Sports Mega-events Research Articles

Sports mega-events and their wider social importance through public relations activities

Sports mega-events and their wider social importance through public relations activities

Sport mega-events as part of foreign policy of BRICS countries

Sport mega-events as part of foreign policy of BRICS countries

"A Red Card against Sex Tourism": Sex Panics, Public Emotions, and the 2014 World Cup in Brazil

This article examines the campaigns against sex tourism and sex trafficking that have emerged with the advent of several mega-sporting events in Brazil. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in Natal, one of the twelve host cities of the 2014 World Cup, it focuses on the appeal to emotions in mobilization against sex trafficking and sex tourism. Despite the recent turn to emotions in social sciences, including the role of emotions in politics, there is a dearth of study examining the intersections of emotions and moral panics. Yet expressions of disgust, anger, rage, or outrage commonly accompany moral panics issues. This article engages with how campaigns against sex tourism and sex trafficking associated with the 2014 World Cup materialize through emotional tropes iterated and reiterated in public spaces, or sex panics scripts. More specifically, this article identifies various scripts—the sexually innocent yet violated child, the bad gringo, and the enslaved woman—and points to what gives them their traction. Taken together, these emotional tropes are constitutive of an affective logic that both conflates justice with punishment and repression, and makes certain oppressive interventions and fraught alliances "feel right"—that is, publicly thinkable, possible, and acceptable.

‘For the game, for the world’: An analysis of FIFA’s CSR initiatives

Given the significant and often negative impacts of sport mega-events on host nations, including high costs and lingering environmental challenges, many event organizers, such as the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), began implementing corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives to generate positive effects while lessening negative perceptions. Despite the growing body of literature examining the practice of sport CSR, research on how global governing sport agencies implement and adapt these programs to reflect the culture of the host is lacking. This study begins to address this gap by exploring how FIFA tailored its CSR initiatives for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and 2014 event in Brazil. Engaging in CSR is already a daunting task. For FIFA, this challenge was compounded because of the host nations’ complex social, political, and economic concerns, along with skepticism surrounding FIFA’s efforts because of its history of corruption, which recently culminated in an organizational scandal that prompted arrests of high-ranking officials and temporary banishment of its former president. To better investigate CSR using a critical lens, we draw from interdisciplinary research and employ a multi-case study approach to analyze FIFA’s CSR initiatives, arguing that these efforts largely failed to reflect cultural considerations, providing little benefit to Brazilians and South Africans. In doing so, we build upon Zaharna’s in-awareness approach to public relations by merging it with critical CSR research, demonstrating the need for sponsoring organizations to follow an in-awareness approach when practicing international CSR while also adopting participatory approaches that engage members of the affected community to increase and sustain the positive benefits of these initiatives.

An Examination of the Public’s Twitter Usage of Youth Olympic Games and Olympic Games from 2010 to 2016

The purpose of this study is to assess the status of Twitter usage on attracting the public’s attention with regard to the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) as compared to the Olympic Games (OG). Associated tweets were collected and analyzed to determine whether retweets, likes, and hashtags of tweets differed by event (YOG or OG), by event year (2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016), or by timeframe (before, during, and after the major sporting events). Using the Python programming language, this study extracted data (i.e., tweets, retweets, likes, and hashtags) during the three timeframes across the eight mega-sporting events. Findings from this study have implications for the analytical development of social media usage by sport organizations and provide a better understanding of social media platforms in the context of mega-sporting events.

Imagens e sons da Coreia: as trilhas de paisagens imaginadas

The article focuses the relationship between state agencies, entertainment companies, and industrial conglomerates in promoting South Korea’s images as a country that combines modernity and tradition. Between the re-democratization in the late 1980s and the mandate of Park Geun-Hye, started in 2013 and finished in 2017, after the impeachment process, the country invested in positioning itself as adjusted to the conditions of globalization with projects that stimulated cultural production, tourism, and accomplishment of sports mega-events. The proposal is to analyze the construction of imagined landscapes about South Korea as a way of understanding the new geography of transnational spaces. Keywords: globalization, cultural industries, Nation-State.

‘Let's Win this Game Together’: Children's Rights Violations, Macro‐Securitisation and the Transformative Potential of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil

Sport's transformative potential is known to support marginalised children, to deal with traumatic experiences and instil positive values; yet hosting mega sporting events (MSEs) can have negative impacts. Drawing on participatory research with favela‐based children during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, this article argues that MSEs bring a macro‐securitisation of urban life, which causes considerable harm. This paper also suggests that the inclusion of children's voices in advocacy debates can challenge top‐down securitisation and might allow MSEs to foster further positive social transformation. Therefore, juxtaposed with causing harm, macro‐securitisations can open opportunities for children to take action and have their voices heard.

