The Sustainability of Mega Events: Global Successes & Failures

This essay examines the sustainability of mega events, focusing on the Olympic Games as a prominent example. It explores the concept of sustainability within the context of large-scale sporting events, considering the Triple Bottom Line model (economic, social, and environmental impacts). The essay discusses the positive and negative impacts of hosting mega events, such as job creation, infrastructure development, increased revenue, and media attention, while also addressing potential drawbacks like economic risks, environmental concerns, and social disruptions. It provides examples of both successful and unsuccessful sustainability efforts, including the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, and concludes that while mega events offer economic and social benefits, their long-term sustainability is complex and requires careful planning and management to mitigate negative consequences.

The sustainability of Mega Events is a myth Discuss this
statement by comparing successes and failures of mega
events worldwide

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................6
Reference.........................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Sustainability within mega sports events is an alarming concept which has come into
consideration. The organisers of the event are seeking to create a green event and this is a
problem while increasing sustainability. The Olympic games are one of the leading international
sporting events that features winter and summer competitions and in this there are thousands of
athletes across the world come together for participating. The Olympic games are known as the
world's foremost sports competition and there are more than 200 countries which participate in
this competition. Olympic games, athletic festivals that originated in Ancient Greece and these
revived in the 19th Century. In the early stages games were officially limited to the competitors
but now with amateur status and in the year 1980, there were several events opened to
professional athletes. The Olympic games are open for all countries whether they are developing
or developed countries. The Olympic movement includes sports federation and committees. The
ancient Olympic games were athletic festivals that were organised in every four years. In the
time of Zeus, this held between two city or states and kingdoms of Ancient Greece. Different
developed as well as developing nations host mega sports events such as FIFA world cup,
Common wealth games, Olympics games, etc. The following essay is based on the topic i.e. can
sustainability be achieved at mega sporting events. This essay will include a thorough
understanding of the Triple Bottom Line model.
Sustainability is defined as the height or level of existence of anything. There is no single
approach for defining sustainability. According to the commission of environment and
development “ the sustainability development is defined as the development that leads in
meeting the needs of present scenarios and not comprising the future needs. This includes
combination of different factors such as economic growth, environmental protection and social
progress. If the game organisations have to sustain for longer they must focus on these three
factors. The Olympic movement is added to the games as this will help in making sustainable
development. This includes developing of various policies and plans that support environmental
cause through sportive activities. In the year 2013, Olympic games Impact study was developed
(Milton, Cavill, and Bauman, 2019). There are basically three scopes of sustainability
development including economic, environmental and socio cultural after analysing the effect of
Olympics. The first Olympic games that was a clear environmental agenda was 2000 Sydney
Summer Olympics. After analysing the impact of different games, an Event sustainability

management system id developed which will provide an international, voluntary guideline for
different types of events for achieving sustainability.
A triple Bottom Line model is important for analysing sustainability within mega sports events.
According to this factor, there are three factors of conducting any Olympic event are economic,
social and environmental. For sustaining in market for long, it is important to have financial
aiding. It is important for every mega sporting event that it should focus on all three factors –
planet, people and profit while organising various events. The aspect which is related to people
deals with social factors and this aims for creating a strong civil society. The main objective of
Sporting events is to maximise overall benefits and minimising negative social impact costs for
people. According to the triple Bottom model, the second part focuses on the environmental
issues and these are linked to the minimisation of waste. It is assured that the amount of
resources must be controlled. Another component of this theory is economic nature that is related
to a concept that it is essential for maintaining economic capital. This enhances efficiency of
input and output cycle while emphasising on increase of financial revenues.
Positive and negative impact of Olympic games on the host city
Different cities which host Olympics gain temporary jobs because of the improvement in
infrastructure which benefits cities in future. This can be explained with an example, city naming
Rio has constructed new hotel in order to provide accommodation to different tourists (Gaffney,
2016). Sochi has to invest an amount of more than $42.5 billion for constructing nonsports
infrastructure in the Olympics 2014. Also, Beijing has also spent lot of money for constructing
roads, rails and airports for sports people. Moreover, there are a lot of sponsors, media persons,
athletes which travel form different countries and they stay in host country for six months or
more, this brings an additional revenue. On the other hand, there are some drawbacks which are
affected by the organisation of Olympics game. The Olympics has affected business and hosting
countries like Olympics helps in doing business that is helpful in increasing sales, advertisements
and reputation by sponsorships. Different companies, sponsorships and investors across the
world focuses on Olympics for increasing profits and sales, hosting this game and providing
benefits to businessman for increasing profits. While hosting Olympic games, there are different
benefits for host country which are divided into long term as well as short term goals. There is
economic development as free cash flow is there because of increase in visitors to the host
country, official and athletes. The long term economic benefits by Olympics are creation of

