FiT Publishing

An economic impact assessment alone cannot justify public support for hosting mega-sporting events. A cost-benefit analysis in order to measure the net social utility for the population is also relevant. Nevertheless, if there is always a high demand of economic impact studies by public authorities before hosting an event, the cost-benefit studies are never made, so there is a high risk to make decisions that are not rational. In this paper, to take into account simultaneously the economic impact and the social utility of mega-sporting events, we propose a legitimacy test we illustrate...Read more

Critics of economic impact studies that purport to show that mega-events such as the Olympics bring large benefits to the communities “lucky” enough to host them frequently cite the use of inappropriate multipliers as a primary reason why these impact studies overstate the true economic gains to the hosts of these events. This brief paper shows in a numerical example one way in which mega-events may lead to inflated multipliers and exaggerated claims of economic benefits.Read more

This study adds to our knowledge of the effects of mega-events like Super Bowls and Major League Baseball All Star games by looking specifically at a long time-series of monthly sales tax revenues to assess the impact of these events on the host city’s revenue. The analysis indicates that sales tax revenues in Houston may be statistically significantly higher as a result of the Super Bowl by as much as $5 million over the time of the game and its preceding festivities. The MLB All-Star game has a much smaller effect on revenues, though possibly as much as $1 million in extra sales tax...Read more