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4th Entry – Olympic Games Legacy

The first modern-day Olympic Games were held in 1896 following a dream from French historian Pierre de Coubertin to bring the idea of the ancient Olympics into modern times. Citing excellence, respect and friendship as their ‘Olympic values’, the games are designed to endorse the participation of sport by holding global and friendly athletic competitions that remove focus from real-world conflicts and tragedies. (The Olympic Museum Education and Cultural Services, 2016). A very proud event, the modern Olympics focused primarily on upholding their values of athletic excellence and held all their athletes and events in high esteem and regard (Kelly, 2020)

Artefact 6 – The Olympic Principles

(Kelly, 2020)

Dolan et al. (2019) discussed how initially, despite being relatively unobtrusive opting to concentrate on conducting the games rather than commercialising them, during the 1960’s, new technologies and ideologies allowed the games to be readily available to global audiences expanding the games into a commercial and cultural phenomenon. Discussing the impact the Olympic Games can have on local and international audiences, Ribeiro et al. (2022) describe the idea of ‘social legacy’ being the incorporeal dispositions of residents near the event and their participation with the event, either as a competitor, employee, volunteer or spectator. Although it has been discussed that the Olympics has had a long history of reverence throughout the athletic community and adored by the public following its commercial boom during the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, Minnaert (2012) proclaims that many deem the Olympics as a “self-serving commercial circus” (pg. 1) that has strayed far from the values that were once engrained into the DNA of the ancient Games and the early modern Games, now becoming a platform for companies to flex their corporate muscles over the general public, and sacrifice the sanctity of the Olympics to drive fans through the capitalistic machine to make money. Furthermore, the immediate effect that the Olympics has on the host cities has been documented as only fleeting, only recording noticeable changes during the opening and closing ceremonies (Pappalepore, & Duignan, 2016).

Arterfact 6 – Abandoned Olympic Venues

(Knowlton, 2017)

Factoring the lack of social change and the ever-increasing costs to host the Olympics have reduced the event from the global phenomenon that countries must bid to host, to a financial liability that countries are actively declining to host. Although athleticism and talent are improving worldwide, making the games a greater spectacle to watch.

References

Dolan, P., Kavetsos, G., Krekel, C., Mavridis, D., Metcalfe, R., Senik, C., Szymanski, S., & Ziebarth, N. R. (2019). Quantifying the intangible impact of the Olympics using subjective well-being data. Journal of Public Economics, 177, 104043. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2019.07.002

Kelly, W. (2020). The Olympic Principles. https://apjjf.org/2020/5/kellyKnowlton, E. (2017). Abandoned Olympic Venues. https://www.businessinsider.com/rio-olympic-venues-are-abandoned-just-6-months-after-games-2017-2

‌Minnaert, L. (2012). An Olympic legacy for all? The non-infrastructural outcomes of the Olympic Games for socially excluded groups (Atlanta 1996–Beijing 2008). Tourism Management, 33(2), 361–370. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2011.04.005

Pappalepore, & Duignan, M. B. (2016). The London 2012 cultural programme: A consideration of Olympic impacts and legacies for small creative organisations in east London. Tourism Management (1982), 54, 344–355. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2015.11.015

Park, S., & Lim, D. (2022). Applicability of Olympic Values in Sustainable Development. Sustainability, 14(10), 5921. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14105921

Ribeiro, T., Yoda, R., Papadimitriou, D. A., & Correia, A. (2022). Resident attitudes toward the Rio 2016 Olympic Games: A longitudinal study on social legacy and support behaviours. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 50, 188–198. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhtm.2022.02.018

The Olympic Museum Educational and Cultural Services. (2016). The Modern Olympic Games (IOC Olympic Museum, Ed.; pp. 1–24) https://stillmed.olympic.org/media/Document%20Library/OlympicOrg/Documents/Document-Set-Teachers-The-Main-Olympic-Topics/The-Modern-Olympic-Games.pdf

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Entry 3 - eSports Events

This week's entry will explore the world of eSports and dissection the various discussions surrounding the legitimacy of the activity and whether it should be deemed a professional sport, or a recreational hobby. Hallmann and Giel (2018) described sport as “all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim at expressing or improving physical fitness and mental well-being, forming social relationships or obtaining results in competition at all levels” (pg. 14). This definition is very broad thus allowing almost any physical activity to be considered a sport as long as it is organised, contains social and physical health benefits, and is contested through competitions. Using this definition we can make an educated judgement on the validity of the activity through the definition of eSports provided by Wattanapisit et al. (2020) who describe eSports as the competition between players and teams that attempt to achieve video game-related activities through computer screen and technological interfaces. Therefore, comparing these two definitions implies that since eSports is conducted through physical activity, in organised competitions that benefit competitor's and audience members' well-being and social connections.

