The Conceptualisation and Measurement of Mega Sport Event Legacies

This paper focuses on the legacy of mega sport events. First, the concept of legacy is defined before the problems of measuring and forecasting legacy are discussed. Benchmarking and the use of macro data do not correctly reveal legacy. Hence a bottom-up approach is introduced which identifies the event legacy by evaluation of ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ event-related changes in a host city. These changes are defined as ‘event-structures’ (infrastructure, knowledge, image, emotions, networks, culture). Many of them change the quality of location factors of the host city in the long-term. The benefits/costs through the transformation of the host city are the legacy of a mega sport event. Here a partic…

Attracting Major Sporting Events: The Role of Local Residents

Abstract The decision where to host major sports events is the result of a political process, involving local and national politicians as well as national and international sport governing bodies. Politicians and local/national sport governing bodies decide whether to apply for an event, while international sports governing bodies select the host cities (nations). Local and national residents play an important role in this process as their opinion will influence whether the political system supports the application and is willing to fund the event. Many event impacts have characteristics of public goods and externalities. This represents a potential welfare economic rationale for the public…

Ambush Marketing in China: Counterbalancing Olympic Sponsorship Efforts

This paper provides an empirical insight into the perception and use of ambush marketing on the People's Republic of China public television network CCTV5 (the official Olympic broadcaster), by examining the commercials used by various corporations during its coverage of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. A five-point categorization is presented to distinguish between various methods of ambushing. Despite the efforts of the Beijing government to fight ambush marketing ahead of its Olympic Games in 2008, the results demonstrate that concerns about the practice of ambush marketing in China must be taken seriously. An analysis of 40 commercial spots was carried out, based on China's 2002 Olympi…

Direct regional economic impact of Germany’s 1. FC Kaiserslautern through participation in the 1. Bundesliga

In discussions about the use of public money for popular sports such as clubs in Germany’s 1. Bundesliga, it is often argued that the funds are well invested due to the cash flows generated by these organizations for their home regions. However, others claim the opposite. They argue that actually no positive impact is generated and, even worse, that money is leaving the region due to the clubs. The study presented here analyses the financial flows generated by the 1. FC Kaiserslautern for its home city (Kaiserslautern) and home state (Rhineland-Palatinate) during the 2010/11 season when the club participated in the 1. Bundesliga. Based on a 3-step model, the economic impact is calculated by…

Profiling Major Sport Event Visitors: The 2002 Commonwealth Games

It has become common practice for governments and municipalities around the world to bid for the right to host a major sporting event. Prior to embarking on the bidding process, politicians attempt to determine whether such an event will be of value to their municipality; and often focus on the estimated economic consequences of hosting such an event. Frequently, studies are commissioned to predict the event's economic value. However, these studies often miscalculate the potential impact of sport event visitors as consumers. We argue that enhanced profiling of these visitors will enable a more accurate assessment of economic impact. The current research surveys 1,196 spectators of the 2002 …

Calculating the regional economic impact of the olympic games

This study introduces a methodological concept to combine the cost‐benefit analysis and input‐output models to create a new method to regionalize Olympic costs and benefits in order to define the economic impact at the regional level. This new form of analysis is used to calculate the regional economic impact of the Frankfurt Rhein/Main region, which bid to stage the 2012 Olympics. A generalised view of the Frankfurt case study shows patterns that are valid for all impact studies of major sport events. Finally a sensitivity analysis is used to determine critical variables.

Event legacy framework and measurement

This article presents the development of a new approach for measuring mega sport event legacy and is based on the Olympic Games as a reference. The legacy of mega sport events has gained ever more ...

The Economic Impact of Visitors at Major Multi-sport Events

Abstract This paper examines the economic impact of major multi-sport event on affected people. Their spending increases the economic benefit for the city and region staging the event. Therefore a theoretical differentiation of movements of persons affected by the event was done. A model was worked out to detect the regional primary economic impact through these people. This primary impact can be used in any model of economic impact analysis, such as input–output frameworks or multiplier theory. The complexities in considering the right persons and their spending are analysed and described in detail. A special focus is placed on the evaluation of opportunity costs on people that get crowded…

Opportunity costs and efficiency of investments in mega sport events

Economic analyses of mega sport events usually focus on the positive effects and legacies while ignoring opportunity costs and the efficiency of using scarce resources. Event opponents argue that decisions to invest public resources should also consider alternative uses of the money. This paper aims to clarify some of the issues surrounding the opportunity costs of mega sport events. By using the measure ‘efficiency’ (output/input) of alternative investments it will become clear that the decision to stage a mega sport event cannot be taken in isolation and that there are many factors that need to be considered. The argument put forward is based on a stakeholder’s perspective and a spatial d…

Mapping research on legacy of mega sporting events: structural changes, consequences, and stakeholder evaluations in empirical studies

Findings from empirical studies on the legacy of hosting a mega sporting event are inconclusive. This paper considers empirical studies published in English language peer-reviewed journals between ...

Signaling through the 2008 Beijing Olympics—Using Mega Sport Events to Change the Perception and Image of the Host

Abstract This paper provides an analysis on internet news reports about the Beijing Olympics 2008 and how China signaled throughout the event to external target groups. The analysis shows how the geographical areas China, USA, Europe and the “Rest of the World” perceived the Games. The results were interpreted regarding the principal agent theories' signaling to reduce information asymmetry for business and tourism and costly signaling to generate symbolic capital. Seven hundred and forty news reports were collected between 1 July and 30 September 2008, using Google Alerts with the keywords “Olympic Games Beijing 2008”. The reports were analysed with a quantitative content analysis using a …

Contextual engagement in event visitors’ experience and satisfaction

This paper aims to advance the understanding of the experience-satisfaction relationship and the impact of the event context on such a relationship. In particular, there is an interplay between fou...

