The bidding life cycle
The life cycle of a major international sporting event incorporates several key phases.
Governments around the world invest in major sporting events principally to support social, economic and cultural outcomes that benefit communities, both locally and nationally.
The life cycle of a major international sporting event can span up to 7-10 years and incorporates several key phases, including, the vision and concept; the bid; planning, sourcing and construction; delivery and hosting; and evaluation and legacy phases.1
A major sporting event is one that generates significant interest, has a high profile, or attracts visitors to Australia.2
The Office for Sport, opens in a new tab coordinates the Australian Government’s involvement in the bidding and hosting of major sporting events. Organisations planning to bid to host a major sporting event in Australia should contact the Office as early engagement is crucial. If the event is not a major sporting event, support may be available from the relevant state or territory government.
Resources and reading
- The emerging trends influencing major event hosting in sport, opens in a new tab, Global Sports, (19 July 2017). There is an emerging trend for host cities, nations or national associations to change the format of the sports events that they are bidding to host, in order to provoke desired impacts and achieve the legacy objectives that they, as hosts, are seeking from that particular event. In turn, the event owners (international federations, continental federations and commercial bodies) are increasingly open to the format of their events being tweaked and moulded, host city by host city, to aid organisers in their local or national legacy goals, and in turn, assist their own international ones.
- Managing Major Sports Events: Theory and Practice, opens in a new tab, Milena M. Parent, Aurélia Ruetsch, Routledge, (2021). A complete introduction to the principles and practical skills that underpin the running and hosting of major sports events, from initial bid to post-event legacy and sustainability. It covers every key area in the event management process, including: Bidding, leadership, and planning; Marketing and human resource management; Venues and ceremonies; Communications and technology (including social media); Functional area considerations (including sport, protocol, and event services); Security and risk management; Games-time considerations; Event wrap-up and evaluation; Legacy and sustainability.
- Commonwealth Games Value Framework: Final report, opens in a new tab, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for the Commonwealth Games Federation, (December 2019). The Games Value Framework provides a holistic basis for assessing the potential costs and benefits of hosting the Commonwealth Games. For cities considering hosting the Games and wishing to apply the Games Value Framework, the first step is to review their city context and ambitions. Cities can then use the Framework to support their decision making by understanding the potential costs and benefits of hosting the Games and how the Games can support a city in achieving its wider aims.
- The Mega-Sporting Event Lifecycle: Embedding Human Rights from Vision to Legacy, opens in a new tab, Mega-Sporting Events Platform for Human Rights, (April 2018). This guide presents the lifecycle of a mega-sporting event, with specific elements of good practice at each stage that those involved in hosting the event should integrate into their planning, delivery and legacy in order to ensure a rights-compliant event.
- Australia. Creating World Class Sporting Events, opens in a new tab, Australian Government, Australian Trade and Investment Commission, (2018). Australian companies have been at the forefront of the world’s premier sporting events for many years, demonstrating a global track record of knowledge, experience and expertise.
- Olympic Games Framework: produced for the 2024 Olympic Games, opens in a new tab, International Olympic Committee, (May 2015). Hosting the Olympic Games provides a powerful catalyst for cities and countries to invest in their future and create a lasting legacy of real value and significance. Every host’s legacy vision is different and should be aligned with the city’s long-term development plans. But Olympic legacies broadly fall into five distinct categories: – Infrastructure – Economic – Sporting – Social – Environmental. By identifying and agreeing to a legacy plan during the candidature phase with a clear business case and defined responsibilities for implementation, a city can achieve real change. The Olympic Games act to clarify priorities; accelerate long-term plans; and enable bold decisions which move cities and nations forward in ways that could otherwise take decades.
- The sport mega-events of the 2020s: governance, impacts and controversies, opens in a new tab, Jan Andre Lee Ludvigsen, Joel Rookwood, Daniel Parnell, Sport in Society, Volume 25(4), pp.705-711, (2022). It is well-established that sport mega-events are socially, culturally, financially, politically and historically important and valuable. Though, sport mega-events must not be unequivocally glorified. They have also been subject to increased opposition, criticism and scrutiny. These typically relate to their astronomical economic costs, their physical, social and spatial impacts on public space and their failure to produce those ‘legacies’ that regularly are promised or exaggerated in the bidding stages. All these social realities feed into the three subthemes of this Special Issue. These include governance, impacts and controversies. As we argue, these three themes will follow most – if not all – mega-events in the 2020s. Simultaneously, these subthemes often inter-link and may reinforce each other, as we will unpack further.
