Public valuation of social impacts. The comparison between mega and non-mega sporting events

Abstract

ABSTRACT The main aim of this study is to assign value to intangible effects, including social impacts, which appear when organising sporting events of various scales in the city of Gdansk located in northern Poland. A survey was conducted to determine the city residents’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) using the contingent valuation method (CVM). The average WTP values, which ranged between PLN 6.04 and PLN 46.34, show that the scale of the sporting event may be important for the local community’s perception of such social impacts as well-being and urban regeneration. However, considering the costs of organising sporting events – including the preparation of sporting facilities – it turns out that it is easier to justify spending public funds for holding smaller events, among others, due to the possibility of organising such events in the same place more frequently.