![Sample our Sports and Leisure journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5949/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Sports-Leisure.jpg"})
Abstract
This study investigates how the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) was involved in the formation of the Sports Commission (SSC) within the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG) and as a critical contributor to the staging of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Using a figurational sociological framework, the intended and unintended consequences of the AOC's strategic and operational involvement are explored. The case shows how important early negotiations were in the case of the Sydney Olympics, when the host governments and Olympic Organizing Committees, in the period immediately following the winning of a bid, were inexperienced in Olympic negotiations and distracted by the euphoria of securing the Games. This left the more knowledgeable Olympic organization, the AOC, well placed to leverage its prior experience and extensive Olympic figurations, in order to gain a strategic advantage over the other Australian Olympic stakeholders. The research makes a contribution to Olympic studies, specifically in relation to the role of the host National Olympic Committee (NOC) in the organizing of an Olympic Games. Furthermore, the research findings have management implications for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and future host NOCs, particularly in relation to the structuring of Olympic Organizing Committee governance arrangements.
Notes
1 CitationBarney, Wenn and Martyn, Selling the Five Rings; CitationBooth, ‘Gifts or Corruption’; CitationCashman, The Bitter-Sweet Awakening; CitationCashman and Hughes, Staging the Olympics; CitationHill, Olympic Politics; Lenskyi, Inside the Olympic Industry; CitationLucas, The Future of the Olympic Games; CitationMacAloon, This Great Symbol; CitationMcGeoch and Korporaal, The Bid; CitationPreuss, Economics of the Olympic Games; CitationToohey and Veal, The Olympic Games; CitationTomlinson, ‘The Commercialisation of the Olympics’; CitationBalmer, Nevill and Williams, ‘Home Advantage in the Winter Olympics’. An abridged version of this study was published in CitationAdair, Coe and Gouth, Beyond the Torch.
2 CitationYoung and Wamsley, Global Olympics; Toohey, Official Report of the XXVII Olympiad, 2.
3 Toohey and Veal, The Olympic Games
4 CitationToohey, Official Report of the XXVII Olympiad.
5 CitationToohey, Official Report of the XXVII Olympiad, 97.
6 Elias, The Civilizing Process.
7 CitationClegg, Courpasson, and Phillips, Power and Organizations.
8 CitationHardy and Clegg, ‘Some Dare Call It Power’.
9 CitationNewton, ‘Power, Subjectivity and British Industrial and Organizational Sociology’.
10 CitationFrisby, ‘The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly’, 7.
11 Elias, The Civilizing Process.
12 CitationDopson, ‘The Diffusion of Medical Innovations’; CitationDopson, ‘Applying an Eliasian Approach’; CitationDopson, ‘Managing Ambiguity and Change’; CitationDunning, Sport Matters; CitationDunning, ‘Culture, “Civilization” and the Sociology of Sport’; CitationDunning and Malcolm, Sport; CitationDunning, Malcolm and Waddington, Sport Histories; CitationDunning and Sheard, Barbarians, Gentlemen and Players; CitationElias, The Civilizing Process; CitationElias, State-Formation and Civilization; CitationElias, Time; CitationElias, What is Sociology; CitationElias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement; CitationFranklin, ‘On Fox-Hunting and Angling’; CitationHutchins, ‘Analysing Sporting Violence’; CitationMaguire et al. , Sports Worlds; CitationMurphy, Sheard and Waddington, ‘Figurational Sociology’; CitationNewton, ‘From Freemasons to the Employee’; CitationNewton, ‘Organization’; Newton, ‘Power, Subjectivity and British Industrial and Organizational Sociology’.
13 CitationAbrams, Historical Sociology; CitationJarvie and Maguire, Sport and Leisure in Social Thought; CitationMandalios, ‘Historical Sociology’.
14 Elias, The Civilizing Process.
15 Maguire et al., Sports Worlds.
16 Elias, The Civilizing Process.
17 Dopson, ‘Applying an Eliasian Approach to Organizational Analysis’; Newton, ‘Organization’.
18 Elias, Time, 489.
19 Dopson, ‘Applying an Eliasian Approach to Organizational Analysis’; Newton, ‘Organization’.
20 Elias, The Civilizing Process; CitationVan Krieken, Norbert Elias.
21 Elias, The Civilizing Process; CitationVan Krieken, Norbert Elias.
22 Elias, The Civilizing Process; CitationVan Krieken, Norbert Elias.
23 Elias, The Civilizing Process; CitationVan Krieken, Norbert Elias.
24 Newton, ‘Power, Subjectivity and British Industrial and Organizational Sociology’, 417.
25 Murphy, Sheard and Waddington, ‘Figurational Sociology’, 93.
26 CitationArmason, ‘Figurational Sociology as a Counter Paradigm’; Murphy, Sheard and Waddington, ‘Figurational Sociology’.
27 Newton, ‘Power, Subjectivity and British Industrial and Organizational Sociology’, 420.
28 CitationWeick, The Social Psychology of Organizing, 330.
29 Dopson, ‘The Diffusion of Medical Innovations’.
30 CitationFlyvbjerg, Rationality and Power; CitationFlyvbjerg, Making Social Science Matter; CitationFlyvbjerg, ‘Phronetic Planning Research’.