- “Winning the women’s world cup”: gender, branding, and the Australia/New Zealand As One 2023 social media strategy for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™, opens in a new tab, Adam Beissel, Verity Postlethwaite, Andrew Grainger, Sport in Society, Volume 25(4), pp.768-798, (2022). In this article we critically explore the social media strategy of the successful Australia-New Zealand ‘As One’ joint bid for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™. We explore how the As One bid harnessed Twitter to communicate a hosting vision that appealed to multiple audiences while strategically, and successfully, resonating with contemporary FIFA politics. We adopt quantitative and qualitative content analysis methods to develop the constructed presence and narrative patterns from the As One bid’s Twitter activity. Our findings suggest content relied on two primary ‘legacy’ narratives which both conformed to current FIFA strategy and broader social and regional politics: growing football participation among women and girls and strengthening cultural, economic, and political relations in the Asia-Pacific. Ultimately, we argue the use of Twitter was strategic and targeted, deliberately appropriating popular FIFA narratives to build an emotive ‘legacy’ vision to gain support from voting members of the FIFA Council.
- Observing the limits of steering - Norway’s abortive Bid for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Oslo, opens in a new tab, Jan Ove Tangen, International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, Volume 14(1), pp.1-18, (2022). This article analyses the Oslo 2022 bidding process in particular and other mega-events in general as cases of political steering. The political, economic, and social outcomes are not always as expected. People other than those who initiate and carry out the bidding process pay the bills. Are all these occurrences coincidences or consequences? Niklas Luhmann’s system theoretical approach allows for a comprehensive understanding of this complexity. This study suggests extending and strengthening the theory with other theoretical concepts to carry out this meta-theoretical endeavour. Empirical research on the Oslo case in particular and other bidding cases for hosting mega-events in general is used to substantiate the presented arguments. This study’s main finding is that each stakeholder, often as a social subsystem, operates from its code or logic, irritating other stakeholders to act according to their code and logic, thereby reducing the possibility to steer the process. In the Oslo case, the process ended when the Norwegian people said the event was not worth it. This result falls in line with other studies of failing bids that show reactions and resistance against elites’ powers and towards democratic beneficiaries.
- Determinants of support and participation in a major sport event referendum, opens in a new tab, Mel Johnston, Michael Naylor, Geoff Dickson, et al., Sport Management Review, Volume 24(1), pp.134-155, (March 2021). In recent years, referenda have been used to inform decisions to bid on major sport events. Recognising referenda as a means to engage a community in a major sport event, the purpose of this study was to investigate the determinants of referenda support and participation intention. A sample of 603 New Zealanders completed a questionnaire a) the intention to participate in such a referendum. Based on exploratory factor analysis assessing b) their support for a referendum on their city bidding to host the Commonwealth Games, and multinomial logistic regression, the key findings are that political cynicism, civic duty, event status and involvement affected voters’ referendum support, while political cynicism, civic duty, political interest, event status and involvement impacted their voting intentions. The results have implications for prospective host cities, sport managers, policymakers, and ordinary citizens.
- The pursuit of legitimacy through strategic alliances: the examination of international joint sport event bidding, opens in a new tab, Jinsu Byun, Dana Ellis, Becca Leopkey, European Sport Management Quarterly, Volume 21(4), pp.544-563, (2021). Given the increased attention on joint sport event bids this study examines how the practices and structures created through the formation of a joint bidding alliance could influence the creation of diverse types of organizational legitimacy. A descriptive qualitative approach analyzing a combination of archival materials and interviews related to 15 international large-scale joint sport event bidding cases was completed. Results suggest various practices and structures are created through forming joint bids. Propositions that suggest how joint bidding alliances can result in the creation of various legitimacy types: managerial/technical, consequential, procedural, and linkage legitimacy are provided. This study extends the sport event literature by examining joint bidding alliances as organizational strategies. A model illustrating the legitimation process of joint bids in sporting events and implications of this study is suggested.
- Every loser wins: leveraging ‘unsuccessful’ Olympic bids for positive benefits, opens in a new tab, Tom Bason, Jonathan Grix, European Sport Management Quarterly, (16 November 2020). The implications of this study are twofold. First, it provides cities with insight into how even an unsuccessful Olympic bid can provide benefits. Crucially, only legitimate bidders contributing to already existing plans can access government funding. Second, this research contributes to the bidding literature, providing new empirical material derived using a diverse case study approach, and to the leveraging literature through adapting, extending and updating Chalip’s (2004) conceptual model of event leverage.
