ABSTRACT

Hosting international sport events, from world championships for a single sport to mega-events such as the Olympic Games or the FIFA World Cup, has become big business over the past few decades. These events have grown tremendously since their early incarnations in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when the competitors were overwhelmingly European and, in many cases, only male. In contrast, today the Summer Olympics have over 10,000 athletes competing, 45 per cent of whom were female in the London, Great Britain 2012 Olympics (Factsheet, 2016), are televised or live-streamed over the internet to every country in the world, and receive over $1 billion (€901 million) in sponsorship in the four-year period leading up to them. The popularity and appeal of sport make hosting sporting events desirable for both local politicians and national sport leaders who work together to convince the public and the international sport community that an event should be held in a specific location.