Description
Some sport event stakeholders now look beyond “impact” to achieving longer-term,
sustainable outcomes. This move away from an ex post, outcomes orientation towards an ex ante,
strategic approach refers to the phenomenon of event leveraging. This paper aims to introduce readers
to the concept, and poses practical exercises to challenge current thinking on sport event impacts
International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research
Executive training exercise in sport event leverage
Danny O'Brien Laurence Chalip
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Danny O'Brien Laurence Chalip, (2007),"Executive training exercise in sport event leverage", International
J ournal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 1 Iss 4 pp. 296 - 304
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Kostas Karadakis, Kiki Kaplanidou, George Karlis, (2010),"Event leveraging of mega sport events: a SWOT
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Girish M. Ramchandani, Richard J . Coleman, (2012),"The inspirational effects of three major sport
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Angelo Presenza, Lorn Sheehan, (2013),"Planning tourism through sporting events", International J ournal
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Executive training exercise
in sport event leverage
Danny O’Brien
Department of Tourism, Leisure, Hotel and Sport Management,
Grif?th University, Gold Coast, Australia, and
Laurence Chalip
University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA
Abstract
Purpose – Some sport event stakeholders now look beyond “impact” to achieving longer-term,
sustainable outcomes. This move away from an ex post, outcomes orientation towards an ex ante,
strategic approach refers to the phenomenon of event leveraging. This paper aims to introduce readers
to the concept, and poses practical exercises to challenge current thinking on sport event impacts.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper provides an introduction to the literature on the
strategic leveraging of sport events and presents three theoretical models depicting various aspects of
event leverage. The paper includes training exercises on the subject of sport event leverage along with
possible answers.
Findings – Building on prior work, this paper proposes a new model for social leverage. The model
and the related discussion highlight potential synergies between economic and social leverage.
Research limitations/implications – As the proposed model for social leverage is essentially
exploratory, it remains empirically untested. This represents an obvious challenge for further
research.
Practical implications – This paper recognizes that, particularly in the last decade, a paradigm
shift has taken place in parts of the international events community, and provides a challenge and
potential direction for event practitioners to continue the path towards achieving the triple bottom line
of economic, social and environmental bene?ts for host communities.
Originality/value – The social leverage model breaks new ground in the (sport) events ?eld, as does
the push towards sustainability and a more triple bottom line approach to event outcomes.
Keywords Stakeholder analysis, Sporting events, Training
Paper type Research paper
In recent decades, sport events and the tourism they engender have come to represent a
core component of the destination marketing mix in many of the world’s larger cities
and regional centers. Predictably, this change has fuelled unprecedented rivalry among
cities to host major sport events. This global competition for events has prompted a
great deal of research exploring the economic effects of sport events on host
communities (Crompton, 1995; Dwyer et al., 2000; Mules and Faulkner, 1996). Primarily
this research has been impact focused – approaching event outcomes from an ex post
standpoint. However, particularly in the last decade, a subtle, yet profound shift in the
international event community has begun to unfold.
While maximizing the short-term visitation-related impacts from events remains a
priority, stakeholders in some of the world’s major sport events now leverage for
longer-termoutcomes such as repeat visitation to host regions; re-imaging of host cities
in key tourism markets; fostering regional business relationships; and encouraging
inward trade, investment, and employment. This phenomenon of strategically
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1750-6182.htm
IJCTHR
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Received February 2007
Revised April 2007
Accepted May 2007
International Journal of Culture,
Tourism and Hospitality Research
Vol. 1 No. 4, 2007
pp. 296-304
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1750-6182
DOI 10.1108/17506180710824181
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planning for the maximization of both short- and long-term event outcomes is referred
to as event leveraging. Indeed, many mega events staged in the last decade have been
accompanied by strategic leveraging programs. For example, the 2002, 2006 and 2010
Commonwealth Games in Manchester, Melbourne, and New Delhi, respectively, the
2003 Brisbane Rugby World Cup, and at every Olympic Games since Sydney 2000,
leveraging programs to facilitate tourism and business development have
accompanied, or are planned for, each event.
Thus, an event leveraging perspective represents a fundamental shift from the
traditional ex post, impact-driven, outcomes orientation, to a more strategic ex ante,
analytical approach. In other words, rather than looking back at event outcomes, a
leveraging perspective entails looking forward to planning precisely how host
communities can derive sustainable bene?ts from sport events, whether from
enhanced tourism, business, social aspects, or other types of bene?ts.
