mega-events; Olympic Games; impacts; World Cup; mega-projects; Expos
WolfeSven Daniel (2020), ‘For the benefit of our nation’: unstable soft power in the 2018 men’s World Cup in Russia, in
International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, 12(4), 545-561.
WolfeSven Daniel (2020), Potemkin neoliberalism: developing Volgograd through the 2018 Men’s World Cup in Russia, in
Sport in Society, 0(0), 1-19.
GolubchikovOleg, WolfeSven Daniel (2020), Russia and the politics of extraverted urbanism in the 2014 Winter Olympics and the 2018 FIFA World Cup, in Díaz Álvaro Rodríguez, Rojo-Labaien Ekain, Rookwood Joel (ed.), Routledge, London, 214-232.
WolfeSven Daniel (2019), Urban Development Through the 2018 FIFA Men’s Football World Cup: Mutated Mobile Policies in the Peripheries, in
Gorodskie Issledovaniya i Praktiki [Urban Studies and Practices], 4(3), 23-41.
MüllerMartin, GaffneyChristopher (2018), Globalization and mega-events: thinking through flows, in Kloosterman Robert C., Terhorst Pieter, Mamadouh Virginie (ed.), Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 296-305.
Müller Martin, Gaffney Christopher (2018), Comparing the Urban Impacts of the FIFA World Cup and Olympic Games From 2010 to 2016, in
Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 42(4), 247-269.
Wolfe Sven Daniel, Müller Martin (2018), Crisis neopatrimonialism: Russia’s new political economy and the 2018 World Cup, in
Problems of Post-Communism, 65(2), 101-114.
Gaffney Christopher, Wolfe Sven Daniel, Müller Martin (2018), Scrutinizing global mega-events, in Hoyler Michael, Harrison John (ed.), Sage, London, 125-137.
Müller Martin (2017), How mega-events capture their hosts: event seizure and the World Cup 2018 in Russia, in
Urban Geography, 38(8), 1113-1132.
Müller Martin (2017), What makes an event a mega-event? Definitions and sizes, in Frawley Stephen (ed.), Routledge, London, 8-23.
MüllerMartin, WolfeSven Daniel, GaffneyChristopher, GogishviliDavid, HugMiriam, LeickAnnick, Evaluating the sustainability of the Olympic Games, in
Nature Sustainability, 4(3).
The costs and infrastructural requirements of mega-events such as the Olympic Games and the Football World Cup put them among the single most transformative ventures for cities today. At the same time, their complexity and tendency to exceed budgets make them highly risky undertakings. Despite this, little is known about the impacts of different mega-events across time and the driving factors behind these impacts. This project proposes to establish the size, costs and impacts of a longitudinal sample of 66 mega-events since 1960 and the driving factors behind these impacts. It builds on Phase 1 of the Swiss National Science Foundation Professorship (running from 2013 to 2017) in moving from the findings from four case studies to an examination of a much wider range of cases, applying methods that allow greater generalisation. It will consider three types of mega-events: (1)the Olympic Summer and Winter Games as a uni-local sports event(2)the Football World Cup as a multi-local sports event (3)the World’s Fairs (Expos) as a uni-local non-sports event The project is split into two modules. Module 1 will build a database with indicators describing the size, costs and impacts and potential driving factors of the 66 mega-events. It categorises impacts into six dimensions: venues, transport infrastructure, other infrastructure, social impacts, image impacts and economic impacts. For building the database, the module will draw on existing documents from official reports and audits, press releases, media reports and academic studies. The data will be analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics to extract trends and patterns. Module 2 seeks to establish the driving factors behind impacts. For this it works with bivariate regression modelling, using different definitions of impacts as dependent variables and a suite of potential driving factors, relating to planning processes, interests, biases, governance and complexity. Module 2 seeks to establish what factors are associated with what kinds of impacts.This project will result in two major innovations. First, it will provide the first longitudinal record on the size, costs and impacts of the largest mega-events. In so doing, it moves beyond the single or small-n case studies that dominate mega-event research. Second, it will contribute to reorienting discussions on what drives impacts in mega-events through exploring a much wider range of antecedents of impacts than previous studies. As a practical implication, this project will provide transparent and comparable information on the impacts of mega-events that a range of stakeholders concerned with bidding for or hosting mega-events - policy-makers, governing bodies, the media, citizens - can draw on to make informed decisions about bidding and hosting.