Sports Mega-events Research Articles

Next Steps in Mega-Sport Event Legacy Research: Insights from a Four Country Volunteer Management Study

Mega-sport event legacy research methodologically is dominated by what should be considered single case studies often omitting the importance of the socially situated nature of events and tourism. The extant research has often been conducted during, or soon after, an event purporting to be about legacies. Thus, they are more about impacts than the legacy, or what remains. By interrogating the only known database of volunteer responses from four Olympic and Paralympic Games across four countries, this research note demonstrates the next steps that are required to design legacies research that will have methodological, theoretical, and practical significance for host and nonhost communities alike.

Overview of Sustainable Solutions to Improve the Environmental Impacts of Mega Sporting Events

The International Olympic Committee, as the main sports organization in the world, has several criteria for handing over the Olympic Games to the host city. One of the most critical concerns in hosting sports events is paying attention to environmental aspects and sustainable development. In fact, the applicant cities must have practical environmental goals and action plans. Basically, the host cities have made significant initiatives to improve the environment in previous Olympic Games, but according to the data and studies, this major sporting event has also had detrimental consequences on the environment. Given the importance of sustainable development and environmental protection, this study examines the negative impacts of mega-sporting events on the environment. Therefore data were collected from qualitative interviews, library studies, and previous research. Fifteen experts in the sports and environment field were selected as a sample by snowball distribution method and the interview steps were performed until the theoretical saturation was reached (20-40 min in 3 sessions). After summarizing and analyzing the data, it was found that the negative environmental externalities mainly occur in the Infrastructure and construction, Transportation, and Waste management domains. Emphasizing the findings, the result of this research can be used to identify key local environmental concerns, and pressure points and provide part of the solution for organizers seeking to use their time and resources as efficiently as possible in achieving environmental goals. Keywords: environmental factors, sustainable development, sport management, mega-sporting events, Olympic Games

Paralympic legacy as seen through the lenses of spectators with physical disabilities: a case of the PyeongChang Paralympic Games

ABSTRACT In this qualitative study, the experiences of sport spectatorship by people with disabilities who watched the PyeongChang Paralympics were explored to add to the body of knowledge surrounding the legacies and leverage of major mega-sports events, in which the experiences of people with disabilities in non-western contexts have been largely overlooked. Fifteen adults with physical disabilities of Asian origin or heritage participated in semi-structured, in-depth interviews concerning their responses to observing the para-games. Analysis of the interview data yielded five thematic reactions: (1) desire to participate, (2) sense of in-group pride, (3) self-efficacy, (4) disability sports awareness, and (5) social inclusion. Conceptual and practical perspectives are discussed along with suggestions for future research.

Olympic Planning, Profit, and Participation: Towards a Children’s rights-based Approach to Sport mega-event Research?

It is well-established that sport mega-events remain highly relevant sites of enquiry for sociologists of leisure. Whereas sport mega-events are associated with a range of diverse and (un-)intended socio-spatial impacts, they can also have transformative impacts on children and young people. Against this backdrop, this article discusses the inter-relationship between sport mega-events and young people. By focusing predominantly on Olympic planning, participation and profits – which we call the ‘3Ps’ – we argue that researchers may turn towards research methodologies that are underpinned by children’s rights principles and which increasingly voice the perceptions of children and young people on the social impacts of sport mega-events. At the same time, we also reflect on exactly how children’s rights-based methodologies in this context can push the boundaries of the sociology of leisure, events and sport. In this sense, we contend that this article makes an important contribution to the academic work on the nexus between sport mega-events and young people and to our understanding of mega-events’ social costs.

From television to YouTube: digitalised sport mega-events in the platform society

ABSTRACT Technological changes have dramatically transformed the ways in which contemporary sport mega-events are produced and consumed worldwide. As the production and consumption of these global spectacles have moved beyond the traditional television and radio broadcast, this article examines and reflects on the hyper-digitalisation of sport mega-events. More specifically, we explore how one emerging platform presents a window for examining questions of power and inequality; social integration and identity; social change and development, and finally, the experience of time and space related to sport mega-events in the present-day. By employing video-sharing platform YouTube as a paradigmatic case study of the Olympic Games’ digital shift, the paper contributes towards an enhanced understanding of mega-events, technologies and digital platforms. We argue that systematic efforts to understand the digital manifestations of mega-events in a ‘platform society’ remain extremely crucial when situated against the emerging but overlapping fields of digital sociology, digital leisure studies and digital football studies in which mega-events feature.

