Mega Sporting Events: In Whose Interest? Paul Freudensprung

December 12, 2013

On January 24 this year a number of high-profile panelists at the Open Forum in Davos discussed the question in whose interest mega sporting events are being organized.

It is worth the while for host cities and event owners, if they have not attended the Davos Forum, that they are posing themselves the same question. Looking back at 2013 it seems to be the one of the most topical questions in the industry.

While a significant amount of research and organizational effort has been put in understanding and working on areas such as sustainability, the impact and legacy of mega events, the question of who is to benefit from mega sport events has not been asked as often yet.

The popular protest in Brazil, the decisions in the referenda against Olympic Games bids in Vienna, Graubünden and Munich as well as reactions to reports on workers’ conditions in Qatar and Sochi this year all manifest that parts of the population do not perceive those sport events as a benefit for them directly or in general. Given that most of the mega events include declared objectives of bringing significant benefits to the population of the host city or host country this seems to be a moment particularly for event owners to listen up and reflect on what is going on.

And it seems it is not only the local population, with Rome 2020 and Barcelona 2022 deciding not to put forward or continue an Olympic bid also for some governments benefits associated to mega events are not a sure thing anymore. One could argue that some politicians may seem to feel that involvement in large sport events will not help them strengthening their political position and winning voters at the next election.

It can be said that the now heavily criticized shareholder value model applied in the business world[1] also has affected mega sport events, and the interest of parts of the customers who actually pay for the event have been neglected. Especially taxpayers, who nowadays indirectly fund a significant portion of most sport events.

Furthermore, in recent and not so recent research significant doubt has been raised about the benefits mega events are said to generate.[2] In order to shade more light on the actual costs and benefits of mega sports events all and foremost a consistent and appropriate choice of assessment methodology is required. The current analyses of choice conducted are economic impact studies, while cost-benefit-analyses are only rarely being applied to mega events.

An economic impact study takes into account the expenditure and investment and the multiplier effects of an event into an economy, but ignores benefits and costs. For this reason some economists deem its current application to mega events inadequate and it would be more appropriate to conduct rigorous cost-benefit analysis, including the distribution of benefits among different population groups, in the future.[3]

Of course six Applicant Cities for the Olympic Winter Games 2022 show that the hosting of mega sport events continues to be very attractive, but the question about the distribution of costs and benefits of mega events among different stakeholders probably cannot be ignored any longer.


[1] Fredmund Malik (2006) Effective Top Management: Beyond the Failure of Corporate Governance and Shareholder Value

[2] Horne J., (2007) The Four ‘Knowns’ of Sports Mega-Events, Leisure Studies,
Vol. 26, No. 1, 81–96

Malfas, M., Theodoraki, E. & Houlihan, B. (2004) Impacts of the Olympic Games as mega-events, Municipal Engineer 157(ME3), pp. 209–220,

Flyvberg B., Sewart A. (2012) Olympic Proportions: Cost and Cost Overrun at the Olympics 1960-2012, Saïd Business School Working Papers, Oxford: University of Oxford

[3] Kesenne S., Do we need an Economic Impact study or a Cost-Benefit Analysis of a Sports Event?, Economics Department, University of Antwerp

Barclay J., (2009) PREDICTING THE COSTS
AND BENEFITS OF MEGA-SPORTING EVENTS: MISJUDGEMENT OF OLYMPIC PROPORTIONS?,  Institute of Economic Affairs


Paul Freudensprung : He has over 15 years of experience in the sport industry and specialises in directing and advising multi-stakeholder working groups at major events where different objectives and interests need to be aligned in order to develop effective event operations and functional venue infrastructure.

Paul has been involved in operations of 4 Olympic Games, 2 FIFA World Cups, and was the Games Plan Director of the 2014 Salzburg Olympic Winter Games Bid. In 2006 Paul set up his own consultancy company offering strategic solutions related to the development of integrated event operations programs, appraising contractual issues around venue agreements and supplier contracts and defining infrastructure development concepts and operational venue designs. He also teaches courses on event management for the MBA program at the European University in Barcelona.

Before joining the event management industry Paul spent 3 years conducting environmental and economic impact assessment of European transport infrastructure projects. Paul holds a Masters degree from the Faculty of Economics of the University of Sydney and a Masters degree from the Institute of Geography of the University of Vienna.

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