- What makes an event a mega-event? Definitions and sizes, opens in a new tab, Martin Müller, Leisure Studies, Volume 34(6), pp.627-642, (January 2015). There is considerable ambiguity about what makes an event a mega-event. Intervening in this debate, this paper develops a definition and classification scheme for mega-events. On the basis of a review of existing definitions, it proposes four constitutive dimensions of mega-events: visitor attractiveness, mediated reach, costs and transformative impact. The paper develops indicators for each dimension and maps onto these four dimensions a sample of the latest editions of nine large events (Expo, Summer and Winter Olympics, Football World Cup, European Football Championship, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, Pan American Games, Universiade). From this, it develops a multi-dimensional, point-based classification scheme of large events according to size, distinguishing between major events, mega-events and the recently emerging class of giga-events. Concluding, it identifies the need for more systematic data on the size, costs and impacts of a broad range of large-scale events over time.
- How to win a bid for major sporting events? A stakeholder analysis of the 2018 Olympic Winter Games French bid, opens in a new tab, Christopher Hautbois, Milena Parent, Benoit Séguin, Sport Management Review, Volume 15(3), pp.263-275, (August 2012). While understanding the planning and hosting of major sporting events is a popular research area, less is known about the bid process despite the potential economic and political spinoffs. Some studies offer criteria for successful bids and even consider the stakeholder network as a key factor. Considering the importance of the stakeholder network, we delve deeper into this area. Using the power, legitimacy and urgency framework by Mitchell et al. (1997), we examine the 2018 Olympic Winter Games’ French national bid competition (four candidacies) to analyse the stakeholder relationships, identify their salience and then determine stakeholder-based bid key success factors.
- International Association of Event Hosts, opens in a new tab [website], (accessed 13 January 2023). The International Association of Event Hosts (IAEH) exists for representatives of international destinations to collaborate together to generate the best possible value from hosting major sporting and cultural events, and provide a voice for ‘not for profit’ hosts of events. IAEH provides a platform for members to learn from the successes and challenges of major events, share knowledge and generate greater long term social and economic benefits from hosting events.
- Event impact standards, opens in a new tab IAEH has worked with experienced event hosts, event owners and industry experts to provide the following guidance, and standard definitions, for measuring the impact of events and contributing to global sustainable development goals. IAEH members have made this guidance openly available and recommend that all research assessing impacts of major events aligns with it, whether for rights-owners, city or national governments, sports or arts organisations, tourism organisations, commercial sponsors, venues or charities. The guidance also aligns with the OECD Recommendation on Global Events and Local Development, adopted at the Ministerial Council Meeting on 30 May 2018 by all 38 OECD member countries. The Recommendation sets out internationally agreed framework conditions for realising sustainable global events.
- ISO/DIS 22379 - Security and resilience — Guidelines for hosting and organizing citywide or regional events, opens in a new tab, ISO, (September 2022). This document provides principles applicable to any host and organizer of citywide or regional events to help hosts and organizers to plan and execute a safe, secure and sustainable event by: introducing a process for cooperation between the host and organizer; identifying and involving relevant interested parties; identifying the economic, environmental and societal impact caused by the event; establishing necessary measures to manage risks introduced by or affecting the event; establishing necessary measures to deliver the event; providing critical services to the public and to the event; providing interested parties and the public with information; providing future hosts and organizers of similar events with lessons identified; introducing an event legacy plan consistent with the long-term objectives for the city or region. This document is general and strategic and does not include detailed descriptions or how to plan and execute specific tasks.
- Common indicators for measuring the impact of events, opens in a new tab (1st edition), Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF), (October 2021). Overseen by ASOIF’s Commercial Advisory Group (CAG), the report consolidates relevant and easily available data in a clear way to ensure consistency of data gathering and reporting between events, with the intent of helping the industry deliver, and demonstrate, true value to investors and policy makers. It provides event professionals with a practical tool throughout the lifecycle of events, including a defined set of 30 “input”, 50 “output” and 10 “outcome” Key Performance Indicators from which rights owners and partners can gather data relevant to their own event objectives.
- Australia's major sporting events (MSE) capabilities, opens in a new tab, Austrade, YouTube, (30 July 2012). Australia has a distinguished track record helping host nations create and stage the world's premier sporting events. Here are some of our stories.
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