Abstract
M.Comm. (Economics)
The financial involvement of the public sector in bidding for and hosting major international sporting events has taken various forms, including guarantees of events, sponsorships and direct government expenditure. The primary argument for the substantial use of public funds in the hosting of major events focuses on the ability to generate economic benefits for the public that exceed the costs involved. The scarcity of public funds in the public sector has led to growing scrutiny of allocation of public funds to support sporting events. The dissertation assesses whether or not the overall impact of major sporting events can justify the public funds used.
The socio-economic and other impacts of different events, in both developed and developing countries, based on their experiences in hosting different sporting events as well as South Africa’s own experience, have been evaluated in this study. It is the contention of this dissertation that although major international sporting events ostensibly have positive economic spin-offs for the host country, this does not appear to be supported by evidence. Given the weak evidence or lack of evidence that major international sporting events can produce net benefits, it is not clear what motivates countries to fiercely contest for hosting rights. This dissertation therefore questions whether the hosting of major international sporting events is pursued for pure economic reasons.