Chalip (2007) argues that event leveraging involves an inherent learning aspect
where event planners approach the notion of “impact” more as an indicator of the
success or otherwise of particular implementations, rather than as an end in itself.
Explaining this phenomenon, Chalip (2004, p. 245) suggests that:
. . . it is no longer suitable merely to host an event in the hope that desired outcomes will be
achieved; it is necessary to form and implement strategies and tactics that capitalize fully on
the opportunities each event affords.
Thus, rather than the traditional “build it and they will come” approach to sport event
outcomes, as O’Brien (2006, p. 258) argues, “events and the opportunities they present
are merely the seed capital; what hosts do with that capital is the key to realizing
sustainable longer-term legacies.”
Leveraging sport events for economic bene?ts
This paradigm shift from an event impact to an event leveraging perspective has
prompted a burgeoning body of literature to explore the phenomenon (Chalip, 2000,
2001, 2004, 2005, 2007; Chalip and Leyns, 2002; Green and Chalip, 1998; Green, 2001;
O’Brien, 2006, 2007; O’Brien and Gardiner, 2006; O’Brien and Chalip, 2008). Re?ecting
the emphasis in the practitioner community, the overwhelming majority of work to
date focuses on event leverage for tourism and economic development. To start
building theory in this relatively unexplored territory, Chalip (2004) proposes an
economic leveraging model that envisages a region’s portfolio of events as a
leverageable resource for both immediate- and longer-term bene?ts. As Figure 1
shows, for immediate leverage, event organizers aim to maximize total trade and
revenue from events. Chalip suggests four means by which revenue and trade
optimization can be achieved:
(1) entice visitor spending;
(2) lengthen visitor stays;
(3) retain event expenditures; and
(4) use the event to enhance regional business relationships.
Meanwhile, longer-term leverage is achievable through using event media to enhance a
host community’s image. Figure 1 shows that this strategic objective breaks down into
two complementary tactics:
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(1) showcasing the region through event advertising and reporting; and
(2) using the event in regional advertising and promotions.
Using a case study approach, O’Brien (2007) uses Chalip’s model for economic leverage
to analyze how the organizers of a regional sur?ng festival created sustainable
outcomes for the host community. He ?nds support for Chalip’s model, but also
illustrates how the organizers’ integration of the focal sport subculture into the sur?ng
festival, particularly the event’s augmentations, was central to leveraging success.
Augmentations provide an additional event dimension beyond the sport competition,
and may include opportunities to learn, achieve, socialize, or any combination of these
attributes (Green, 2001). Meanwhile, Green (2001) suggests that sport consumption can
be perceived as an articulation of certain values that underpin particular sport
subcultures; and event organizers’ examination of a sport subculture’s values and the
identities associated with the focal sport can generate marketing bene?ts for event
promotion, and can also encourage visitor spending. Chalip and McGuirty (2004) also
identify the link between augmentations and the marketing of events, and commented
that event organizers can build their market, “by developing augmentations that are
likely to be attractive to persons with values and interests like those represented by the
event” (Chalip and McGuirty, 2004, p. 270).
Thus, appropriately conceiving augmentations serves to lengthen visitors’ stays
and to increase their potential spending patterns in the host economy. By sourcing
goods and services to run the event and its augmentations from local suppliers,
organizers can retain event expenditures to the host community. Appropriate
augmentations also facilitate networking opportunities for both visiting and local
corporate stakeholders. Such networking can lead to the development of business
relationships and inward trade and investment in the period beyond the event (O’Brien,
2006; O’Brien and Gardiner, 2006). O’Brien (2007) demonstrates the imagery produced
from well-conceived augmentations can be as attractive to event media as the
Figure 1.
Chalip’s (2004) model
for host community event
leverage
Leverageable Resource Opportunity Strategic Objective Means
Event Visitors
and
Trade
A. Entice visitor spending
B. Lengthen visitor stays
C. Retain event expenditures
Event Media
Portfolio
of
Events
Enhance host
community’s image
Optimize total
trade and revenue
D. Enhance business
relationships
E. Showcase via event
advertising and reporting
F. Use the event in advertising
and promotions
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competitive aspects of the focal event, thus providing valuable opportunities to project
desired destination images into key tourism and business markets. Of course, the
strategic goal here is to boost the event’s immediate economic impact while also
facilitating more sustainable image and relationship-based opportunities for the host
community. The ensuing section’s primary contention is that the knowledge gleaned
thus far on leveraging events for economic bene?ts also has relevance for how social
leverage is strategized from sport events. In essence, although a host destination can be
linked closely to the advertising and reporting of a sport event, so too can (aspects of) a
host community’s social agenda.