Mega-Sport Events, Micro and Small Business Leveraging: Introducing the "MSE–MSB Leverage Model"

Micro and small business (MSB) interests legitimize mega-sport event (MSE) candidature bids. Yet, MSB interests can be sidelined in the event lead up, live staging, and legacy periods. This article provides a detailed: 1) review of MSE impacts on existing MSBs residing within targeted host communities, 2) conceptual and practical examination of MSE leveraging opportunities, 3) synthesis of good inclusionary practices identified in previous MSE case studies. As a result, a series of general and specific ways MSEs can foster MSB leveraging and legitimize local interests are suggested. We present a comprehensive analysis of key works since mid-1990s related to the themes identified above. Our analysis identifies that there is limited conceptual and empirical research on MSB impact and leveraging activities in the context of MSEs, yet significant evidence points to negative experiences, disruption, and displacement effects on residential (host) communities. We purposively focus on good practice in the context of other MSEs from the Olympics Games (e.g., London 2012, Rio 2016) and FIFA World Cup (e.g., South Africa, 2010) to inform recommendations and managerial implications. We outline a systematic series of ways MSBs can be structurally excluded from accessing MSE leveraging opportunities. Building on Chalip's widely adopted event leverage model (ELM), we present the "MSE–MSB Leverage Model" to illustrate how MSEs can (re)position MSBs as legitimate stakeholders to support greater leveraging opportunities and better (re)distribute event benefits back into host communities across planning and delivery stages. These range from reconfiguring: 1) event planning principles and policies, 2) regulatory and trading environments, and 3) the development of MSB business-to-business networks and partnerships.

Critical Event Studies: Issues and Perspectives

The growth in number of events, their attendance, and associated media coverage have contributed to a corresponding groundswell of interest in event studies (Baum, Lockstone-Binney, & Robertson, 2013). Since the mid-2000s, in part owing to Getz’s (2007) seminal work in the area, event studies have been widely explored in research, beginning with a plethora of management-related studies and pro-gressing beyond to conceptual and theoretical explo-rations (Lamond & Platt, 2016; Page & Connell, 2012; Thomas & Bowdin, 2012). The popularity of event studies is unsurprising given the ubiqui-tous nature of events, with the general populace exposed to a myriad of organized events, ranging from small-scale, private celebrations to highly commercialized sport mega-events. The ubiqui-tous nature of events is greatly helped by their ability to make use of existing infrastructure, supplemented by the use of temporary structures designed and built especially. Often, events make use of public space and infrastrucutre, which makes adequate and effective event management imperative to the local community’s acceptance of an event.

The Transgressive Potential of the 2014 Cleveland/Akron Gay Games Legacies

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) sport events potentially represent a significant transgressive and alternative space in the world of sport. There has been a scarcity of research on the full range of legacies that these types of medium-sized events can have, as previous studies focus on larger mega-sport events like the Olympics and/or economic and infrastructural aspects. This study evaluates the potential sociopolitical and sport legacies of the 2014 Gay Games held in Cleveland/Akron, based on interviews with 29 key stakeholders and complemented with conversations with 46 local residents. It demonstrates a range of positive sociopolitical and sport legacies were cited, although awareness of possible negative legacies and barriers also emerged. The discussions, centered on legacies, show the Games have symbolic significance for both the gay and wider community and accelerated the process of more accepting societal attitudes towards LGBTQ people. The conclusion discusses the somewhat qualified transgressive potential of the Games to challenge wider existing dominant heteronormative values in the local area.

The international tourism effect of hosting the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup

This study analyzes whether hosting mega-sporting events is a useful marketing platform for countries to promote international tourism on a longer term basis. Our model adopts the gravity equation of international trade to bilateral international tourist arrivals. We find a country-level tourism effect only for the Summer Olympic Games. Hosting increases international tourist arrivals significantly in the 8 years before, during, and in the 20 years after the event. In contrast, hosting the FIFA World Cup is overall ineffective in tourism promotion despite higher tourist arrivals in the event year. We attribute these differences in international tourism legacy to the level of strategic planning in promoting tourism, the impact of media on the broadcasting audience, and the participating countries.

Engaging citizens in sports mega-events: the participatory strategic approach of Tokyo 2020 Olympic

