urban areas that, in the ordinary practice, they would hardly find occasion and means for their implementation. Mega events, from the Olympics to soccer World Cup, are often regarded as a key driver for the overall redevelopment of a city. Mega-events have driven the urban transformation of cities such as Barcelona, London, Rio, Beijing, and Shanghai, but while the prospect of economic growth is the driving force for hosting a major event, the legacies that follow their hosting, especially in terms of sustainability, are difficult to design and quantify. Focusing specifically on mega sports events, the paper intends to identify how they can be used as catalysts for promoting sustainability awareness, and sustainable urban regeneration and growth. This paper discusses the urban legacies from two main case studies (i.e.: 2006 South Africa World Cup and 2012 London Olympic Games), and analyses major processes involved in the design and development of a sports event. The conclusions question how an emerging global city as Doha, which will be the first Middle Eastern and Gulf city to host a soccer World Cup, will benefit by hosting this event, and indicate potential directions for further research, framed particularly around Gulf countries.

State leaders in the Arabian Peninsula have increasingly sought to host globalized sporting events to broadcast a cosmopolitan and modern image of the region. These efforts are typically interpreted as examples of states exercising 'soft power'. This article challenges the state-centric assumptions built into the soft power approach by employing an event ethnography of the 2016 UCI Road Cycling World Championships in Doha. Advancing a more grounded geopolitics of elite sport in the Gulf, I examine how geopolitical identity narratives about Qatar, and the Gulf region more broadly, circulate at various scales and through countless contingent encounters at the event. I ask specifically how these identity narratives are constructed and challenged, both materially and discursively by athletes, spectators and urban residents. Sporting events, I argue, are key sites of geopolitical encounter: where subjects and spaces are not predetermined, but actively constituted through people's interactions in the host cities and countries.

In this paper we argue that the use of the communicative theory of Jürgen Habermas in planning theory is problematic because it hampers an understanding of how power shapes planning. We posit an alternative approach based on the power analytics of Michel Foucault which focuses on ‘what is actually done’, as opposed to Habermas’s focus on ‘what should be done’. We discuss how the Foucauldian stance problematises planning, asking difficult questions about the treatment of legitimacy, rationality, knowledge and spatiality. We conclude that Foucault offers a type of analytic planning theory which offers better prospects than does Habermas for those interested in understanding and bringing about democratic social change through planning.

This bachelor thesis, completed in 2014 for a BSc in Environment and Development Studies at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, critically reflects on the development consequences linked to the hosting by Brazil of the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics.

The thesis is divided in two parts. The first introduces the concept  of ' sports mega-event' and provides a broader discussion of its overall characteristics and social significance for hosting societies. The second focuses on Brazil as a case study, discussing the preparations and the controversial development agendas associated with the sports mega-event enterprise in the country.

This paper will try to review the near past of the mega-event stadium construction, and the recent approaches in stadium-building in terms of sustainable urban development and
architecture. The research will cover the period of 1990-2012, from the start of sustainability discussions and their revealing implications on stadium-construction up to the
forthcoming London 2012 Olympic Games and its stadium. The focus will be on the notions of flexibility in stadium design and post-event maintenance of stadiums for sustainable urban environment.

This article presents results from the first statistically significant study of cost escalation in transportation infrastructure projects. Based on a sample of 258 transportation infrastructure projects worth US$90 billion and representing different project types, geographical regions, and historical periods, it is found with overwhelming statistical significance that the cost estimates used to decide whether such projects should be built are highly and systematically misleading. Underestimation cannot be explained by error and is best explained by strategic misrepresentation, that is, lying. The policy implications are clear: legislators, administrators, investors, media representatives, and members of the public who value honest numbers should not trust cost estimates and cost-benefit analyses produced by project promoters and their analysts.

The main objective of this paper is to investigate mega-sport events, with special attention on the Olympic Games. The organization of such event leaves a large stamp on host countries, with a significant impact on the economy, the well-being of the local community and the environment. This impact is meant to be positive, but due to a very intensive development, the principles of sustainability are neglected in many cases. The specific objective of the paper is to provide an analysis, on what scale are the principles of sustainability and green growth respected in order to ensure that before, during and after the organization of the event the mission of the International Olympic Committee, to encourage and support a responsible concern for environmental issues, to promote sustainable development in sport and to respect the local community is respected. The research methodology is exploratory, analyzing the existing pre- and post- impact studies of the Olympic Games from socio-economic and environmental perspectives to underline the main positive and negative aspects of the impact on the host communities. The outcomes of the research shows that the organization of the Olympic Games is an attractive opportunity for development and international recognition, and despite the high costs most of the governments are likely to bid to become host countries with promises in some cases hard to keep, and resulting in questionable positive impact for the host community. Therefore in the future there is high need to put into practice more rigorously the principles of green growth and sustainability, including innovative solutions and revolutionizing of the bidding process in order to increase positive and reduce negative impacts of such events.

Danyel Reiche provides a different perspective on sports in Lebanon. In chapter 9, he engages with the scholarship that emphasizes the benefits of mega-sporting events to host countries, from increasing their international prestige and influencing on global politics, through mobilizing national pride, to serving as tool of economic development. Reiche investigates the benefits accrued to Lebanon as a result of hosting four regional mega-sporting events after the civil war ended in 1990. He examines the similarities and differences between these four events by examining, in particular, the tangible and intangible legacies. Apart from a review of academic and press articles, primary data was collected by interviewing key stakeholders in the Lebanese sports sector who were involved in the events. The chapter concludes that while the events provided the country with some short-term promotional benefits, they introduced a heavy financial burden, especially regarding stadium and sports hall construction. Resources to maintain those facilities became a source for corruption. The chapter suggests that, in the future, Lebanon should consider co-hosting mega-sporting events with other countries in order to limit the financial risks. It should also integrate legacy management programs into the event planning to avoid unused facilities after the events.