THE GLOBAL CIRCUS: INTERNATIONAL SPORT, TOURISM, AND THE MARKETING OF CITIES

Abstract

International sports events have long evoked the discourses and imagery of internationalism while serving as occasions for the advertisement of the host nation and city. This article seeks to explore some of the tensions that follow from this. It has become almost a truism that hosting international events generates enormous benefits for the host city and region. However, the economic evidence examined suggests that although these events provide short-term windfalls for the local construction and tourist industries, the public sector costs of staging them are understated regularly. This is routinely justified in terms of the importance of establishing an identity as a “world-class” city, but the relationships between public costs and private gains need to be examined carefully. The article argues that the benefits of living in a world-class city are very unevenly distributed, and it raises questions on both economic and equity grounds about the urban strategy of promoting the city as a center for leisure, tourism, and consumption.