31 Flyvbjerg, ‘Phronetic Planning Research’, 292.
32 CitationDahl, Who Governs?
33 CitationFoucault, ‘Governmentality’.
34 Flyvbjerg, Rationality and Power; Flyvbjerg, Making Social Science Matter; Flyvbjerg, ‘Phronetic Planning Research’.
35 CitationFlyvbjerg, ‘Machiavellian Megaprojects’, 18.
36 CitationBooth and Tatz, ‘Swimming with the Big Boys?’; CitationBrabazon, ‘The Legal Structure of the Sydney Olympic Games’.
37 CitationGordon, The Time of Our Lives.
38 Brabazon, ‘The Legal Structure of the Sydney Olympic Games’.
39 CitationGordon, Australia and the Olympic Games.
40 McGeoch and Korporaal, The Bid.
41 Gordon, The Time of Our Lives.
42 Cashman and Hughes, Staging the Olympics.
43 Gordon, The Time of Our Lives, 67.
44 International Olympic Committee, Citation 1993 Host City Contract; Cashman and Hughes, Staging the Olympics; Gordon, The Time of Our Lives.
45 Toohey, Official Report of the XXVII Olympiad, 28.
46 Toohey, Official Report of the XXVII Olympiad
47 CitationAustralian Broadcasting Corporation, Blood Sport.
48 Gordon, The Time of Our Lives.
49 Brabazon, ‘The Legal Structure of the Sydney Olympic Games’; CitationJobling, ‘Bidding for the Olympics’.
50 Brabazon, ‘The Legal Structure of the Sydney Olympic Games’.
51 Brabazon, ‘The Legal Structure of the Sydney Olympic Games’; CitationJobling, ‘Bidding for the Olympics’
52 Brabazon, ‘The Legal Structure of the Sydney Olympic Games’; CitationJobling, ‘Bidding for the Olympics’
53 CitationWebb, The Collaborative Games; Gordon, The Time of Our Lives, 58.
54 Brabazon, ‘The Legal Structure of the Sydney Olympic Games’; Gordon, The Time of Our Lives, 54.
55 Gordon, The Time of Our Lives.
56 CitationToohey, ‘The Politics of Australian Elite Sport’; McGeoch and Korporaal, The Bid.
57 McGeoch and Korporaal, The Bid.
58 Gordon, The Time of Our Lives.
59 Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Blood Sport.
60 Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Blood Sport
61 Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Blood Sport
62 Gordon, The Time of Our Lives.
63 Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Blood Sport.
64 Gordon, The Time of Our Lives.
65 CitationPublishing and Broadcasting Limited, Blood on the Rings.
66 Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Blood Sport.
67 Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Blood Sport
68 Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Blood Sport
69 CitationBloomfield, Australia's Sporting Success; Toohey, Official Report of the XXVII Olympiad.
70 Gordon, The Time of Our Lives, 62–3.
71 Gordon, The Time of Our Lives, 62–3
72 Gordon, The Time of Our Lives, 62–3, 64.
73 Gordon, The Time of Our Lives, 62–3 For further reading on this crisis see CitationCashman et al. , ‘When the Carnival is Over’.
74 Toohey, Official Report of the XXVII Olympiad.
75 CitationBremmer, Brown and Canter, ‘Introduction’.
76 CitationMinichiello et al. , In Depth Interviewing.
77 CitationMiles and Huberman, Qualitative Data Analysis.
78 CitationMiles and Huberman, Qualitative Data Analysis; CitationPunch, Introduction to Social Research.
79 CitationGratton and Jones, Research Methods for Sport Studies.
80 CitationGratton and Jones, Research Methods for Sport Studies
81 CitationGratton and Jones, Research Methods for Sport Studies, 219.
82 CitationGratton and Jones, Research Methods for Sport Studies
83 CitationDey, Creating Categories.
84 Gratton and Jones, Research Methods for Sport Studies.
85 Toohey, Official Report of the XXVII Olympiad.
86 Toohey, Official Report of the XXVII Olympiad
87 Toohey, Official Report of the XXVII Olympiad
88 CitationLangton, Australian Olympic Committee – Internal Report.
89 Toohey, Official Report of the XXVII Olympiad.
90 CitationFrawley and Toohey, ‘Shaping Sport Competition’, 17.
91 CitationFrawley and Toohey, ‘Shaping Sport Competition’, 17
92 Interview respondent 07.
93 Interview respondent 08.
94 Interview respondent 05.
95 Interview respondent 09.
96 Interview respondent 10.
97 Interview respondent 01.
98 Interview respondent 01
99 Interview respondent 04.
100 Interview respondent 01.
101 Interview respondent 06.
102 Toohey, Official Report of the XXVII Olympiad.
103 Gordon, The Time of Our Lives.
104 Dopson, ‘The Diffusion of Medical Innovations’, 1141.
105 Flyvbjerg, Rationality and Power.
106 Flyvbjerg, Rationality and Power
107 CitationNew South Wales Government, Report on Financial Contribution, 3.
108 British Olympic Association, ‘Our Role in 2012’. 2007. www.olympics.org.uk/contentpage.aspx?no = 269.
109 CitationAustralian Olympic Foundation, ‘Chairmans’ Report’, 2.
110 CitationAustralian Olympic Foundation, ‘Chairmans’ Report’, 2.
111 CitationVeal, Research Methods for Leisure and Tourism.
112 CitationDandelion, ‘Insider Dealing’.
113 CitationElias, The Civilizing Process.
114 London Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, http://www.London2012.Com/About/the-People-Delivering-the-Games/Stakeholders/Index.Php.