infrastructure. The host country in which Olympics is happening has to produce more products
and services with quality as these products or goods are provided to international officials and
athletes. There are some sponsors included in Olympics which consume commodities. The total
amount of additional revenue is achieved from selling goods and products. Olympics also helps
in increasing possibilities of job. This is explained by an example the economic estimate in
Atlanta and Georgia are states which organised Olympics and created employment for
approximately seventy thousand employees (Hoff,s and Leopkey, 2019). The Olympics is also
helpful in increasing food industry like bars, restaurants, cafes, etc. Increase in infrastructure
leads to new opportunities for the construction industry too. There is positive impact of hosting
Olympics is using media for releasing information regarding games.
The negative impact of Olympic to the country includes downfall and risk in economic growth. It
is a big responsibility to host Olympic Games and this is risk for economy as there is lot of
money invested for organising event. There is no information about how many visitors are
coming in game. This leads in risking funds and there is no backup plan if number of visitors
from different country are less. There is focus on cleanliness of streets and city when this event
happens. Money earned from visitors and tourists supports management of wastage. Countries
have to invest lot of money for keeping cities clean and well presented at the time of Olympics.
The main disadvantage of Olympics to the host country basically for poor countries or cities as
waste of resources is used for corruption, welfare of citizens, benefits of meeting new business
people but in all this poor people are the sufferers. The sporting events are just waste of money
and resource. Countries can use this money for more productive work like improving
infrastructure, providing proper education and curing malaria. Another negative impact of
Olympics on host city is social impact and this is cumulative. These games affects increase of
price such as land rental values. The negative impact of Olympic games is affected on transport
infrastructure, housing, facilities and maintenance for meeting demands and requirements of
international Olympic committee. This also helps in impressing public. In context of Olympics
held at London, the estimated budget was more than the actual price incurred while
implementing the project. Olympics held at Athens in the year 2004 was failed in motivating
economic growth because of the lack of publicity or promotion. This country was under a lot of
debt while organising Olympics.

The UEFA provides an application for helping fans offset the carbon impact of the tournament.
There are some football clubs around the world which are working upon reducing emissions and
recycling waste. The main sustainable examples of Olympics is Tokyo's 2020 green Olympics
(Pratt, and Chan, 2016). The theme of this Olympics is “be better, together” and this is
organised by organising committee of 2020 Olympics japan. These games have made most
sustainable games ever. There will be village developed for all athletes which is developed from
local wood and event vehicle uses hydrogen fuel cells. Electricity will be provided from
renewable sources like solar generation and 99% of work is done by using solar electricity. This
is a big step towards sustainability of games.
CONCLUSION
From the above essay, it is concluded that Olympic games have both positive as well as
negative impact on the hosting country. Olympic games are not only just games but they are
included in political, social, economical aspects. There is inspiration for youth for seeing
Olympic attraction as a tourist attraction. At the international level, Olympic games are an
effective thing that helps in making a lot of money to economy. On the other hand, there is also
negative impact of these sporting events on the economy and environment of host countries.

Reference
Books & Journals
Gaffney, C., 2016. Gentrifications in pre-Olympic Rio de Janeiro. Urban Geography, 37(8),
pp.1132-1153.
Hoff, K.J. and Leopkey, B., 2019. Non-Host City Olympic Legacies: The Case of Athens,
Georgia and the 1996 Olympic Games. Journal of Global Sport Management, pp.1-23.
Milton, K., Cavill, N. and Bauman, A., 2019. Intersectoral partnership: a potential legacy
success of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. International Journal of
Sport Policy and Politics, 11(1), pp.97-102.
Pratt, S. and Chan, W.S., 2016. Destination image and intention to visit the Tokyo 2020
Olympics among Hong Kong Generation Y. Journal of China Tourism Research, 12(3-
4), pp.355-373.s