The Conceptualisation and Measurement of Mega Sport Event Legacies

Abstract

This paper focuses on the legacy of mega sport events. First, the concept of legacy is defined before the problems of measuring and forecasting legacy are discussed. Benchmarking and the use of macro data do not correctly reveal legacy. Hence a bottom-up approach is introduced which identifies the event legacy by evaluation of ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ event-related changes in a host city. These changes are defined as ‘event-structures’ (infrastructure, knowledge, image, emotions, networks, culture). Many of them change the quality of location factors of the host city in the long-term. The benefits/costs through the transformation of the host city are the legacy of a mega sport event. Here a particular focus is put on tourism legacy.

Acknowledgements

Thanks have to be given to Mike Collins (University of Gloucester, UK) for giving me the initial idea for this paper. To Mike Weed (Canterbury Christ Church University, UK) for all the fruitful discussions on tourism legacy and to Lamartine DaCosta (Rio de Janairo, Brazil) for broadening my view on legacy. Finally, I thank the three anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Holger Preuss

Holger Preuss is at the Institute of Sport Science, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Germany. Email: [email protected]