Where are the Indigenous and First Nations people in sport event volunteering? Can you be what you can’t see?

ABSTRACT Mega-sport events (MSE) are frequently cited for their developmental and legacy potentials for host communities, including tourism, sport participation and volunteering. MSE volunteer research has demonstrated the potential to develop volunteers who may contribute to the host community’s social and human capitals. However, little research considers how marginalised groups, such as First Nations or those with disability, may be co-providers of MSE experiences. This paper differs from a dominant quasi-scientific approach to empirical journal articles in that it begins with a reflexive posture drawing upon First nations pedagogy of storytelling. Reflecting upon the volunteers’ social context and drawing upon a dataset of volunteers across 6 MSE in 5 countries (2009–2016), this research explores to what extent First Nations volunteers are considered and included in MSE research and practice, and what differences may exist between First Nations volunteers and others regarding their motivations and future volunteering intentions. The results indicate that significantly more can be done to include First Nations people equitably and respectfully across the design, delivery, and legacy potential of MSE. The results inform a novel framework that provides a map for theory and practice, and thus praxis, for incorporating marginalised groups as full partners across the MSE journey.

Impacts of host city image in the country destination branding in sport mega-event context: exploring cognitive and affective image dimensions

PurposeThis paper aims to verify the brand image effects of holding a sport mega-event by investigating the host city's influence on the country's branding, as a tourist destination.Design/methodology/approachThis research considered the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and uses quantitative methods: exploratory factor analysis and regression. Data were collected by structured questionnaires with a sample of (n = 274) international respondents with high international travel experience.FindingsRio de Janeiro's 2016 host city image positively predicted Brazil's tourist destination image. Both cognitive and affective image dimensions of Rio as a host city predicted Brazil's destination image, but the cognitive image dimensions demonstrated more impact.Practical implicationsEven in a mega-event context, city marketing strategies should be planned and executed with a focus on the country's destination image.Originality/valueThe study contributes by focusing on presenting the importance of the host city image dimensions to the host country destination image in a sports mega-event context. The study investigated a new approach, the impacts of affective and cognitive dimensions in the overall destination image considering two connected destinations and the hosting of a sport mega-event, a condition not found in the literature thus far.

Urban Reimaging, Heritage and the Making of a World-class City: The Commonwealth Walkway as Mega-event Legacy Project

ABSTRACT Sport mega-events have the capacity to transform host cities both materially and symbolically. This article explores the urban reimaging potentials of mega-event legacies through a case study of the 2018 Commonwealth Games held on the Gold Coast, Australia. For the Gold Coast, one of the desired outcomes of the Commonwealth Games and its legacies was to aid in reorienting the city’s identity from a beachside resort to a mature, sophisticated, world-class city. Drawing on observational fieldwork and literature research, the article considers a particular legacy project – the Commonwealth Walkway, a self-guided heritage walk – to analyze how heritage initiatives factor into strategies for urban reimaging. The article finds that although the Commonwealth Walkway may enhance a sense of continuity in a city usually marked by impermanence, its sanitized, celebratory approach to the city’s colonial past and present undermines both claims of sophistication and intended legacies for social justice.

Rethinking mobility strategies for mega-sporting events: A global multiregional input-output-based hybrid life cycle sustainability assessment of alternative fuel bus technologies

Sustainability has been enshrined in the official claims of mega sporting events, and scholarly debates persist on how to achieve environmental stewardship and a prolonged legacy. Revitalizing the public transportation system with alternative fuel bus technologies has speculated significant environmental and socio-economic benefits to the host nation. This paper thus attempts to quantify and analyze the environmental, social, and economic impacts of alternative fuel buses throughout their entire life cycle stages to support the thought process of sustainable mobility practices in hosting mega-events. A hybrid, multi-regional Input-Output (MRIO) based life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) model is developed to assess three bus types: compressed natural gas (CNG), electric buses (EBs), and diesel buses (DBs). The results are investigated in terms of a combination of various manufacturing and end-of-life scenarios by encompassing impacts embedded in the global supply chains. A scenario-based analysis is then conducted to assess the impacts and associated benefits of EB compared to alternative bus technologies in host nations, during and post-event, taking the upcoming FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ as a case. The results for the MRIO analysis demonstrate the impacts embedded in the global supply chains and on-site benefits of adopting alternative fuel buses may compromise each other, as impacts might be shifted towards other countries (through manufacturing and end-of-life, in exporting countries) while minimizing the operation phase impacts in the importing country, Qatar. Even though the economic benefits of EBs are higher than the CNG buses, and with almost similar social benefits, the environmental impact of the CNG buses inside the host nation is much less than the DBs. This would thus make CNG buses a more balanced alternative than the DBs and EBs. The outcome of this research stays as an eye-opener to the local organizing committee of mega-events to rethink the current sough alternatives for the use of electric transit with more balanced alternatives as proposed in the study, to achieve the mandated carbon neutrality and environmental footprint mitigation goals.