Artefact 4 – eSports Trophy Celebration

(Kosolapov, 2023)

Despite the appropriate characterisation of eSports, the general discourse from traditionalists is that eSports should not be considered a sport as it strays too far away from the conventional ideas of sport, and playing video games doesn’t encapsulate the true notion of sports (Tjønndal, 2020). Sporting traditionalists such as Tjønndal (2020) have also argued that allowing eSports to be considered a professional sport would open the floodgates when considering other recreational activities for professional status, suggesting that if eSports are added to prestigious sporting events such as the Olympics, then that opens the door for even less distinguished events such as ‘beer-chugging’. However, eSports isn’t simply a ‘recreational activity’, eSports has grown exponentially to a world audience of approximately 500M and generated USD1.2B in 2019 (Cramner et al., 2021). The popularity of eSports has grown considerably since its implementation to the point where prize pools for winning teams/players have exceeded $20M, thus becoming more financially gratifying than some of the most popular sports in the world (Funk et al., 2018).

Artefact 5 – eSports Revenue Data

(Gough, 2023)

Given the pop culture expansion that video games have had since the distribution of video game consoles, it is no surprise that eSports has become widely popular and heavily consumed by mass audiences. Considering how passionate and conservative sporting traditionalists are about sporting customs if they believe that eSports strays too far away from their precious sporting traditions, maybe they should consider removing the technological advancements that have furthered the facilitation of their favourite sports, such as instant replay, hawk-eye technology and data analytics. Improving technologies improves the sporting industry as well, eSports is here to stay and I’m sure that in a few years, the discourse surrounding eSports will ease, as people turn their attention and disapproval to the next innovation in the sporting industry.

References

Cranmer, Eleanor. E., Dann. Han, Dai-In., van Gisbergen, Marnix., & Jungt, T. (2020). esports Matrix: Structuring the esports Research Agenda. Computers in Human Behavior, 117, 106671. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106671

Funk, D. C., Pizzo, A. D., & Baker, B. J. (2018). eSport management: Embracing eSport education and research opportunities. Sport Management Review, 21(1), 7–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.2017.07.008

Gough, C. (2023). eSports market revenue worldwide from 2020 to 2025. https://www.statista.com/statistics/490522/global-esports-market-revenue/

Hallmann, K., & Giel, T. (2018). eSports – Competitive sports or recreational activity? Sport Management Review, 21(1), 14–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.2017.07.011

Kosolapov , R. (2023). eSports Trophy Celebration. https://ispo.com/en/sports-business/esports-history-how-it-all-began

Tjønndal, A. (2020). “What’s next? Calling beer-drinking a sport?!”: virtual resistance to considering eSport as sport. Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print). https://doi.org/10.1108/sbm-10-2019-0085

Wattanapisit, A., Wattanapisit, S., & Wongsiri, S. (2020). Public Health Perspectives on eSports. Public Health Reports, 135(3), 295–298. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033354920912718

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Week 2 - Exploration of a negative situation of a sports venue.

The second entry will explore a negative situation that occurred at a sporting venue and discuss the actions that a sporting venue can take to reduce certain factors to ensure that the situation doesn’t transpire again. The situation that this entry will focus on is the grandstand fire that befell Bradford City Stadium in 1985, which saw 56 fatal injuries alongside another 250+ non-fatal injuries (Bradford City AFC, 2024).

Artefact 3 – Bradbury City Fiery Reminder

(ABC News, 2015)

Angraaini and Letief (2021) openly discuss the modern-day popularity of sports around the globe and claim that more people than ever are flocking to their closest sports arena to take part in the spectacle that is the sports atmosphere. They contend that this upsurge in spectating has made it essential that sporting venues develop in conjunction with the attendance increase to properly accommodate crowd levels that were not previously manageable to respective stadiums. Therefore, to ensure that the spectator experience is considered, a stadium’s redevelopments must be made with safety at the forefront of renovation planning. Reinforcing this idea, Graat et al. (1999) explain how important risk assessment is when considering redevelopments or constructions of sporting arenas, they suggest that to competently mitigate specific hazards, stadiums must recognise and understand as much as possible about the hazard, so they can put proper measures in place to reduce said hazards. Thus, sporting stadiums must be preemptive enough to account for various potential dangers and ensure that every possible outcome has been acknowledged, giving the venue the best chance to lessen the impact of emergencies. This paper determines that stadia can't predict how an emergency will surface, or how spectators will react when faced with said emergency, hence, stadia must focus their resources on things that they can control such as communication of emergency messaging, walkway construction and emergency exit reachability. These factors can assist spectators make more appropriate choices and behave calmer in emergencies, leading to safer actions from fans. In the case of Bradford City, the blaze stemmed from a lit cigarette butt being dropped beneath the stands, which set alight to a pile of rubbish below the stands. What worsened this tragedy was the fact that the stadium’s stands were made out of wood, accelerating the fire into a full-fledged inferno that took the lives of 56 fans (BBC, 2014).