Leveraging sport events for social bene?ts
While the discussion above focuses on leveraging sport events for economic outcomes,
what remains less understood and less applied is how to leverage sport events for
social bene?ts to host communities. The literature on the social impacts of sport events
is well-established (Burbank et al., 2001; Fredline and Faulkner, 2001; Roche, 2000;
Waitt, 2003). However, as with the economic impact literature, the focus remains
ex post, that is, looking back and measuring social outcomes rather than looking
forward and creating strategies for speci?c types of social change. Although this post
hoc information undoubtedly is useful (Chalip, 2007), the data explain little about why
or how those outcomes occurred.
While empirical work on economic leverage is scant, work on social leverage
is virtually non-existent. To begin to redress this omission, Chalip (2007) approaches
events from an anthropological perspective, and argues that the social value of events
derives from the fact that they are essentially fun and their celebratory aspects create
liminoid experiences for participants (Green and Chalip, 1998; Handelman, 1990; Kemp,
1999; MacAloon, 1982). “Liminoid” refers to a sense of the sacred that can emerge, in
this case, from a sport event. This liminality, in turn, generates a new sense of
community and energy for a host region (Chalip, 2007). This sense of community
is called “communitas,” which Beeton (2006, p. 4) described as “the very spirit of
community.” To reach liminality and communitas experiences, Chalip (2007) proposes
that both a sense of celebration and social camaraderie are necessary. He notes ?ve
strategies for cultivating celebration and camaraderie; Figure 2. These strategies
include enabling sociability, creating event-related social events, facilitating informal
social opportunities, producing ancillary events, and theming.
Liminality is not the same as leverage. Indeed, Figure 2 merely shows a key
precondition for social leverage – liminality. How the “feel good factor” is controlled
for lasting social value to a host community is at the core of social leverage. For
example, Waitt (2003) ?nds that the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games prompted a sense of
community and patriotism among Australians, particularly the young and those from
non-English speaking backgrounds. In essence, this evidence indicates that the Games
created a liminal space, and the resultant sense of community and patriotism were the
manifestations of communitas. However, without a strategic approach to social
leverage, opportunities to alleviate serious social issues in the host community such as
youth suicide, homelessness, drug addiction, and race relations were squandered.
Thus, the essential leveraging challenge remains: how can real and sustainable
social bene?ts can be achieved in the period after a sport event? To address this
question, O’Brien and Chalip (2008) propose a framework for the social leverage of an
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event, as shown in Figure 3. The framework presupposes the presence of event-driven
liminality in the host community, which is represented as the fundamental resource to
be leveraged. Thus, an assumption is the celebratory aspects of the focal event create a
liminal space in the host community, and in turn, this liminality generates two
opportunities for social leverage. The ?rst opportunity is the communitas engendered
in the host community. The second opportunity ?nds common cause with the
framework for economic leverage, and refers to the fact that sport events typically
attract the attention of media and sponsors.
Leveraging liminality as a key resource presents two key strategic objectives. First,
bringing the targeted social issue/s to the public’s attention can be achieved through
four central tactics: aligning the event with a targeted social issue(s); aligning values
between targeted social issue(s) and the focal sport subculture(s); lengthening visitor
stays; and enticing visitor and community engagement with the targeted issue(s).
Meanwhile, the second objective is to use event media to actually stimulate change in
targeted aspects of the community’s social agenda. Two key means help achieve this
objective: showcasing the issue/s via event advertising and reporting; and using the
event in issue-related publicity.
Training exercise for sport tourism researchers and practitioners
The preceding discussion highlights that strategically leveraged sport events can
deliver sustainable bene?ts to host communities well beyond immediate
Figure 2.
Objectives and means for
generating and cultivating
liminality
Source: Chalip (2007)
Objective Means
Theme widely
Foster social
interaction
Prompt a
feeling of
celebration
Produce ancillary
events
Facilitate
informal social
opportunities
Create event-
related social
events
Enable sociability
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visitation-related impacts. With this in mind, and re?ecting on personal experience,
complete the following questions:
.
How does the notion of event impact differ to event leverage?
.
Why is it important to maximize the bene?ts from sport events for host
communities?
.
Identify a sport event with which you are familiar. Analyze the event to identify
whether or not it was leveraged. Where leverage was apparent, explain what
strategic objectives you think were being pursued, and identify the tactics that
were employed to achieve these goals. Indicate whether or not you think these
strategic objectives were realized, and the reasons for your answer. Finally, offer
suggestions as to how leveraging might have been improved at this event.
