"We … We Had Fun, We Did Have Fun": Long-term Sport Event Outcomes and Community Tensions

Abstract

Publicly funded sport events (may) affect the relationship between governments and residents. The use of taxpayers' money creates certain expectations, including community-focused event outcomes. The purpose of this article is to investigate the alignment of event objectives and outcomes between host residents and those responsible for bringing a publicly funded sport event to a city, namely the government. The 2011 and 2019 Canada Winter Games, two publicly funded, non-mega-, multisport events, provided the context for the study. Data were collected through documents, interviews, and focus groups. Our findings are articulated in three themes, highlighting that although residents often evaluated their respective events positively, event experiences diverged from those of event providers. Our findings support the need for multisectoral event portfolios to pursue community objectives and public engagement strategies throughout the event planning process. These results may help event providers meet the needs of host residents when hosting future sport events.