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| Fireworks from the 2016 Olympic Opening Ceremonies Rio de Janeiro, Brazil olympicssports.com |
With the conventions behind us and the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro front in center, yours truly decided that today would a great time to take a look at the benefits of mega-events and road test Blogger's two-word Portuguese vocabulary. Laura Bliss's CityLab article, "When Mega-Events Make Sense," is a thorough look at which mega i.e.-events-political conventions, super bowls, olympics, world cups, world's fairs, music and other occasions are good for cities. The planning and execution of these events require military precision. They hold out the promise of increased revenue for the host city. For example, the Republican National Committee, held in Cleveland, Ohio, projected $200 million in increased spending for its host. The Democratic National Committee Convention, held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, estimated that it would provide economic benefits of over $350 million. Sounds wonderful, right? Not so fast. As good as the promise of increased economic benefits sounds, it is frequently a case of promises undelivered. Ms. Bliss looks at the pros and cons of the different mega-events and rates them on a scale of 1 (worst) to 5 (best).
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| One of the men's swimming events 2016 Olympic Games Rio de Janeiro, Brazil olympicssports.com |
The Olympics
Pros: Being selected to host an Olympic Games gives a city an enormous sense of pride. After all, The Olympics are not just any ordinary sports event, they represent the very pinnacle of athletic competition. Anne-Marie Broudehoux, a scholar at the University of Québec who specializes in city branding, told Ms. Bliss,
Lots of people agree that civic pride is boosted by these events, and that's hard to build, so that's a positive.
A mega-event, like this ultimate athletic competition, has tremendous practical potential: if done correctly, smart cities can add incorporate appropriate infrastructure and attract outside investment while captivating the world. (The 1992 Summer Games helped power Barcelona's post-Franco revitalization). Laura Bliss notes, "...the city had a redevelopment plan in place before it placed its IOC bid. If a city, like Los Angeles, already has stellar sports facilities (slight bias here) and the political strength to host an Olympics, without spending a lot on new construction, so much the better.
Cons: Unfortunately, Barcelona and Los Angeles are the exceptions to recent Olympic history. The world got a glimpse at the many challenges Rio de Janeiro is facing when it hosted the World Cup Soccer tournament two years ago. The city has been plagued by: shoddy and useless construction, debt, wide-scale displacement of citizens, deadly disease, pollution, and political chaos. In short, Rio joins the long list of cities that dropped the ball on their hosting duties. In short, Los Angeles you might want to seriously think about hosting another Olympic Games.
Laura Bliss gives it 1/5 and Blogger concurs
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| Milan Expo Milan, Italy usapavilion2015.net |
Pros: World's fairs are another source of tremendous civic and national pride. They share some of the same benefits of Olympic games, with the bonus of a long duration and more flexible infrastructure i.e.-Paris's Eiffel Tower, Montreal's Habitat 67, and the Golden Gate Bridge. However, if you live in the United States, chances are you have never heard of these national branding festivals since the Vancouver Expo in 1986, the last world's fair held in North America. This is because the United States Congress banned the use of federal funds to support these mega-events in 1999. According to Mark Wilson, the head of the Mega-Event Planning Group at Michigan State University, "For many cities, particularly in Asia, holding a fair is a way of emerging onto the world stage.
Cons: Mr. Wilson added,
The pitfalls for world's fair aren't the wasteful white elephants of infrastructures , though they do happen....It's distorting your city to host it.
Like Olympics, cities planning for this type of mega-events go about it as an end in themselves, adjusting investment to support it instead of using the fair as a way to benefit the host city in the long term, as Montreal did successfully in 1967. Also, there is the specter of political and economic crisis as well as the potential for violent protests. In short, plan and execute with extreme military precision.
Laura Bliss gives it 2/5. Blogger gives it 2.5/5
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| Balloon drop from the DNC Convention Philadelphia, Pennsylvania lattices.com |
Pros: Aside from spending time in the white hot glare of the media spotlight, this election cycle's dramatics in Cleveland and Philadelphia brought in a working week's worth of increased tourism dollar to urban core hotels, ride sharing companies, restaurants. Most that increased revenue came from out-of-town visitors. To the wide-eyed civic leaders, it was "free" tax revenues.
