SPORTS EVENTS

Sports Events Effects on Community Development



Sports Events Effects on Community Development

Introduction

From the Greek Olympia stadium to the huge commercially sponsored sporting events today, throughout history communities have been built with great sports events as the center for their citizens' to enjoy their leisure time (Filo, Funk & O'Brien, 2008). Developed during WWII, the City of Jacinto City was built for men that worked for the steel mills and ship yards to house their families. During that time, little thought was given to the leisure needs of the community. Today, Jacinto City remains a blue-collar city with a high rate of residents living below the national poverty line. Due to the recession many people are currently not able to find work to do or only work a fraction of their previous hours. As a result, the community is experiencing a severe financial crisis (Filo, Funk & O'Brien, 2008). With the support of the local and county government, school district, local business and the faith based groups the city is developing a plan to create a sports venue for holding events that will stimulate community development.

Sports Events Effect Community Development

The City of Jacinto City and surroundings communities do not currently have a venue hosting such services. Many cities have achieved economic growth through creation of new jobs and tourist dollars through sports facilities and events. It is necessary for the city's policymakers to understand how the community will be affected by the addition of a new sports venue before making the decision of investing in a sports center.

Investments in sporting facilities and events in cities in the past 20 years was not primarily aimed at getting the local community involved in sports, but was instead aimed at attracting tourists, encouraging local investment and fostering community development (Gratton, Simon & Coleman, 2005). Many cities with the commercial partners continually spend hundreds of millions of dollars to promote mega sports venues with the intentions of developing once decayed communities. One such example is the commonwealth of Sheffield they spent £147 million on sporting facilities in hopes that they would win the bid to host the 1991 World Student Games.

By hosting these games the surrounding area could increase their tourism and redefine the once decayed community as a tourist destination. Even though Sheffield was not awarded the game they used the venues to host other smaller events so that their investment in the community would payoff in the long term (Gratton, Simon & Coleman, 2005). Cities such as Indianapolis, Houston and Cleveland are also using sports as a means to regenerate these once industrial areas into major tourist destinations. The U.S. cities have centered their development on professional sports teams while their European counterparts host major international sporting events (Gratton, Simon & Coleman, 2005).

Donnelly (2000) mentions sports events affect community development in a number of ways. Sport managers operating within community level sport organizations such as local clubs and associations must be able to provide safe and enjoyable sport participation ...