A framework for identifying the legacies of a mega sport event

A mega sport event involves huge investments in city infrastructure. After the event, the structures that remain may be an asset to the stakeholders, or they may be a burden. Faced with high costs, the taxpayer demands that the event-related social, economic and ecological changes will in the end have improved living conditions for the host city. But it is not easy to identify sport event legacies in their entirety, because event-related changes may be confused with non-event-related development, and because a wide variety of areas and stakeholders are affected. This paper looks at how to identify legacies, who is affected by the legacies, how long they last, and how to judge whether a lega…

Impact and Evaluation of Major Sporting Events

Ever more cities and countries are bidding to stage major sporting events. One of the main reasons for this is the economic benefit expected by decision makers and citizens. From the perspective of...

Olympic Games-Related Values and Host Country Residents’ Pre-event Evaluations in the Run-Up to the 2016 Olympic Games

The goal of this study is to examine the relationship between perceived values in relation to the Olympic Games and individuals’ attitudes toward, and intended support of hosting the Olympic Games ...

Ökonomie Olympischer Spiele

Conclusion and Future

After being awarded the EURO 2008, Switzerland faced several challenges related to hosting such a mega sport event. The research has explored how knowledge transfer and the use of certain management tools were important in Switzerland’s organization of fifteen matches and to achieving a happy and prosperous football festival in Switzerland.

FIFA World Cup 2006 and its legacy on tourism

This chapter discusses the legacy of the FIFA Football World Cup 2006 and its effects on tourism. First of all, the ‘concept of legacy’ is defined. The problems of measuring and forecasting tourism legacy are then discussed. Facts are presented which demonstrate that benchmarks and methods for measuring tourism growth triggered by a major football tournament are not relevant for detecting event tourism legacy. Hence, a bottom-up approach is introduced, which identifies the event legacy by evaluating all football World Cup-related changes in the host cities and the host country. These changes are the so called six ‘event structures’ (infrastructure, knowledge, image, emotions, networks, cult…

A method for calculating the crowding-out effect in sport mega-event impact studies: The 2010 FIFA World Cup

Tourist expenditures constituted the largest part of the economic impact of South Africa's 2010 FIFA Football World Cup. However, limited air transport capacity and increased accommodation prices may have led to crowding-out effects. Until now, crowding-out could only be considered by using econometric modelling based on data of inbound arrival or accommodation statistics. This paper suggests a methodology for measuring the crowding-out effect precisely. It is based on the available statistics in South Africa and is applicable at province level. An important innovation is to distinguish crowding-out from time-switching effects. The paper explains the theoretical framework of crowding-out as…

Perceived Values in relation to the Olympic Games: development and use of the Olympic Value Scale

Research question: This study is concerned with the perception of values in relation to the Olympic Games. As, to date, there is no scale available that captures such value perceptions, the goal of...

Interpretation and Discussion of the Results

Reflecting both interviews as well as the different topics, it can be said that the terms sustainability and legacy have become important issues. Even though UEFA did not regulate aspects of sustainability in their bid requirements for the EURO 2008, certain sustainability initiatives and processes did evolve from 2002 until the realization of the tournament in 2008. Although UEFA was positively influenced by the IOC and its sustainability and legacy concepts, it can be questioned that other subjects, like having a good, professionally organized event are still more important than prioritizing and implementing the theme of legacy.

Contingent Valuation Measurement for Staging the Olympic Games: The Failed Bid to Host the 2018 Winter Games in Munich

In the past decade, well-planned bids for hosting Olympic Games failed due to a sudden lack of a support by the population. Therefore, we study both the determinants of people’s willingness to pay (WTP) to host the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Munich and the changes of respondents’ attitudes and WTP over time. The results from three surveys in 2009, 2010 and 2011 demonstrate that both the perception of the public benefit of the Olympic Games and the general interest in sport have a positive influence on WTP. Moreover, attitudes vary over time, indicating that external factors influence the population’s evaluations of, and appreciation for, hosting of Olympic Games (e.g. media reports). In c…

Sport Policy Development in China: Legacies of Beijing’s 2008 Summer Olympic Games and 2022 Winter Olympic Games

The aim of this article is to explore Olympic-led sport policy changes (as part of Olympic legacy) for China triggered by the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. Although there has been a burgeoning of research interest in analysing Olympic-triggered changes and legacies, with focus on various areas such as economic, sociocultural, and environmental issues, little is known about the changes that the hosting of the Olympics Games stimulates in a host nation’s sport policy. Drawing from policy document analysis, the paper reveals that the two Olympic Games collectively helped to expand the role and value of sport in China and to elevate the status of mass sport. In terms o…

Concepts and Framework

Alongside defining the term ‘event’, the relevant literature has developed five characteristics for distinguishing events: (1) the event schedule, (2) the event strategy, (3) the event period, (4) the event content and (5) the event size (Preuss et al., 2009, 26). While singular events in the area of art and culture (including historical jubilee celebrations and concerts) are considered as being of vital importance, singular events in sports are rather an exception and comparatively limited (ibid.) Events in the area of sport are typically considered as regularly held events within an event series (Kurscheidt, 2006). It is however to be differentiated between guest-events being held from a …

Olympic Legacy: Status of Research

There is no doubt that the topic of legacy of sport events is becoming one of the critical issues in professional sports worldwide. Taxpayers’ money is used to support the staging of events and the...