Is Bigger really Better? Mega Events vs Mass Participation Events
Sports Business ran an article about the effect of mass participation events versus mega events for host cities, comparing the value of each type of event.
Hosting either of them presents its own individual challenges and benefits, and being able to host both and all in the same year, deserves the type of awards cities like London, Melbourne and Auckland have been bestowed with. But is bigger really better? Or have mass participation events become better value for host cities than mega events?
Legacy of an Event
If you want to be remembered, do it big. Mega events have the ability to provide exposure for a host city like no other. Brazil’s Ministry of Tourism recorded nearly 6.5m tourists during the 2014 World Cup; that’s a lot of money being spent on hotels, transport, food, tourist activities, tickets, merchandise and more. Whereas mass participation events normally last for a day or two, mega events can go on for weeks and the energy is felt in the air months before and after. They are unforgettable, mainly because the media and the hundreds of event related advertisements won’t let you forget them!
That’s not to say mass participation events don’t go down in the history books. Last year Cancer Research raised £5.51 million in gross income, the highest out of all sporting and non-sporting mass participation events fundraisers in the country. And that money may save hundreds or even thousands of people’s lives; it is a life-changing event. However, events like the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup have been around for decades, will continue to be around for decades, have hundreds of news stories attached to them and change the landscape of a country in a way that prompts journalists to talk about them using terms such as ‘London pre and post-games’. Can mass participation events do that?
Cost
It’s obvious which type of event costs more, the name says it all. While mega events such as the Rugby World Cup and Summer Olympics provide cities with an incentive to develop new infrastructure and attract investment, they come at a huge cost. Billions of pounds in fact, and a quick Google search will bring up stories of the Host City Curse, tales about cities that have fallen into debt after hosting sporting events. Edmonton recently pulled out of hosting the 2020 Commonwealth Games because they couldn’t afford it, and many other mega events are facing challenges in finding suitable hosts.
Mass participation events are a less risky investment, and depending on a city’s objectives for hosting an event, can have similar if not the same outcomes. Take the World Masters Games for example; held every four years - like the FIFA World Cup, the event has developed into the largest of its kind. In 2009, it saw 28,676 participants from 95 different countries, competing in 28 different sports. The last Olympics saw 10,768 athletes from 204 different countries competing in 26 different sports, and cost a considerable amount more.
Ultimately, the choice between hosting a mass participation event or a mega event depends on what sort of outcomes a city wants to achieve, because value is judged on how well the event does against the initial and desired outcomes. Increasing GDP, raising international profile and fast-tracking infrastructure can be done by hosting a mega event, while business networking, community engagement and raising funds for charity often follow a mass participation event.
The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race is a mass participation event with a mega event feel. It has 690 crew members from 44 different nationalities, 12 yachts, crosses 6 continents, and lasts 11 months. The cities that have hosted the Clipper Race have benefited from building new trade links, they’ve won bids to host future mega events and attracted hundreds of thousands of tourists.
One of the race’s host cities, Derry-Londonderry, won the Northern Ireland Tourism Board (NITB) award for Best Event/Festival Experience after using its Clipper Race partnership during 2013-14 to shine a spotlight on the city’s identity as a leading cultural destination and attract wider overseas tourism, investment and trade. Derry-Londonderry developed a maritime festival around the arrival of the fleet of Clipper Race yachts which attracted 150,000 visitors and injected a £3 million direct boost to the local economy. The festival not only promoted Derry-Londonderry but also Northern Ireland and the North West region as a whole with 98% of spectators saying they felt it improved the country’s image globally. The city has put itself on the world map, becoming one of the Lonely Planet’s ‘Top 5 Cities to Visit in the World’.
The fleet of Clipper Race yachts recently left Australia and is heading to Da Nang, Vietnam. Da Nang, recently named Tripadvisor 2015 Top Destination on the Rise, is a first time Host Port, Team Sponsor, and is keen to show off the best that the city has to offer. The Clipper Race will help it to achieve that.