The mega-events database: systematising the evidence on mega-event outcomes

ABSTRACT

Although events such as the Olympic Games and World’s Fairs are among the largest of mega-projects, there is little systematic data to evaluate their outcomes over a longer period of time and across multiple sites. This research note describes the first longitudinal database on mega-event outcomes. It lays out the rationale and major goals of the database, its methodological approach and content, and its challenges and limitations. The database allows analysing larger patterns of mega-event contexts and outcomes, and helps evaluating mega-events as public policies.

KEYWORDS:

• Mega-events
• Olympic Games
• Football World Cup
• impacts
• legacy
• outcomes

Acknowledgments

The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) funded the research of this paper under the grant ‘Mega-events: growth and impacts’, grant number PP00P1_172891.

Author contributions

MM conceived the database and developed the core argument of the paper. MM and SDW wrote the manuscript. MM, SDW, CG, DG, MH, AL developed and populated the original database.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung [PP00P1_172891].

Notes on contributors

Martin Müller

Martin Müller is a professor at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. He is a human geographer working on (un)sustainability of mega-events such as the Olympic Games and the Football World Cups. His most influential publications includes ‘An evaluation of the sustainability of the Olympic Games’ (Nature Sustainability).

Sven Daniel Wolfe

Sven Daniel Wolfe is an urban and political geographer working on the socio-spatial impacts of mega-events, the intersections of digital tech and authoritarianism, and intimate geopolitics. More at sdwolfe.com or twitter @sdvolk.

David Gogishvili

David Gogishvili is an urban geographer focusing on urban megaprojects, such as mega-events and cultural flagships, and mobilities in the Global East. His research examines the role of legal exceptions and politics in large-scale urban projects and mostly focuses on the cities of Central Asia and the South Caucasus.

Christopher Gaffney

Christopher Gaffney is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Tisch Center of Hospitality at New York University. His research on mega-events has focused on the dynamic processes through which the World Cup and Olympic Games impact cities. At NYU, Gaffney is the director of the Travel and Tourism Research Collaboratory and is conducting research on Tourism Risk and Regenerative Design.

Miriam Hug

Miriam Hug is a PhD student in the Economic Geography unit at the Geographical Institute in Berne. In her work she explores the role of small and medium-sized enterprises in a socio-economic transformation toward a future beyond the growth imperative.

Annick Leick

Annick Leick is an architect and urban geographer working with the German state of Hesse. She did her PhD at the University of Luxembourg, researching large projects in Luxembourg. She then held postdoctoral positions at the universities of Zurich and Lausanne, where she carried out the research published in this article.