Residents are main actors in the context of publicly funded sport events due to their role as taxpayers, and the importance of their support in an event’s success. The use of taxpayer dollars for hosting sport events is typically justified by event proponents (e.g., the local government) by highlighting purported positive event outcomes for the community. The extent to which such outcomes are attained may therefore influence the relationship between residents and their local government. Thus, the purpose of this dissertation was to investigate the long-term outcomes of publicly funded, non-mega sport events, and to examine the role of trust, knowledge, and power in the public/government relationship and event support in relation to these outcomes. To achieve this purpose, I focused on two publicly funded non-mega sport events, specifically the 2011 and 2019 Canada Winter Games, and drew on agency theory. The project progressed through three phases of research, each culminating in a research article. The first phase involved outlining the theoretical approach taken for this project. Next, I investigated the event objectives and long-term outcomes from resident and event provider perspectives. Finally, I investigated the public/government relationship by determining factors that predict general political trust and event support.
The first article explains how agency theory, and the concepts of power, knowledge, and trust can be used to investigate political implications of publicly funded sport events. The second article suggests that while most residents evaluated their respective event positively, the interests of residents and event providers regarding event objectives and outcomes diverge. The final article revealed that event experiences positively predicted event support three- and 11-years following the event, and that residents’ power (i.e., ability to influence) negatively predicted political trust, while knowledge (i.e., understanding) positively impacted political trust in the event context. The three articles are preceded by a general introduction and are wrapped-up by a concluding chapter.
Cumulatively, the results demonstrate that actors within the context of a publicly funded non-mega sport event may act as principals and agents in various moments of the event hosting process. Further, findings suggest that ensuring host residents are informed of the event will foster trust in the local government, and that community-focused tangible outcomes in particular will foster event support. This dissertation contributes conceptually and empirically to sport event management literature by taking a long-term post-event perspective on publicly funded, non-mega sport events. Practically, event providers should ensure that residents are fully informed of the event hosting process, and should ensure that tangible, and sustainable event outcomes occur as these seem to impact the most residents in a host community even from a long-term perspective. Finally, this work outlines the need for future research addressing methodological challenges in non-mega sport event research, investigating opportunism and monitoring in principal-agent relationships, and determining appropriate public engagement strategies for sustainable event outcomes.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/44855 |
| Date | 25 April 2023 |
| Creators | Bodin, Kerri |
| Contributors | Taks, Marijke |
| Publisher | Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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