A stakeholder perspective on risk and safety planning in a major sporting event

PurposeThis study analyses the impact of institutional logics on the outcomes of a sporting event's risk process.Design/methodology/approachThe research design is an exploratory case study of the 2017 Road World Cycling Championship using a qualitative approach. By drawing on multiple sources, documents and experiences of six key stakeholders the richness of the qualitative data were utilised to provide a deeper understanding of the impact of institutional logics on the process.FindingsStakeholders relied on different organisational and professional logics in arguments for certain risk preferences and strategies. Further, the logics behind stakeholder attention varied between stakeholder groups and within a stakeholder group. This led to a tension-filled relationship amongst stakeholders working in the same organisation and between those in different organisations. Finally, new professional practices emerged; however, there were also unintended consequences, such as a large financial deficit, with a significant part of the cost overrun being the risk assessment work.Research limitations/implicationsThe study includes a case study of a major sporting event that was arranged some years ago. Events are usually organised as temporary projects in collaboration with public sector organisations and must be arranged in accordance with the logics of efficiency as well as meeting the particular needs of citizens. Assuming similar risk planning processes may occur in other contexts is reasonable.Originality/valueThe study contributes to knowledge about the impact of logics on the outcome of risk planning and improves scholars' understanding of risk management and the outcomes of planning mega-sporting events. Moreover, insights into these micro-level processes reveal the importance of dealing with the logics that lie beneath stakeholders' perceptions of risk in order to collaborate, achieve common goals, and prevent cost overruns.

The Rio 2016 Olympic Games. A glance from the lens of academics and spectators

The modern Olympic Games, recovered by Coubertin, have been constituted in the last century as the most important mega-sport event, due to its social, political and economic issues. Through words of Olivera, these are considered as cultural heritage of the humanity. The diverse postures of sports scholars were focused in Rio Olympics 2016, and analyzed them from different perspectives including: the political implications in Brazil; participation of the media in its international dissemination; the immutable presence of the Olympic spirit, very much in spite of the well-known " lords of the rings "; the negative influence of professional sports over amateur sports, including dilemmatic discussions about sports improvement -which aims to bring the performance of athletes- "… to infinity and beyond ...". This article is based on an academic position, under the spectator perspective. at Rio 2016 Olympics.

Lesões desportivas em atletas recreacionais amadores de taekwondo

ABSTRACT Combat sports are very common in sport mega-events. Taekwondo is a combat sport that prioritizes direct contact between participants, specially by kicks and punches, and provides ambiguity in the health-sport relationship, as its practice could be harmful. This study aimed to quantify the prevalence of injuries in amateur Taekwondo athletes, from training or competitions, and assess their association with intrinsic and extrinsic factors. This is a descriptive, observational, and retrospective study that assessed injuries by a reported morbidity inquiry. Information on sports injuries considered the last six months of 2018. Participants were athletes aged from 12 to 25 years old, of both sexes, practicing Taekwondo in the city of Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The prevalence of sports injuries in amateur Taekwondo athletes in Pelotas was 26.2% (n=1), without significant differences between sexes. The main reason for the practice was physical conditioning (35.7%). The main mechanism of injury was kick when attacking (45.4%), followed by impact when defending (27.3%). The most frequent type of injury was sprain (27.3%). followed by contusion (18.2%), and the most injured body parts were knees (36.4%) and ankles (36.4%). The prevalence of sports injuries in amateur Taekwondo athletes in Pelotas was lower than the one found in the literature, and it may be due to the nature of the practice, as they are recreational amateur athletes aiming to improve physical conditioning.