This paper examines some innovative practices of citizen engagement strategy implemented by Tokyo 2020 in the pre-game period. Hosting a sports megaevent such as the Olympic Games is a key milestone in urban history and reputation of any city. The challenge of celebrating an outstanding global event with a long-lasting positive impact on the place requires the commitment and engagement of all urban stakeholders as the hosting city needs to maximize the number of supporters who share the games’ vision and embrace the Olympic experience. The role of citizens as creators and prescribers of urban reality is increasingly recognized in the field of place branding as it confronts the traditional top-down agenda-setting approach with a new collaborative paradigm and participatory culture. The city of Tokyo has initiated the implementation of its comprehensive strategy for hosting its second Olympic Games in 2020. The foundation plan of the 2020 Games identifies the engagement strategy as one of the key strategic pillars of the event aimed at ensuring an inclusive and active participatory nature of the Games celebration. The research is guided by an exploratory case study approach to assess the citizen engagement strategy and participatory frameworks within the context of the Olympic mega-event to be held in Tokyo in 2020. The examination of some innovative initiatives in the pre-game period such as the national call for the creation of Olympic medals, the Olympic mascots selection process and the Volunteering program, reveals a series meaningful drivers of citizen engagement strategy of Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games ranging from the access to a specific Olympic knowledge and sports experience to a personal self-realization and community empowerment, among others. The research aims at contributing to further academic discussion and effective practice of citizens´ engagement in place making through sports mega-events in such a way as to ensure a truly inclusive, inspiring and meaningful nature of these global happenings.

Engaging citizens in sports mega-events: the participatory strategic approach of Tokyo 2020 Olympic

Engaging citizens in sports mega-events: the participatory strategic approach of Tokyo 2020 Olympic

IPA기법을 활용한 지역주민이 지각하는 2018 평창 동계올림픽의 성과분석

The purpose of this study is to analyze and compare of local residents’ perception before and after the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics based on the factors, SOC, regional tourism, and regional culture. Also, the aim of the study is to provide meaningful information from the perspective of local residents for future megasports events. In this study, the convenience sampling method and self-administered method were conducted with the usable samples of 450 local residents in the host cities Pyeongchang county, Jeongseon county and Gangneung city where the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics was ehld. Importance-performance analysis (IPA) was employed to classify the results of constructs. Thet eims related to importance and performance mostly show SOC and local tourism categories. More specifically, the findings derived using IPA are as follows. First, items in quadrant I (upper-right quadrant) of the IPA matrix grid steadily needed continuous efforts to ‘keep up the good work’, and seven factors were found: regnioal economic growth, urban infrastructures, expansion of road network, promotion of tourism resources, tourism development, tourism income, and tourist city image. Second, items in quadrant Ⅲ (lower-left quadratn) represented ‘low priority’, and four factors were found: job creation, expansion of employment, expansion of local public finance, and promotion of regional historical resources. Third, items in quadrant Ⅳ (lower-right quadrant) indicated ‘possible overkill’, and four factors were found: expansion of sports facilities, regional cultural festival development, development of cultural elements, and increased in cultural standard. However, items in quadrant Ⅱ (upper-left quadrant) indicated ‘concentrate here’, and no factors were found. An additional analysis of IPA matrix showed that quadrant I indicated the factors in SOC and local tourism, quadrant III in local economy, and Quadrant Ⅳ in regional culture.

Journalism, Environmental Issues, and Sport Mega-Events: A Study of South Korean Media Coverage of the Mount Gariwang Development for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games

Few studies on sport and communication consider how environmental issues are reported on—especially in non-Western media. In this article, we report findings from a study of South Korean mainstream and alternative print media coverage of the controversial development of Mount Gariwang for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. Our study focused on (1) how the decisions and events unfolding around the development of Mount Gariwang were portrayed in South Korean mainstream and alternative news coverage and (2) how the issues at play were politicized and/or depoliticized within and across these outlets. We found that differences in coverage of environmental issues were starkest between, on one side, conservative mainstream media and, on the other side, left-leaning mainstream and alternative media outlets. We also found that environmental controversies were variably politicized or depoliticized in differently positioned media outlets—with left leaning and alternative media highlighting concerns about Olympic-related hypocrisy and corruption, and right-leaning media usually featuring depoliticizing statements from Olympic and government elites. All media outlets highlighted questions about why viable and existing venues were not being used instead of Mount Gariwang, with economic and environmental issues being emphasized differently across outlets. We conclude with reflections on the relevance of our findings for considering links between sport, mediatization, journalism, and environmental politics and suggestions for future research in international coverage of sport- and mega-event-related environmental issues.

Sustaining commercial viability and community benefits: management and leverage of a sport-for-development event

ABSTRACTResearch question: When managed strategically, sport events have the capacity to generate economic, sociocultural, and health-related benefits for host communities. To date, the majority of academic research has focused on the impact components of large-scale and mega-sport events, such as the Olympic Games. In an attempt to provide empirical evidence of management strategies and tactics related to small-scale events, the purpose of this study was to examine how an event business strategically manages and leverages an event to sustain its commercial viability, while focusing on generating social benefits for the community.Research methods: Through the lens of sport-for-development theory and event leverage concepts, we explore the case of an annual, mass participation sporting event on the island of Spetses, Greece. Against the background of financial hardship and subsequent social disparity in the country, our qualitative investigation includes 19 semi-structured interviews with various stakeholders of the Spetses Mini Marathon.Results and findings: Outcomes of the qualitative analysis indicated three main thematic categories: (a) managing context, (b) engaged change agent, and (c) involved community. In the midst of an economic crisis, the change agent managed to secure the commercial sustainability of the event, while generating several social, cultural, economic, and sporting benefits for the local community through a participatory community approach.Implications: In discussing our findings, we provide implications for strategic management and leverage of local sport events, and we highlight opportunities and challenges for maximizing the reputational capital for organizers as well as social benefits for communities.

