Sustainable mega sport events: Oxymoron or reality? - Q3

Participation Prerequisites

There are no specific requirements.

Course Content

Public referenda have become a frequent tool of popular sovereignty across Western democracies (Casella & Gelman, 2008). Unsurprisingly, this general trend also affects applicant cities willing to host mega sport events such as the Olympic Games. For example, referenda have recently put an end to seven Olympic candidatures (Graubünden, Munich, and Krakow for the 2022 Olympics, Hamburg for the 2024 Olympics, Innsbruck and Graubünden again for the 2026 Olympics, and Vienna for 2028 Olympics). Additionally, Boston and Budapest canceled their candidatures for the 2024 Olympics facing both an apparent lack of public support and demands for referenda. Potentially triggered by the recent rejections of Olympic host ambitions, researchers, primarily those operating in the field of sports economics, have begun to explore the determinants of individual citizen support for Olympic bids (e.g., Atkinson, Mourato, Szymanski, & Ozdemiroglu, 2008; Coates & Wicker, 2015; Preuss & Werkmann, 2011; Walton, Longo, & Dawson, 2008; Wicker & Coates, 2018; Wicker, Whitehead, Mason, & Johnson, 2016). Interestingly, an argument frequently raised by opponents is that such a hosting is unlikely to be sustainable or, even worse, harmful, primarily to the environment. Therefore, in this course, we will assess the economic, environmental, and social footprint of (mega) sports events such as the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup, also discussing recent developments in professional football. Based on this initial assessment, students will work in teams to develop a first concept for sustainable mega sports events.

Instruction Type

Following an interactive introductory kick-off session, all students will evaluate the sustainability of a recent mega sports event in small groups, thereby exploring previous challenges and developing recommendations leading to increasingly sustainable mega sport events in the future. Throughout the initial analysis, either complete groups or their team captains continuously spare with the course instructor. To ensure progress, there are, among other things, mandatory feedback sessions. Students then present their results to their classmates in class. To allow for questions from both the instructor and the classmates, the presentation is followed by a short Q&A session. Having listened to multiple student presentations on a range of different mega sport events in-class during the last session, students, then, reflect on both emerging/repeating patterns in the sustainability of previous mega sport event and their learning experience in form of a short reflection paper answering the question of whether sustainable mega sport events are either an oxymoron or (already) reality.

Form of Examination

Literature

There are no prerequisite readings for this seminar. References will be provided during our first class meeting at the beginning of the semester.