Social Movements against Bidding for Sport Mega-events: A Case Study of the 2024 Summer Olympics
Introduction
Governments currently show great interest in sport mega-events investment since that they may have the opportunity to stimulate economic development, create international image and prestige, generate a ‘feel-good’ factor among citizens and inspire grassroots participation (Grix and Carmichael, 2012). Moreover, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) states that their critical mission is ‘to promote a positive legacy from the Olympic Games to the host countries’ (International Olympic Committee, 2007, p.15), although legacy is hard to define or measure and could be both positive and negative in practice (Agha, et al. 2012). In particular, emerging states like China, South Africa and Brazil have managed to bid for the Olympics or the World Cup. The use of hosting sport mega-events to enhance their soft power and achieve equal positions in global affairs has been highlighted in recent years (Grix and Lee, 2013).
However, the effect of sport mega-events has been challenged, questioning whether to host these events or not (Lauermann, 2015). As Chalip points out, host countries may fail to make preparations for the staging of sport mega-events and encounter the risk of soft disempowerment. Meanwhile, anti-Olympics social campaigns have arisen in many advanced capitalist countries. Consequently, they have had a considerable influence on the bids for sport mega-events
It is evident that hosting the Olympics games is no walk in the park. The countries trusted with this task have to spend billions to make the games a reality. Some people believe that the countries, even after spending billions of dollars benefit from the games, while others believe that the money can be spent elsewhere more efficiently. To reach a conclusion, one must study all of the different impacts in all of the different sectors the games have.
Ever since its inception in 1896, the Modern Olympics has hosted an invisible sport: politics. The Olympics calls for “a halt to all conflicts … [and to] strive towards a more peaceful world,” but politics soon spoiled its biennial message. “As the Olympics continue to dissolve into … a political competition … they no longer … justify the time and trouble,” Dave Anderson, Pulitzer Prize winner for his sports column, wrote in the New York Times in 1984. The Olympic spirit has routinely been used as an outlet for political agendas. With political and Olympic ambitions intersected, the great international sports festivity negatively affects all nations involved.
Hosting the Olympic Games is thought of as one of the great honor that a country can receive in the eyes of the world. By hosting the Olympic Games, this can provide a host country the opportunity to represent their nation-states with a universally legitimate way to present and promote their national identities and culture. The 2008 Beijing Olympics played a significant role in the social life of China and efficiently influence not only the history and grand socioeconomics transformation and modernization of China, but also the rest of the world, making it one of the most successful Olympiad in history.
In a nutshell, the Olympics have been massively affected over the time span from 1892 to 2002. Factors that enabled this metamorphosis to take place include: political tensions between countries, economic opportunities that arose, and the social impact through the endorsement of Women’s
There are many factors in every country that transform the impact of the Olympic Games, but in general, the economic costs outweigh the benefits, while the social impacts are mostly positive. As such, countries in general should not host the Olympic Games for their own national interest, but they should first understand the impacts of the Olympics in relation to their own country before making a final
The Olympic Games are recognized globally by billions of people. This event is the biggest sporting event not only because it comes once every four years, but also because the world’s best athletes come together to compete for world fame and glory. Hosting the games seems like an honor for most people, however there is numerous risks involved
Most nations are incapable and unqualified to host such a spectacle as the Olympic games. Every country and their presidents strive to mask their weaknesses and show their strength as an international power. The reasons why these peevish nations are bidding to host the Olympics are expressed through their belief and want to announce their arrival to the world stage. What they do not realize is the time and effort required into hosting such a demanding event. For example, in Rio Olympics Cause ‘Real Problems’ In Brazil, Mario Tama writes, “the popular leftist government that presided over its boom years, began to unravel, as if on cue for the big events”(Fortune International). Obviously, Brazil did not have the economic and political strength to survive hosting both the World Cup and Olympic games within two years of each other. It is imperative for the Olympic Games Board of Directors to perform better when deliberating between their choices of hosts. Most countries end of biting more than they can chew regardless of their economic
Former IOC president Avery Brundage aimed to “separate sport from politics”. Sadly it seems that countries will aim to use their teams as a tool, rather than an example of what they can achieve. This inability to separate sports from politics can be traced back over almost the entire history of the Olympic Games. However, this may be true, but there is a good side to this as well, mainly the countries involved can get lots of support from political and none political sources.
A third factor that shaped the Modern Olympic movement from 1892 to 2002 was global marketing. Countries started showing more and more economic interest. Document 5,7, and 9 show how countries in some odd way gained huge amounts of revenue for competing in the Olympics. This gave countries an incentive for hosting, sponsoring, and as well as obviously competing in the games. Document 5 expresses the results that the Tokyo games had on Japan’s economics. The
The sporting mega events that were chosen for our analysis was the Summer and Winter Olympics, the World Cup and the Commonwealth Games. These 3 events are the largest mega events in the world, and are excellent representations of sporting mega events as a whole. We wanted to go as far back as our data indexes allowed us to go, which was the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, so we made that our starting point. Our goal was to look at all of the bids made for the mega events, and look at a selection of variables influence on their chances of winning. We used data from the year the countries hosted the events (excluding the data used for future events) in order to go as far back as the indexes would allow us.
The present-day Olympics are more focused on individual athletes than nations. The media focuses more on the athletes’ achievements in terms of records broken, while the athletes’ focus on the monetary prizes to be won
Sport events like the Olympic games provide the opportunity for host countries to show their
The negative impact of recent Olympic Games on the host country has caused controversy on whether this event is sustainable. The Olympics have a huge impact on the economic, social, and environmental aspects of the country, but the multiple viewpoints show that everyone perceives these impacts differently. Furthermore, assuming that one aspect brings positive impacts to the country, there is always a chance that another aspect is influenced differently. The cost of the Games is one of the largest impacts on the country, and the Olympic Games in 2008 cost $42 billion alone (aperianglobal.com). Additional factors, such as the pollution caused or the drawbacks of tourism, have also led the media to question whether the Olympics are worth the
“Some people may rile against the commercialization or Americanization of the Olympics but figures show that the dollars from the US is critical for the sustenance of the Olympic movement. Besides TV, the IOC’s another major stream of income is private partnership.”( D.Jones 2012)
Higham (1999) discusses that there are numerous problems, which will be evaluated with hosting an Olympic games such as, development issues, local resident issues, short-term affects, and security issues. In terms of development issues, there is a significant cost dealing with large scale sporting events, and economic benefits are generally received more by big time business interests not the host community. So the host community doesn’t benefit as much as they potentially could by hosting the