References

ABC News. (2015). Bradbury City Fiery Reminder. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-12/bradford-city-fire-memorial-service-honours-victims/6463116

Ali, I. M., Hashim, A. E., Wan-Ismail, W. Z., Z.Isnin, & Mohd-Nazeri, M. A. (2011). Spectators Safety Awareness in Outdoor Stadium Facilities. Procedia Engineering, 20, 98–104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2011.11.143

Anggraini, A., & Latief, Y. (2021). Development of work breakdown structure standard for safety planning on stadium construction work based on risk. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 1858(1), 012073. https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1858/1/012073

‌ BBC. (2014, April 26). Bradford City football stadium blaze surgeon honoured. BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leeds-27145893

Bradford City AFC. (2024). VALLEY PARADE FIRE DISASTER. Bradford City AFC. https://www.bradfordcityafc.com/club/valley-parade-fire-disaster/

Graat, E., Midden, C., & Bockholts, P. (1999). Complex evacuation; effects of motivation level and slope of stairs on emergency egress time in a sports stadium. Safety Science, 31(2), 127–141. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0925-7535(98)00061-7

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Entry 1 - Funding Of a Major Sports Venue

This week’s entry will discuss the funding that major sports venues can experience and why such funding might be allocated. Firstly, with sport's ever-growing popularity, it has become evident to governments (both state and federal) that facilitating the creation, expansion and development of sporting arenas can promote health-centric ideologies, whilst also fostering economic growth through stadium expenditure (Bradbury, 2021). To reinforce this idea, Swindel and Rosenstraub (1998) list a multitude of reasons as to why government officials may support the construction of sporting venues. Ranging from the physical benefits, such as economic growth, job creation and the rejuvenation of localised businesses, whilst also assisting many indiscernible benefits such as heightened public image and increased national pride. This suggests that governments understand how the creation of stadiums can positively affect the morale of their citizens, thus in an attempt to appease their voters, governments will promise to and/or allocate resources to the creation and development of sporting venues to increase their voter's disposition in the hopes that it leads to re-election. The best example of this is currently occurring in the state of Tasmania as two sides of government are battling each other to properly determine the appropriate amount of funding they should commit to build a new stadium in Macquarie Point.

Artefact 1 – Macquarie Point (the proposed location for the new stadium)

(Fox Sports, 2023)

The Australian Football League (AFL)  has stated that Tasmania will not receive an AFL if a new stadium is not built, but the $715m price tag is too hefty for both sides of government with Premier Jeremy Rockliff stating expenditure will be capped at $375M, whereas opposition leader Rebecca White is claiming that negotiations with the AFL should take place to loosen the ultimatum placed on the state of Tasmania (AAP, 2024).

Artefact 2 – Proposed Stadium Designs

(Fox Sports, 2023)

This perfectly demonstrates Swindel and Rosenstraub’s (1998) notion that funding to sporting arenas will be given out depending on what the operating government believes will satisfy their voters more. However, ‌Alakshendra (2016) suggests that generating the majority of modern sports stadium funding through public tax schemes is inherently unfair as not every taxpayer that assists in raising funds will attend the recently developed sporting venue, thus the sizeable figures that are typically raised for sports venue funding should be better utilized and allocated to a sector that could improve the lives of a larger group of people, namely health care and education.

References

‌AAP. (2024, February 21). AFL chief stands firm on stadium requirement for Tassie. Afl.com.au; AFL. https://www.afl.com.au/news/1077727/afl-chief-andrew-dillon-stands-firm-on-stadium-requirement-for-tasmania-afl-team-ahead-of-upcoming-state-election

‌Alakshendra, A. (2016). How are we funding professional sports stadiums? An overview. Managerial Finance, 42(9), 885–890. https://doi.org/10.1108/mf-03-2016-0076

Bradbury, J. C. (2021). The Impact of Sports Stadiums on Localized Commercial activity: Evidence from a Business Improvement District. Journal of Regional Science, 62(1). https://doi.org/10.1111/jors.12560

Fox Sports. (2023). Macquarie Point and Surrounds. https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-2023-tasmania-to-become-19th-club-new-team-expansion-stadium-how-itll-be-built-list-players-coach-trade-targets-analysis/news-story/fbc688586502fa732578822ed8d21bff

Fox Sports. (2023). Proposed Stadium Designs. https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-2023-tasmania-to-become-19th-club-new-team-expansion-stadium-how-itll-be-built-list-players-coach-trade-targets-analysis/news-story/fbc688586502fa732578822ed8d21bff

Swindell, D., & Rosentraub, M. S. (1998). Who Benefits from the Presence of Professional Sports Teams? The Implications for Public Funding of Stadiums and Arenas. Public Administration Review, 58(1), 11. https://doi.org/10.2307/976884