Urban Entrepreneurship, Corporate Interests and Sports Mega-Events: The Thin Policies of Competitiveness within the Hard Outcomes of Neoliberalism

Abstract

Mega-events, otherwise referred to as hallmark or special events, are major fairs, festivals, expositions, cultural and sporting events which are held on either a regular or a one-off basis (Hall, 1992). Mega-events have assumed a key role in urban and regional tourism marketing and promotion as well as wider urban and regional development strategies. Nations, regions, cities and corporations have used mega-events to promote a favourable image in the international tourist, migration and business marketplace (Ritchie & Beliveau, 1974; Law, 1993, 2000; Malecki, 2004). Mega-events are therefore one of the means by which places seek to become ‘sticky’ (Markusen, 1996) – that is attract and retain mobile capital and people – through place enhancement and regeneration and the promotion of selective place information (Hall, C.M., 2005a, b). Mega-events are therefore an extremely significant component of place promotion because they may leave behind social, economic and physical legacies which will have an impact on the host community for a far greater period than that in which the event took place. For example, when asked as to the ‘most likely legacy’ of the 1994 Victoria Commonwealth Games in Canada a readers’ poll in Monday Magazine ranked debt, new pool, higher taxes, increased tourism, and higher real estate prices as being the Games’ legacies (McCaw, 1994). Such a lay assessment of the effects of hosting a mega-event may well be quite astute. Mega sports events such as the Olympic Games have been associated with large-scale public expenditure, the construction of facilities and infrastructure, and urban redevelopment and revitalization strategies which may have undesirable long-term consequences for public stakeholders although significant short-term gains for some corporate interests (Hall, 1992; Essex & Chalkley, 1998; Eisinger, 2000). Mega-events can be regarded as one of the hallmarks of modernity and have long managed to integrate industrial and corporate interests with those of government with respect to urban development and imaging. Arguably this is