Chris Gratton

Maximizing Olympic Impacts by Building Up Legacies

This contribution adds to the controversial discussion of the investment of scarce public resources in mega sport events such as the Olympic Games. The positive, or negative, legacy of mega sport events will be considered. A definition of legacy will be given, how legacy might be measured is discussed and the key elements that make up a legacy are identified. Examples are taken from recent Olympic Games and other mega sports events such as the Manchester Commonwealth Games in 2002.

Sport in the city: the role of sport in economic and social regeneration.

Part One. Introduction Part Two. Sport and Economic Regeneration Part Three. Sports Events: Bidding, Planning and Organisation Part Four. Urban Sports Tourism Part Five. Sport and the Development of Urban Part Six. Politics and Sports Policy Part Seven. Conclusion

The economic importance of major sports events: a case-study of six events

This paper reports the results of an economic impact assessment of six major sports events held in the UK in 1997. Major sports events are now regarded by many cities as a significant part of their tourism strategy. However, staging a major sports event normally involves the host city making a contribution to the costs. Whether such a contribution is justified depends on the economic benefits generated in the local economy. The results reported in this paper indicate the wide variability in such benefits as well as the difficulty sometimes encountered in predicting what these benefits will be prior to the staging of the event. An attempt is made to develop a typology of major sports events in terms of their potential to generate significant economic impact.

Sport and Economic Regeneration in Cities

Investment in sporting infrastructure in cities over the past 20 years was not primarily aimed at getting the local community involved in sport, but was instead aimed at attracting tourists, encouraging inward investment and changing the image of the city. The first example of this new strategy was seen in Sheffield with the investment of £147 million in sporting facilities to host the World Student Games of 1991. More recently, Manchester spent over £200 million on sporting venues in order to host the 2002 Commonwealth Games, with a further £470 million expenditure on other non-sport infrastructure investment in Sportcity in east Manchester. In the British context, most of the cities following this strategy of using sport for economic regeneration have been industrial cities, not normally known as major tourist destinations. The drivers of such policies were the need for a new image and new employment opportunities caused by the loss of their conventional industrial base. This article analyses the justification for such investments in sport in cities and assesses the evidence for the success of such strategies.

The economic impact of major sports events: a review of ten events in the UK

Over recent years there has been a marked contrast between the discussions around the economic impact of major sports events in North America on the one hand and most of the rest of the world on the other. In the USA the sports strategies of cities in the USA have largely been based on infrastructure (stadium) investment for professional team sports, in particular, American football, baseball, basketball, and ice hockey. Over the last decade cities have offered greater and greater incentives for these professional teams to move from their existing host cities by offering to build a new stadium to house them. The teams sit back and let the host and competing cities bid up the price. They either move to the city offering the best deal or they accept the counter offer invariably put to them by their existing hosts. This normally involves the host city building a brand new stadium to replace the existing one which may only be ten or fifteen years old. The result is that at the end of the 1990s there were thirty major stadium construction projects in progress, around one-third of the total professional sports infrastructure, but over half of all professional teams in the USA have expressed dissatisfaction with their current facilities.

Sports participation and health

Two earlier papers, Gratton and Tice (1987a and 1987b) reported the results of preliminary analyses of the association between the way people spend their leisure time and various health indicators. The focus of interest was sports participants and these were contrasted with non-participants under four general headings: health status, health attitudes, health lifestyles, and leisure orientation. The data-base used was the 1980 General Household Survey. This paper summarizes those earlier results and then takes the analysis a stage further in two important respects. Firstly, within the sports participant group, different levels of participation are measured by incorporating data on frequency of participation and level of exertion involved in the activity and hence a more sophisticated measure of participation is derived. Secondly, the analysis is broadened by extending it into two other data-sets, the 197 General Household Survey and the Health and Lifestyle Survey, both of which provide additional informat...

Structural change in the European package tour industry: UK/German comparisons.

This paper analyses the development of the European package tour market paying particular attention to the two major package tour markets in Europe, the UK and Germany. It shows how both markets show high concentration with the top three firms supplying over half the market. Despite this similarity in market structure, UK and German package tour operators show great differences in conduct and performance. Whereas the UK market is characterized by fierce price competition, low profit margins, and high rates of entry and exit, the German market has none of these characteristics. It is argued that the UK market is a contestable market in Baumols terms whereas the German market is a stable oligopoly. The competitiveness of the UK market has led firms to concentrate on the home market to protect market share. The oligopolistic nature of the German market has prevented more growth for German firms in their home market and has led to expansion into other European markets. These points are highlighted by an analysis of data from the FVW International survey of European tour operators for the period 1988–1993.

International Comparisons of Sports participation in European Countries: an Update of the COMPASS Project

Abstract This paper looks back to an international comparative study of sports participation in seven European countries that was carried out in the late 1990s, COMPASS 1999. The original COMPASS study used data from the 1995-1997 period. This paper reviews the COMPASS framework and results, considers what new evidence is available to update the original COMPASS results, and considers what changes would be needed to the COMPASS approach if a new comparative study were undertaken today. Finally, the paper attempts to find explanations for the European pattern of sports participation revealed.

The global economics of sport.

1. The Historical and Economic Development of the Sport Market 2. The Global Sport Market 3. Global Sports Organizations 4. Global Sports Events 5. Global Sport Corporations 6. Sport Broadcasting 7. Sports Sponsorship 8. Globalisation of the Sport Market Costs and Benefits

A forecast of the performance of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in the London 2012 Olympic Games

This paper aims to forecast the performance of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in the 2012 London Olympic Games. Previous research has relied primarily on population size and gross domestic product (GDP) to predict Olympic performance but the methodology used here follows the approach of Shibli and Bingham (2008), who predicted that China would win 46 gold medals in Beijing 2008. This approach is based on the thesis that elite performance is now more a matter of managed public investment and therefore less dependent on non-controllable variables such as population size and GDP. The Shibli and Bingham forecasts proved to be the most accurate forecast made, even though it was five medals short of Chinas total of 51 gold medals. In this paper, we extend the analysis to include total medals as well as gold medals and conclude that Great Britain and Northern Ireland will win 27 gold medals in London 2012 and 56 medals in total. Furthermore, we can reasonably expect Great Britain and Northern Ireland to win medals in 15 sports and 18 disciplines. If our forecasts prove to be accurate, then on all four measures 2012 will be Great Britains best performance in the Olympic Games since 1908.