Trainer’s note – discussion and possible solutions
Applying this exercise highlights the subtle, yet signi?cant paradigmshift that is taking
place inthe international events community. While immediate visitation-related impacts
remain of critical importance to sport event stakeholders, increasingly, a more strategic
approach to generating longer-term bene?ts for host communities is emerging.
Indeed, the notion of event impact entails looking back and accounting for event
outcomes post hoc. By comparison, event leverage entails looking forward; that is,
strategically planning how a host community can maximize speci?c event outcomes.
This activity involves plans for enhancing both short-term event impacts, as well as
longer-term bene?ts from enhanced tourism and business positioning in key markets,
and/or other types of targeted outcomes such as social or environmental change.
It is critically important from both pragmatic and sustainability perspectives for
sport event stakeholders to seek leverage from their events. In many parts of the world,
Figure 3.
Proposed model for social
event leverage
Communitas
Lengthen visitor stays
Liminality
Generated
through
Sport Event
Event Media
Source: O’Brien and Chalip (2008)
Set/change
community agenda
for targeted
social issues
Focus event
stakeholders’
attention on
targeted social
issues
Align event with targeted
social issues
Align values between targeted
social issues and focal sport
subcultures
Entice engagement with
targeted social issues
Showcase social issues via
event advertising and
reporting
Use the event in issue-related
publicity
Leverageable Resource Opportunity Strategic Objective Means Executive
training exercise
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large-scale events place huge demands on the public purse – both for subsidies and for
the provision of public services and infrastructure. Meanwhile, private sector funding
is, of course, also critical. This heavy dependence on public and private support to bid
for and stage events makes it incumbent upon event owners/organizers to seek every
means available to maximize hosts’ return on investment through economic, social or
environmental bene?ts, or preferably, all three. A leveraging approach creates the
opportunity to make events more viable by enhancing the sustainability of their
bene?ts, thus, better justifying organizers’ claims for support. Particularly for
recurring sport events, the implications for sustainability are obvious.
Obviously, responses to the ?nal exercise above will vary according to the
particular sport event chosen for analysis. Whatever the event however, identifying
whether or not leverage was apparent should be possible. The strategic objectives to
look for should coincide roughly with those identi?ed for economic and/or social
leverage. Similarly, to identify and describe how the tactics germane to each of those
strategic objectives became manifest with respect to their chosen event, students
should refer to the respective models for economic and/or social leverage. Discerning
all of these tactics is unlikely, but where leveraging is apparent, at least some of them
should be discernable. From this analysis, and perhaps using secondary sources from
media reports on the event, it should be possible to then deduce whether or not event
leveraging was successful. Where suggestions for the improvement of leveraging
activities are made, sport subculture, augmentations, and the management of
relationships among event, tourism, corporate, and social stakeholders should ?gure
prominently.
Conclusions
While a sound base of knowledge is being built on how to leverage sport events to
enhance the economic “bottom line,” academics and practitioners are still some way
from understanding how these lessons can inform the social leverage of sport events.
Although a model for social leverage has been proposed, the model is still essentially
exploratory, and remains to be empirically applied. With further research, and
continuing to integrate social leverage into event research and practice, this paradigm
can shift towards a corporate social responsibility perspective, thus bringing the sport
event sector more into line with the wider business community. This “triple bottom
line” envelope is being pushed even further by researchers such as Collins et al. (2007),
who apply ecological footprints to investigate the environmental impacts of sport
events. Future theorizing and empirical work should build on this important work, but
future studies also should seek to develop our understanding of whether and how a
more ex ante approach affects the relationship between sport events and the
environment. A leveraging perspective might apply in this context. Perhaps, in the
future, successful sport events will be characterized by realizing sustainable economic,
social and environment bene?ts – achieving triple bottom line leverage.
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triple bottom line”, in Woodside, A.G. and Martin, D. (Eds), Advancing Tourism
Management, CABI Publishing, Cambridge, MA.
O’Brien, D. and Gardiner, S. (2006), “Creating sustainable mega-event impacts: networking and
relationship development through pre-event training”, Sport Management Review, Vol. 9,
pp. 25-48.
Roche, M. (2000), Mega-Events and Modernity: Olympics and Expos in the Growth of Global
Culture, Routledge, London.
Waitt, G. (2003), “Social impacts of the Sydney Olympics”, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 30
No. 1, pp. 194-215.