Mega-sport events and inbound tourism: New data, methods and evidence

Mega-sport events continue to attract interest from potential hosts around the world. The belief is that these events bring the host city and country not only prestige but also economic benefits, notably tourism. A decade ago, Fourie and Santana-Gallego (2011) published a seminal paper that defined a gravity model for tourism demand to estimate the impact of six mega-sport events on international tourism for the period 1995–2006. This paper updates and expands their analysis by adding more observations (for the period 1995–2019), more events (eleven mega-sport events), testing new hypotheses and by using more advanced econometric methods. New results confirm some earlier findings, question others and reveal that, because of the selection panel's preference for developed countries to host mega-sport events, the impact of these events on inbound tourism is likely to be smaller in future.

THE IMPACT ON DESTINATION COGNITIVE IMAGE PERCEPTION OF TOURISTS BY THE SPORT MEGA-EVENT: A CASE STUDY OF RUSSIA'S FIFA WORLD CUP 2018

Cities and countries compete fiercely to host sports mega-events, believing that doing so will improve their global image and make their destination more appealing to future tourists. According to the change in the global context, it's important to figure out if sporting mega-events, which are increasingly being hosted by BRICS countries, can help them improve their international reputation as attractive tourist destinations. The paper's research examines how visiting fans view Russia and the host cities for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Is there any empirical evidence that hosting a large sporting event will increase international tourism and enhance a city's reputation? In the spring of 2022, researchers examined the issue with secondary data and empirical data gathered through survey methods. In this year's survey, 271 Russian and foreign tourists were asked about their impressions of Russia. Non-World Cup-related visitors to Russia have different demographics, motivations, and perceptions than those who travel to Russia for the tournament. According to the study, sports mega-events have an impact on visitors' perceptions of destinations. An event like this can dispel myths and stereotypes that have been spread by the media and entice people to go to a place they might not otherwise consider. A desire to return to the same location after attending a sporting mega-event has also been found by the researchers. Keywords: destination, inbound tourism, sport events, visiting fans, FIFA World Cup, Russia. DOI: 10.7176/JTHS/60-01 Publication date: July 31 st 2022

Politics of Grassroot Sports Diplomacy in National Cohesion

The current international relations system is quite dynamic, forcing many state governments to turn to sports as the most efficient soft power tool. Sports is perceived as an integral element of national identity more so, for a country that internationally has a good reputation in sports. Values of sports diplomacy include competition, teamwork and fair play. This form of diplomacy has the potential to inform, engage and influence key actors, especially youth, emerging leaders and women and girls. However, sports, as a diplomatic tool has been always associated with mega-sport events, elite sports and professional athletes, neglecting sports at the grassroots level, where the organizations, interventions and stakeholders are considered irrelevant for state-led public diplomacy. Yet, grassroots sport-based interventions have the capability of strengthening people-to-people relations, hence contributing to national cohesion. By developing grassroots sports, the objective is to grow elite sports men and women who will eventually form teams that will compete favorably on the international arena. This paper hence discusses the politics of grassroots sports diplomacy towards national cohesion. It specifically addresses three objectives; First, it examines actors in grassroots sports diplomacy; Secondly, it Assesses tools used to promote grassroots sports and lastly it interrogates the discourse on grassroots sports diplomacy towards national cohesion. . A descriptive research design enabled primary and secondary data to be collected. The data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The paper concludes that grassroots sport diplomacy creates cooperative relations among citizens hence addressing the national unity crisis that most countries are faced with. Recommendations in relation to grassroots sports diplomacy as a tool for national cohesion have also been included.

PRACTICES OF OLYMPIC VOLUNTEERING DURING A PANDEMIC

The article examines the practice of Olympic volunteering during a pandemic. Olympic volunteers are people who volunteer to prepare for and host the Olympic and Paralympic Games without receiving direct payment. Olympic volunteering refers to a type of sports volunteering at the sites of major sport events (sports mega-events). Traditionally for the organization and holding of events, including sport events, volunteers are involved, who are recognized as a significant resource for the success of events at various levels. Such events as the Olympic Games - sports mega-events have special volunteer programs that allow people to gain experience in an international organization, attend events, gain new knowledge and skills. Based on the results of an online survey of volunteers (N =250) who participated in the organization and conduct of the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, which were held in 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, channels for obtaining information about the possibility of participating in Olympic volunteering, incentives and barriers will be analysed for volunteers in the Olympic program. Special attention in the article will be paid to the peculiarities of the Olympic direction of volunteering during a pandemic. Based on the analysis of the results of the online survey of volunteers, we found that people with previous experience of volunteering often take part in the practices of Olympic volunteering. More than half of Olympic volunteers are satisfied with their participation in the Olympic Games. Also, more than half of the survey participants plan to continue to participate in volunteer activities in the future. Among the features that characterize the Olympic volunteer program in 2021, one can single out the additional responsibility of volunteers to ensure the safety of events, compliance with all necessary safety requirements, the need to acquire additional knowledge and skills, and a more attentive attitude towards each participant in the events. At the same time, it is important that modern security measures did not have a negative impact on the intentions of volunteers to continue volunteering.

