Impact of Major Sporting Events on Host Communities Essay

Impact of Major Sporting Events on Host Communities - Essay Example 2010). Thus, this essay critically evaluates whether major sport events are of major benefit to the host city, region, or country. Social Impacts Tourism research has presented a wide array of proof that major sport events can have negative and positive impacts on a host city. Several of the positive outcomes concern economic gain or national honour and high spirits among citizens. This national honour leads to the ‘psychic income’ related to hosting a major event (Gratton & Henry 2001, 32). Moreover, major sporting events have been said to introduce nations to new knowledge and lead to a liberalisation of ideals in closed societies. As a worldwide event, sport draws active involvement and mass viewership, both creating the sub-cultural features of such sport (Gratton & Henry 2001). Commonly, scholars give much attention to the economic effects of major sporting events, thus studies in this field is scarce. According to Hall (1992), social impacts is â€Å"the manner in which tourism and travel affect changes in the collective and individual value systems, behaviour patterns, community structures, lifestyle and quality of life† (as cited in Robinson et al. 2011, 155). ... Recently, there has been an increasing attention given to the social gains of major sporting events for societies. The investigation of Waitt (2003) on the social outcomes of the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 reported that in spite of disapproving outlooks and objections to the prelude to the event, all through the event there was â€Å"a reason to celebrate rather than protest† (as cited in Pedersen et al. 2010, 238) and citizens disclosed a heightened feeling of national pride. Likewise, Kim and Petrick (2005 as cited in Pedersen et al. 2010, 238), in an investigation of the South Korea FIFA World Cup in 2002, discovered that even though the passion does appear to ebb after the sport event, it does not fade entirely. A further social gain of major sporting events for hosting societies is the gift of urban restoration. In fact, hosting the 1987 America’s Cup has been recognised as the driving mechanism for the reconstruction of the metropolitan zone in Fremantle, Austra lia. It has been discovered that the apprehensions about severe traffic jams and overcrowding were groundless (Pedersen et al. 2010). Rather, as stated by Pedersen and colleagues (2010), citizens believed that development in infrastructures and opportunity for improved tourism would further enhance the better standard of living in the period after the event. Nevertheless, positive impacts may not constantly stem from major sporting events. According to Higham (1999 as cited in Hinch & Higham 2011, 55), some of the negative outcomes of sport events are interruptions to traditional lifestyle, displacement of local communities, and congestion. Hall and Hodges (1996 as cited