Corresponding author
Danny O’Brien can be contacted at: danny.obrien@grif?th.edu.au
IJCTHR
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doc_119827478.pdf
Some sport event stakeholders now look beyond “impact” to achieving longer-term,
sustainable outcomes. This move away from an ex post, outcomes orientation towards an ex ante,
strategic approach refers to the phenomenon of event leveraging. This paper aims to introduce readers
to the concept, and poses practical exercises to challenge current thinking on sport event impacts
International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research
Executive training exercise in sport event leverage
Danny O'Brien Laurence Chalip
Article information:
To cite this document:
Danny O'Brien Laurence Chalip, (2007),"Executive training exercise in sport event leverage", International
J ournal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 1 Iss 4 pp. 296 - 304
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Kostas Karadakis, Kiki Kaplanidou, George Karlis, (2010),"Event leveraging of mega sport events: a SWOT
analysis approach", International J ournal of Event and Festival Management, Vol. 1 Iss 3 pp. 170-185 http://
dx.doi.org/10.1108/17852951011077998
Girish M. Ramchandani, Richard J . Coleman, (2012),"The inspirational effects of three major sport
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dx.doi.org/10.1108/17582951211262693
Angelo Presenza, Lorn Sheehan, (2013),"Planning tourism through sporting events", International J ournal
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Executive training exercise
in sport event leverage
Danny O’Brien
Department of Tourism, Leisure, Hotel and Sport Management,
Grif?th University, Gold Coast, Australia, and
Laurence Chalip
University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA
Abstract
Purpose – Some sport event stakeholders now look beyond “impact” to achieving longer-term,
sustainable outcomes. This move away from an ex post, outcomes orientation towards an ex ante,
strategic approach refers to the phenomenon of event leveraging. This paper aims to introduce readers
to the concept, and poses practical exercises to challenge current thinking on sport event impacts.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper provides an introduction to the literature on the
strategic leveraging of sport events and presents three theoretical models depicting various aspects of
event leverage. The paper includes training exercises on the subject of sport event leverage along with
possible answers.
Findings – Building on prior work, this paper proposes a new model for social leverage. The model
and the related discussion highlight potential synergies between economic and social leverage.
Research limitations/implications – As the proposed model for social leverage is essentially
exploratory, it remains empirically untested. This represents an obvious challenge for further
research.
Practical implications – This paper recognizes that, particularly in the last decade, a paradigm
shift has taken place in parts of the international events community, and provides a challenge and
potential direction for event practitioners to continue the path towards achieving the triple bottom line
of economic, social and environmental bene?ts for host communities.
Originality/value – The social leverage model breaks new ground in the (sport) events ?eld, as does
the push towards sustainability and a more triple bottom line approach to event outcomes.
Keywords Stakeholder analysis, Sporting events, Training
Paper type Research paper
In recent decades, sport events and the tourism they engender have come to represent a
core component of the destination marketing mix in many of the world’s larger cities
and regional centers. Predictably, this change has fuelled unprecedented rivalry among
cities to host major sport events. This global competition for events has prompted a
great deal of research exploring the economic effects of sport events on host
communities (Crompton, 1995; Dwyer et al., 2000; Mules and Faulkner, 1996). Primarily
this research has been impact focused – approaching event outcomes from an ex post
standpoint. However, particularly in the last decade, a subtle, yet profound shift in the
international event community has begun to unfold.
While maximizing the short-term visitation-related impacts from events remains a
priority, stakeholders in some of the world’s major sport events now leverage for
longer-termoutcomes such as repeat visitation to host regions; re-imaging of host cities
in key tourism markets; fostering regional business relationships; and encouraging
inward trade, investment, and employment. This phenomenon of strategically
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1750-6182.htm
IJCTHR
1,4
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Received February 2007
Revised April 2007
Accepted May 2007
International Journal of Culture,
Tourism and Hospitality Research
Vol. 1 No. 4, 2007
pp. 296-304
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1750-6182
DOI 10.1108/17506180710824181
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planning for the maximization of both short- and long-term event outcomes is referred
to as event leveraging. Indeed, many mega events staged in the last decade have been
accompanied by strategic leveraging programs. For example, the 2002, 2006 and 2010
Commonwealth Games in Manchester, Melbourne, and New Delhi, respectively, the
2003 Brisbane Rugby World Cup, and at every Olympic Games since Sydney 2000,
leveraging programs to facilitate tourism and business development have
accompanied, or are planned for, each event.