Cons: No such thing as "free" anything. Laura Bliss writes, "While a sliver of the service industry might be running fat and happy, work-week road closures and traffic disrupt commutes and productivity, which has real dollar impacts..." Then there are the security costs. in 1968, the City of Chicago learned first-hand just how volatile these events can be. Matthew Burbank, a University of Utah political science professor with expertise in sports economics, said "...cities can underestimate just how much extra police they'll need to rope off street, create protest areas, block parking, and guard politicos." For example, in 2012 Charlotte and Atlanta spend $50 million in federal funds to provide convention security, with additional spending by cities reaching in the tens of millions. Those optimistic "direct spending" cost projections issued by the party committees frequently fail to account for these costs. According to Prof,. Burbank as the need for security grows,
It's become harder and harder for smaller cities to compete for these conventions, even though they might want them more.
In essence, as we have seen this chaotic election cycle, political conventions are high risk mega-events. Perhaps there is a safer way to stage a political mega-event
Laura Bliss gives it 3/5 however, Blogger disagrees and gives it 2/5
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| Duran Duran at Outside Lands 2016 San Francisco, California grimygoods.com |
Pros: Most music festivals are held out in the rural areas, to accommodate the huge crows and the high volume. However, the vast number of people crowding into Golden Gate Park for this year's Outside Lands Festival is a testament to the potential tax revenue boost for the city of San Francisco. Ms. Bliss cites the example of this year's Lollapalooza Festival, held in Grant Park in the city of Chicago. In 2014, the mega-event brought "roughly 300,000 people and a reported $82 million in direct spending in the city." The Chicago Parks Department receives $3 million of the annual ticket sales. Bob O'Neil, the president of the Grant Park Conversancy told NBC Chicago in 2015,
Grant Park is dependent on Lollapalooza now...Thousands of trees planted, different gardens renovated, and new gardens created.
Cons: aside from drunken and disorderly behavior, property damage, and other assorted dubious behavior, festivals can dampen non-event-related spending at nearby businesses as non-concert goes and local clear out. Thus Ms. Bliss concludes, "Also, no surprise here, but Chicago's been striking pretty corporate-friendly, tax-cutting deals with Lollapalooza's organizers, so the city isn't likely benefiting as much as it could." She suggests that cities should host their own music festival in a park, in conjunction with a non-profit organizer and book less corrosive acts.
Laura Bliss gives it 3.5/5. Blogger concurs.
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| Super Bowl 50 logo.svg en.wikipedia.org |
Pros: very little, if any, new infrastructure construction because the host city typically have a stadium to support the big game. The chances of any major blips on the screen, like the lack of seats at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium in 2011, are fairly low. Also, the blimp shots of your city's skyline are a pretty nice way to advertise yourself.
Cons: unlike political conventions or prolonged events like Olympics and world's fair, Super Bowl only bring one or two nights of additional tourist dollars. Most of the media spotlight is trained inside the stadium. The biggest risk is the weather-the reason why the NFL prefer indoor arenas or warm weather locales as host cities-and bad pregame press like San Francisco's homeless sweep. In short, go ahead and host a Super Bowl, just do not do anything foolish.
Laura Bliss give it a 4/5 and Blogger, not being much of a sports fan, gives it 3.5/5.
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| The Vatican Rome, Italy veltra.com |
Pros: Here is a questions, "...what does a Bavarian opera festival have in common with a sacred papal pilgrimage?" According to University of Birmingham senior research fellow Martin Müller, "To city events planners, they're both money for the same basic reason." Mr. Müller said,
For World Cups and the Olympic Games, you don't own the rights-they're franchises...As a city, you want to own then event you're hosting.
These multi-week occasions are synonymous with their locations, which allows Park City or Mecca to create an international identity. Also, because they continue to draw people year-in-year-out, infrastructure is re-used, the media attention is mostly positive, and people have jobs that depend on these events. Further, having multiple venues throughout the host city, pilgrimage-type events spread the tourist money around more evenly than conventions, concerts, or athletic events. Anne-Marie Broudehoux cites Montreal, which has branded itself as the "city of festivals," playing host to series of events over the summer to draw more manageable numbers of tourists to venues around the city.
Cons: next to none-at least until the mega-event gets so successful that it starts bringing new residents to the area, who eventually push out long-term resident. Always, always invest in crowd control: mind the lesson of Mecca during Hajj 2015 when thousands died in a stampede. In short, create an affordable housing plan, invest in expert crowd managements, and invent a place specific religion to draw adherents every year.
Laura Bliss gives it a 5/5 and Blogger concurs.
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