Sport mega-event governance and human rights: the ‘Ruggie Principles’, responsibility and directions

ABSTRACT In recent years, the discourses surrounding human rights and sport mega-events (SMEs) have grown immensely. These are often directed towards sport’s governing bodies responsible for the administration of these mega-events. Tapping into the growing scholarship, this article aims to advance the fields of sport, leisure and human rights. By reconsidering the commercial nature of sports’ governing bodies (focusing on IOC and FIFA), we argue that what is commonly referred to as the ‘Ruggie Principles’ both can and should be applied to FIFA and IOC’s practices and event-related operations. In this context, and by reflecting on the practical applications of human rights impact assessments in the context of sport governing bodies who are the awarding bodies of hosting rights, the paper argues that due diligence and human rights impact assessments should become an organisational mainstay of FIFA and IOC’s event-related operations. Whilst our normative argument can have implications for policy and practice, we also provide further directions for research in what remains a pivotal era of SMEs globally.

Can Entrepreneurial Ecosystems Optimize the Impact of Mega-sport Events? Evidence from the 2014 Fifa World Cup And 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Brazil

Entrepreneurial ecosystems (EE) have emerged as a viable method for stimulating traditional measures of economic development. In parallel, the effect of mega-sport events (MSEs) on economic development has been documented as perfunctory at best, despite the best efforts of municipalities and sport governing bodies. A natural extension of these lines of work asks whether EEs can play a role in enhancing the impact of MSEs within a host region. Therefore, this study sought to assess how a nation's EEs affected innovation outcomes during the hosting of two back-to-back MSEs. Using the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympic Games as the context, a sample of 2,951 venture capital transactions made to startups in South America were analyzed using a generalized policy analysis framework. The findings suggest that a well-established EE may have helped enhance venture capital availability during the time of the MSEs, but that a less robust EE did not generate any positive effects. These findings bolster the economic work documenting that adequate resources and infrastructure are prerequisites for host regions to realize benefits from MSEs, not an outcome to leverage MSEs toward.

Identification of Critical Risks in Hosting Sports Mega-events: a Social Network Perspective

Identifying the potential risks and their influencing factors in hosting sports mega-events can effectively reduce the probability of accident occurrence in the future. However, traditional risk identification primarily focuses on investigating these factors affecting each category of risk individually and ignores the interaction of risks, which leads to poor performance in risk management efficiency. As such, this study first collects a risk list for sports mega-events by means of content analysis using grounded theory, the original data of which comes from 26 research articles and 88 risk management cases. Then a risk network is constructed through the social network analysis (SNA), followed by a quantitative analysis from both the node level and the whole network level. The results indicate that organization and coordination, personnel training, traffic facilities, political conflicts, racial discrimination, and economic crisis are the critical risk factors in hosting sports mega-events. The corresponding suggestions are finally put forward to help organizers control risks at the source, prevent the spread of risk events, and improve efficiency of risk management.

The Contribution of Event Quality Factors on the Development of Memorable Tourism Experiences: Evidence from the 2018 Fifa World Cup

The aim of this study is to test the applicability of the construct of memorable tourism experience in the context of a mega-sport event, and to investigate the contribution of event quality factors on the development of memorable tourism experiences. For the accomplishment of this aim, the study investigated the experiences of a sample of international spectators who attended the 2018 FIFA World Cup matches hosted in St. Petersburg, Russia. Data collection took place onsite during the group stage matches hosted at the stadium and was conducted with a self-completion questionnaire using two scales, one for memorable tourism experience and one for event quality factors. The results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses provided support for the psychometric properties of revised versions of the two scales. Multiple regression analysis showed that memorable tourism experiences were significantly predicted by the event quality factors, with the authenticity, entertainment, venue quality, and event competition dimensions having the most significant contributions. Theoretical and management implications are discussed.