Thus, an event leveraging perspective represents a fundamental shift from the
traditional ex post, impact-driven, outcomes orientation, to a more strategic ex ante,
analytical approach. In other words, rather than looking back at event outcomes, a
leveraging perspective entails looking forward to planning precisely how host
communities can derive sustainable bene?ts from sport events, whether from
enhanced tourism, business, social aspects, or other types of bene?ts.
Chalip (2007) argues that event leveraging involves an inherent learning aspect
where event planners approach the notion of “impact” more as an indicator of the
success or otherwise of particular implementations, rather than as an end in itself.
Explaining this phenomenon, Chalip (2004, p. 245) suggests that:
. . . it is no longer suitable merely to host an event in the hope that desired outcomes will be
achieved; it is necessary to form and implement strategies and tactics that capitalize fully on
the opportunities each event affords.
Thus, rather than the traditional “build it and they will come” approach to sport event
outcomes, as O’Brien (2006, p. 258) argues, “events and the opportunities they present
are merely the seed capital; what hosts do with that capital is the key to realizing
sustainable longer-term legacies.”
Leveraging sport events for economic bene?ts
This paradigm shift from an event impact to an event leveraging perspective has
prompted a burgeoning body of literature to explore the phenomenon (Chalip, 2000,
2001, 2004, 2005, 2007; Chalip and Leyns, 2002; Green and Chalip, 1998; Green, 2001;
O’Brien, 2006, 2007; O’Brien and Gardiner, 2006; O’Brien and Chalip, 2008). Re?ecting
the emphasis in the practitioner community, the overwhelming majority of work to
date focuses on event leverage for tourism and economic development. To start
building theory in this relatively unexplored territory, Chalip (2004) proposes an
economic leveraging model that envisages a region’s portfolio of events as a
leverageable resource for both immediate- and longer-term bene?ts. As Figure 1
shows, for immediate leverage, event organizers aim to maximize total trade and
revenue from events. Chalip suggests four means by which revenue and trade
optimization can be achieved:
(1) entice visitor spending;
(2) lengthen visitor stays;
(3) retain event expenditures; and
(4) use the event to enhance regional business relationships.
Meanwhile, longer-term leverage is achievable through using event media to enhance a
host community’s image. Figure 1 shows that this strategic objective breaks down into
two complementary tactics:
Executive
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(1) showcasing the region through event advertising and reporting; and
(2) using the event in regional advertising and promotions.
Using a case study approach, O’Brien (2007) uses Chalip’s model for economic leverage
to analyze how the organizers of a regional sur?ng festival created sustainable
outcomes for the host community. He ?nds support for Chalip’s model, but also
illustrates how the organizers’ integration of the focal sport subculture into the sur?ng
festival, particularly the event’s augmentations, was central to leveraging success.
Augmentations provide an additional event dimension beyond the sport competition,
and may include opportunities to learn, achieve, socialize, or any combination of these
attributes (Green, 2001). Meanwhile, Green (2001) suggests that sport consumption can
be perceived as an articulation of certain values that underpin particular sport
subcultures; and event organizers’ examination of a sport subculture’s values and the
identities associated with the focal sport can generate marketing bene?ts for event
promotion, and can also encourage visitor spending. Chalip and McGuirty (2004) also
identify the link between augmentations and the marketing of events, and commented
that event organizers can build their market, “by developing augmentations that are
likely to be attractive to persons with values and interests like those represented by the
event” (Chalip and McGuirty, 2004, p. 270).
Thus, appropriately conceiving augmentations serves to lengthen visitors’ stays
and to increase their potential spending patterns in the host economy. By sourcing
goods and services to run the event and its augmentations from local suppliers,
organizers can retain event expenditures to the host community. Appropriate
augmentations also facilitate networking opportunities for both visiting and local
corporate stakeholders. Such networking can lead to the development of business
relationships and inward trade and investment in the period beyond the event (O’Brien,
2006; O’Brien and Gardiner, 2006). O’Brien (2007) demonstrates the imagery produced
from well-conceived augmentations can be as attractive to event media as the
Figure 1.
