The Glocal Politics Of Sports Mega-Events

In the past two decades, professional sports have skyrocketed to the top of the world’s cultural hierarchy. In an age where online streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu are leeching viewers from conventional television networks, professional sports have witnessed almost unprecedented growth. According to a 2011 study by A.T. Kearney, the sports industry is growing faster than overall GDP in developed countries such as America (Collington, Sultan, and Santander,“The Sports Market”), and the 2015 Super Bowl was the most watched television broadcast in American history (Pallotta, “Super Bowl XLIX posts the largest audience in TV history”). As the amount of money and attention poured into this booming industry grows, the influence of its

The role of modern sport in American life is immense. While various forms of entertainment, and consumption such as music, art and film compete for an audience, sport is often recognized on a different level, commanding the attention of people across all ages, genders and ethnicities through its enchanting qualities. From an early age, many Americans are socialized through sports, learning to interact, befriend others and develop community. In some cases, fans can are so compelled by sport that they can recite statistics and decade-old trivia, while unaware of their own parents’ birthdays. Though in general, at some point in life, many have experienced an impassioned or emotive feeling through sport, whether rooting for an underdog,

Sports has integrated itself into the process of globalization, a common trend that assists in bringing everyone together. It calls for the gathering of different cultures to destroy language and religion barriers to cheer on their favorite teams. The 2014 FIFA World Cup, hosted in Brazil, called for over thirty two countries to come out and broadcast their support through singing and cheering. Sporting events forces you to come into contact with people of many cultures in which you wouldn’t have relations with on a daily basis. Stadiums are constructed worldwide to bring entertainment and more involvement within a community to attract more tourists. Sporting events give a city or a region a state of hope. For instance, the state of Florida

The Summer and Winter Olympic Games alike provide an opportunity for countries to display their athletic prowess and national strengths. However, these competitions are often tainted with the corrupt seeds of politics. A wide variety of dangerous and damaging political power plays make an appearance in each Olympic gathering. In the beginning the Games were designed to be a truce period, but they are beginning to lose this component. Also, in every Games since the beginning of the modern Olympics, there has been some form of political activity present. Granted, the Olympics can be used to repair international relations through global partnerships; however, this should be the only instance where the Olympics are used as such. Also it is incredibly unjust to rob athletes of their Olympic dream if their team was to boycott the Games. In order to make the Olympics an enjoyable and rewarding experience for the athletes and spectators alike, the Games should be enjoyed from the athletic perspective alone, without coverage of the political action involved. In short, the Olympics are a rich, cultural tradition that should not be corrupted by politics.

The twenty-first century has produced a society driven by economic success, capitalism, and class and power disparity. Social institutions reflect these ideologies. The world of sport, in particular, has been severely impacted by the corporate mentality, transforming it from a game run by athletes to a big business where the decision-making rests in the hands of national organizations and flows towards the sources of revenue. Sports have become more like work than play, with the primary emphasis being placed on winning rather than playing. Winning attracts spectators and media, thereby bringing in more money. This has forced an evolution in the world of sports. First, one must look at the world of sport from its conception in order

Each year thousands of people leave events because stadiums do not do much to encourage them to come back. Without incentives, stadiums will lose many people at events and that results in a major loss of income. In order for a stadium to be successful, owners must intimately know what fans dislike, have a clear understanding of what they like, and figure out what fans want in sports stadiums in order for them to come back.

The world of sports has grown in massive proportions since the origination of broadcast in the early 1920’s (Citation). Although, some people today say that the relentless efforts of media and their desire to develop a story is ruining the industry entirely; would sports be where they are today if it weren’t for media outlets sending information alerts, broadcasting thousands of events, and advertising for important business supporters. There is an argument for both sides. The explosive growth of sports media allowed different forms to branch out and obtain powerful rolls in the sports entertainment industry. Different forms of media ranging from broadcast radio and TV, print newspapers, magazines, blogs, social networking cites, websites,

After the 1984 Los Angeles Games showed for the first time that mega-events could produce an economic surplus, mega-sport events, particularly the Olympic Games, acquired central status for city and national government development agendas (Andranovich, Burbank and Heying, 2001). And the appeal of hosting a mega-event, or more specifically a mega-sport event, has grown significantly over the

The biggest cultural factor U.S. franchises must overcome to increase popularity include increasing familiarity of the sport overseas. Sports are very important in the United States however, there are factors we have to take into consideration as far as other cultures are concerned. Understanding cultural differences of other countries such as religion, social structures, customs, manners, values, attitudes, language, and interpersonal communications have to be considered (Nickels, McHugh & McHugh, 2012). Previously, American teams were constructed from American athletes or American trained athletes. Moreover, the sports franchise have gone global recruitment of foreign athletes not only help make specific teams popular they also stimulate support from the country the athlete is from, making the sport popular amongst their country as well.

In this paper, I will explain why the Olympic Games are so costly to a city’s economy and are an extremely risky investment. I will then proceed to explain some misconceptions about economic analyses, and conclude by showing

Olympic Games are a premier athletic event for the athletes across the world. One international platform forms the zenith of sporting accomplishment for various individuals. The tally of medals is a matter of pride for various countries. Hosting an event as Olympic has its impact on the tourism industry and infrastructures of various cities and countries. The USA has appeared in more than 24 Olympics so far and has a great history of winning more than 2500 medals. In the last few decades, they have organized four editions of Summer Olympics and four editions of winter Olympics. It is an impressive record of accomplishment for any country in this international sporting arena. A current study is an approach to studying the impacts of Olympics in American sports culture. How it evolved under the spirit of Olympic and how it inspired many other countries of the world to match footsteps with the USA. This study will also throw light on “behind the scene" story of these medals. We will also

There is another major reason may explain why events have become an increasingly important of inner-urban competition attract by event attendee and visitors in the last few years is the cost of building a city landmark (Paddison, 1993). Because visitors are fascinated by cities’ landmark and people will be encouraged to visit the same place more than one time by hosting different events at the landmark area for visitors interests of exploring the new culture. They usually represent a less costly to distinguish places and normally generates a significant media interests (Paddison, 1993). The consequence is the cities are competing with each other for the honour of hosing large events to promote themselves to a greater market (Hall, 1992).

The Olympic Games are a worldwide competition that brings people of different cultures and backgrounds into one united area where they compete in their specialized sports. These events, however, are not purely entertainment like they should have been. Today’s societies are more dependent on politics and therefore so are sports and the athletes competing, sometimes even without their own will. In various occasions across the world politics was the main reason for athletes to withdraw from athletic events such as the world cup, Olympics, and any other worldwide or region wide competitions. On the other hand politics sometimes are the reason that some teams re-establish themselves and get back into the world scene in sports. This two sided

Secondly, the staging of Olympics often contains build the new sporting facilities or restructure the exiting ones. It is often claimed that those facilities have failed to produce a long-term benefits to the country; some of the sports venues often become unused after the Olympics is finished. However, this ignores the fact that the whole society will get beneficial from infrastructural investment and environmental improvement. The London 2012 Olympic Games have made a dedicated plan for the usage of facilities before the facilities is built. For example, after the games, the Olympics Village will become a new community housing. The new shopping centre, which is separated from the Olympic Park, will become an employment centre of this area. Transportation will get improved through the construct of new stations, line extensions and additional trains and a largest urban park will build available for both local community and for elite athletes (Olympic Delivery Authority, 2007).

Hosting a major sports event is a significant opportunity to boost economic growth for the developing countries. Enormous funds are invested in various sectors, concurrently