Creating an enduring developmental legacy from FIFA2010: the Football Foundation of South Africa (FFSA)

ABSTRACTResearch question: The legacies of sport mega-events are widely contested. Whilst the short-term impacts of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ in South Africa have been largely considered to be positive, there is little evidence of longer term outcomes. This paper contributes to the sport mega-event legacy literature by presenting empirical evidence of the longer term developmental legacy using a case study of a community-focused sports project. Key factors underpinning sustainable legacy outcomes are identified.Research methods: The Football Foundation of South Africa (FFSA) was selected as a case study due to the novel ways in which the project developed. Thirty-eight interviews were conducted with stakeholders involved directly in the FFSA’s day-to-day delivery and management, people from organisations who deliver sport and recreation services at the local and regional levels and children who use the facility. The interviews were recorded and transcribed, and the data were analysed using qualitative content analysis approach.Results and findings: The FFSA is achieving substantial and increasing reach into local, especially disadvantaged, communities. Children expressed very strong positive feelings about the contribution it makes to their lives. Several factors have enabled the FFSA to be successful, with the most critical being the strong institutional context within which the project is embedded involving local, regional, national and global organisations.Implications: The success of the FFSA highlights gaps in mega-event legacy planning. International sport bodies should develop formal mechanisms for drawing their corporate stakeholders together with community-based groups to identify and deliver sustainable developmental programmes.

The isles of wonder—a new Jerusalem? British newspaper narratives about the opening ceremony of the XXXth Olympiad

The Isles of Wonder, the 2012 London Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, was viewed by a record global audience either live or through a range of electronic, social, and print media. British newspaper discourses provided reflection of the mega-sporting event as a ‘second-order’ construction, which gave readers an opportunity to reflexively decide what Britishness had come to represent. Theoretical insights about British identity were drawn from Anderson’s (1983) concept of the nation as an ‘imagined community’, Tajfel and Turner’s (1986) social identity theory, and Edmunds and Turner’s (2001) juxtaposition of benign and malign nationalism. Our qualitative textual analysis revealed that although at times complex, contested, and contradictory, the narratives generally linked the internationalism of the Olympics with a progressive, benign version of Britishness that was still ‘great’. Underpinned by the aspirational New Jerusalem theme, the narratives generally acclaimed the Isles of Wonder as Britain’s first gold medal of the Games.

Anti-colonial critiques of sport mega-events

ABSTRACT The paper reviews several theories about coloniality/modernity, Indigenous land, global securitisation and decolonial feminism in relation to sport mega-events. We use this special issue as an opportunity to reflect[1] which aspects of our own research may have been decolonial, and what is more accurately described as anti-colonial or anti-settlercolonial critique. In this paper, we review four different decolonial theories – coloniality/modernity, Indigenous land; global securitisation and decolonial feminism. We illustrate, and reflect upon, ways we have used these theories in our recent research about the Olympics, FIFA and Egyptian Ultras soccer fans. What became clear was that different decolonial theories helped us produce critiques of colonialism and settler colonialism in sport, but this raised the question whether our critiques of colonialism and settler colonialism are part of decolonisation. Some decolonial feminists suggest that decolonisation happens in the intersubjective, embodied realm of social erotics and queer affinity beyond coloniality. We conclude that, for us, decolonisation only happens within our relationality and process of doing research, from our social locations as queer arabyyah and white researchers respectively, working with and across our colonial differences.

‘War and Peace’ at the 1980 Moscow and 2014 Sochi Olympics: The Role of Hard and Soft Power in Russian Identity

Russia’s (and the USSR’s) use of sports mega-events (SMEs) makes this BRICS country (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) not only an outlier among emerging states, but also among key SME hosts generally. Both the historic Moscow Olympics (1980) and the more recent hosting of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics provide evidence that Russia has, on both occasions, focussed on geopolitical priorities using hard power (military might) at the expense of soft power acquisition. Furthermore, both Olympics were, first and foremost, used to pursue domestic soft power goals. This, again, makes Russia an outlier in terms of the political use of SMEs by states in the literature on this subject. The 1980 Olympic Games, therefore, in terms of their potential to generate soft power and national unity, turned out to be a mis-used opportunity for Russia. To what extent is this specific to Russia and could the first Russian Olympics provide valuable insight into the modern-day hosting of SMEs by Russia (2014/2018)?