Chalip’s (2004) model
for host community event
leverage
Leverageable Resource Opportunity Strategic Objective Means
Event Visitors
and
Trade
A. Entice visitor spending
B. Lengthen visitor stays
C. Retain event expenditures
Event Media
Portfolio
of
Events
Enhance host
community’s image
Optimize total
trade and revenue
D. Enhance business
relationships
E. Showcase via event
advertising and reporting
F. Use the event in advertising
and promotions
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competitive aspects of the focal event, thus providing valuable opportunities to project
desired destination images into key tourism and business markets. Of course, the
strategic goal here is to boost the event’s immediate economic impact while also
facilitating more sustainable image and relationship-based opportunities for the host
community. The ensuing section’s primary contention is that the knowledge gleaned
thus far on leveraging events for economic bene?ts also has relevance for how social
leverage is strategized from sport events. In essence, although a host destination can be
linked closely to the advertising and reporting of a sport event, so too can (aspects of) a
host community’s social agenda.
Leveraging sport events for social bene?ts
While the discussion above focuses on leveraging sport events for economic outcomes,
what remains less understood and less applied is how to leverage sport events for
social bene?ts to host communities. The literature on the social impacts of sport events
is well-established (Burbank et al., 2001; Fredline and Faulkner, 2001; Roche, 2000;
Waitt, 2003). However, as with the economic impact literature, the focus remains
ex post, that is, looking back and measuring social outcomes rather than looking
forward and creating strategies for speci?c types of social change. Although this post
hoc information undoubtedly is useful (Chalip, 2007), the data explain little about why
or how those outcomes occurred.
While empirical work on economic leverage is scant, work on social leverage
is virtually non-existent. To begin to redress this omission, Chalip (2007) approaches
events from an anthropological perspective, and argues that the social value of events
derives from the fact that they are essentially fun and their celebratory aspects create
liminoid experiences for participants (Green and Chalip, 1998; Handelman, 1990; Kemp,
1999; MacAloon, 1982). “Liminoid” refers to a sense of the sacred that can emerge, in
this case, from a sport event. This liminality, in turn, generates a new sense of
community and energy for a host region (Chalip, 2007). This sense of community
is called “communitas,” which Beeton (2006, p. 4) described as “the very spirit of
community.” To reach liminality and communitas experiences, Chalip (2007) proposes
that both a sense of celebration and social camaraderie are necessary. He notes ?ve
strategies for cultivating celebration and camaraderie; Figure 2. These strategies
include enabling sociability, creating event-related social events, facilitating informal
social opportunities, producing ancillary events, and theming.
Liminality is not the same as leverage. Indeed, Figure 2 merely shows a key
precondition for social leverage – liminality. How the “feel good factor” is controlled
for lasting social value to a host community is at the core of social leverage. For
example, Waitt (2003) ?nds that the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games prompted a sense of
community and patriotism among Australians, particularly the young and those from
non-English speaking backgrounds. In essence, this evidence indicates that the Games
created a liminal space, and the resultant sense of community and patriotism were the
manifestations of communitas. However, without a strategic approach to social
leverage, opportunities to alleviate serious social issues in the host community such as
youth suicide, homelessness, drug addiction, and race relations were squandered.
Thus, the essential leveraging challenge remains: how can real and sustainable
social bene?ts can be achieved in the period after a sport event? To address this
question, O’Brien and Chalip (2008) propose a framework for the social leverage of an
Executive
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event, as shown in Figure 3. The framework presupposes the presence of event-driven
liminality in the host community, which is represented as the fundamental resource to
be leveraged. Thus, an assumption is the celebratory aspects of the focal event create a
liminal space in the host community, and in turn, this liminality generates two
opportunities for social leverage. The ?rst opportunity is the communitas engendered
in the host community. The second opportunity ?nds common cause with the
framework for economic leverage, and refers to the fact that sport events typically
attract the attention of media and sponsors.
Leveraging liminality as a key resource presents two key strategic objectives. First,
bringing the targeted social issue/s to the public’s attention can be achieved through
four central tactics: aligning the event with a targeted social issue(s); aligning values
between targeted social issue(s) and the focal sport subculture(s); lengthening visitor
stays; and enticing visitor and community engagement with the targeted issue(s).
Meanwhile, the second objective is to use event media to actually stimulate change in
targeted aspects of the community’s social agenda. Two key means help achieve this
objective: showcasing the issue/s via event advertising and reporting; and using the
event in issue-related publicity.
Training exercise for sport tourism researchers and practitioners
The preceding discussion highlights that strategically leveraged sport events can
deliver sustainable bene?ts to host communities well beyond immediate
Figure 2.
Objectives and means for
generating and cultivating
liminality
Source: Chalip (2007)
Objective Means
Theme widely
Foster social
interaction
Prompt a
feeling of
celebration
Produce ancillary
events
Facilitate
informal social
opportunities
Create event-
related social
events
Enable sociability
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visitation-related impacts. With this in mind, and re?ecting on personal experience,
complete the following questions:
.
How does the notion of event impact differ to event leverage?
.
Why is it important to maximize the bene?ts from sport events for host
communities?
.
Identify a sport event with which you are familiar. Analyze the event to identify
whether or not it was leveraged. Where leverage was apparent, explain what
strategic objectives you think were being pursued, and identify the tactics that
were employed to achieve these goals. Indicate whether or not you think these
strategic objectives were realized, and the reasons for your answer. Finally, offer
suggestions as to how leveraging might have been improved at this event.
Trainer’s note – discussion and possible solutions
Applying this exercise highlights the subtle, yet signi?cant paradigmshift that is taking
place inthe international events community. While immediate visitation-related impacts
remain of critical importance to sport event stakeholders, increasingly, a more strategic
approach to generating longer-term bene?ts for host communities is emerging.
Indeed, the notion of event impact entails looking back and accounting for event
outcomes post hoc. By comparison, event leverage entails looking forward; that is,
strategically planning how a host community can maximize speci?c event outcomes.
This activity involves plans for enhancing both short-term event impacts, as well as
longer-term bene?ts from enhanced tourism and business positioning in key markets,
and/or other types of targeted outcomes such as social or environmental change.
It is critically important from both pragmatic and sustainability perspectives for
sport event stakeholders to seek leverage from their events. In many parts of the world,
Figure 3.
Proposed model for social
event leverage
Communitas
Lengthen visitor stays
Liminality
Generated
through
Sport Event
Event Media
Source: O’Brien and Chalip (2008)
Set/change
community agenda
for targeted
social issues
Focus event
stakeholders’
attention on
targeted social
issues
Align event with targeted
social issues
Align values between targeted
social issues and focal sport
subcultures
Entice engagement with
targeted social issues
Showcase social issues via
event advertising and
reporting
Use the event in issue-related
publicity
Leverageable Resource Opportunity Strategic Objective Means Executive
training exercise
301
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large-scale events place huge demands on the public purse – both for subsidies and for
the provision of public services and infrastructure. Meanwhile, private sector funding
is, of course, also critical. This heavy dependence on public and private support to bid
for and stage events makes it incumbent upon event owners/organizers to seek every
means available to maximize hosts’ return on investment through economic, social or
environmental bene?ts, or preferably, all three. A leveraging approach creates the
opportunity to make events more viable by enhancing the sustainability of their
bene?ts, thus, better justifying organizers’ claims for support. Particularly for
recurring sport events, the implications for sustainability are obvious.
Obviously, responses to the ?nal exercise above will vary according to the
particular sport event chosen for analysis. Whatever the event however, identifying
whether or not leverage was apparent should be possible. The strategic objectives to
look for should coincide roughly with those identi?ed for economic and/or social
leverage. Similarly, to identify and describe how the tactics germane to each of those
strategic objectives became manifest with respect to their chosen event, students
should refer to the respective models for economic and/or social leverage. Discerning
all of these tactics is unlikely, but where leveraging is apparent, at least some of them
should be discernable. From this analysis, and perhaps using secondary sources from
media reports on the event, it should be possible to then deduce whether or not event
leveraging was successful. Where suggestions for the improvement of leveraging
activities are made, sport subculture, augmentations, and the management of
relationships among event, tourism, corporate, and social stakeholders should ?gure
prominently.
Conclusions
While a sound base of knowledge is being built on how to leverage sport events to
enhance the economic “bottom line,” academics and practitioners are still some way
from understanding how these lessons can inform the social leverage of sport events.
Although a model for social leverage has been proposed, the model is still essentially
exploratory, and remains to be empirically applied. With further research, and
continuing to integrate social leverage into event research and practice, this paradigm
can shift towards a corporate social responsibility perspective, thus bringing the sport
event sector more into line with the wider business community. This “triple bottom
line” envelope is being pushed even further by researchers such as Collins et al. (2007),
who apply ecological footprints to investigate the environmental impacts of sport
events. Future theorizing and empirical work should build on this important work, but
future studies also should seek to develop our understanding of whether and how a
more ex ante approach affects the relationship between sport events and the
environment. A leveraging perspective might apply in this context. Perhaps, in the
future, successful sport events will be characterized by realizing sustainable economic,
social and environment bene?ts – achieving triple bottom line leverage.
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Corresponding author
Danny O’Brien can be contacted at: danny.obrien@grif?th.edu.au
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