PhD, Associate Professor E.A. Gureeva¹
PhD T.V. Skryl¹
PhD Y.A. Sukhanovsky¹
A.D. Askarov^1
1Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, Moscow

Keywords: sport, efficiency, country, management, mass sport events, region, finance, crisis, traditional games, ethnic sports.

Background. Modern sports tend to evolve as any non-industrial sector with the naturally occurring and developing competitive relationships both with the key outside competitors on the market of entertainment within the relevant cultural fields (cinema, theatre, circus etc.) and the inside ones, i.e. competing sport events striving to lure as many spectators as possible to secure high profitability.

It should also be noted that the growing budgetary constraints, doping scandals and economic sanctions force the national sport communities give a higher priority to home sport and folk events with due emphasis on their profitability issues. The relevant policies need to be worked out and pursued by the national and local governments.

Presently the issues of the national government policies and role in the sport sector regulation are subject to discussions in the academic and political circles. In view of the growing pressure and threats from the global sport associations, the inactive governmental policies have become subject to sharp criticism in the country. However, the government still needs to contribute to the sport relationships acting as a mediator in relations of the governmental agencies, different sport federations, business communities and people. It should be mentioned that most of the mass sport events in the country are financed from the local government budgets that means that it is the population of the host regions that actually pays most of the costs of the events. Commercial revenues generated by the events may partially offset the relevant organisation and management costs.

Objective of the study was to analyse the importance of mass sport events for the host communities and their willingness to finance the events from the communal or individual funds.

Methods and structure of the study. To obtain data on the importance of traditional games and ethnic festivals, a Russian survey was initiated and sponsored by the Federation of Traditional Festivals and Ethnic Sports of Russia, a Russian Non-governmental Organisation with a research support provided by G.V. Plekhanov Russian University of Economics. Subject to a representative sample for the survey were 23 regions of the Russian Federation and 830 respondents in total. The key topic of the survey was the respondents’ willingness to pay with identification of the amount that may be reasonably allocated from the incomes; and the social and economic benefits rating component with consideration for the individual traits of each respondent. The respondents were offered a dichotomous choice of amounts that they could possibly allocate to such mass sport events and ethnic parks development projects. The survey data were additionally analysed to find the region-specific variations. 

Study results and discussion. Most of the respondents rated the events as important and contributing to the host region progress in a variety of aspects including improvement of the region’s image; protection of the historical and cultural traditions; and growth of the tourist attractiveness of the region: see Table 1.

Table 1. Impacts of traditional sport games and ethnic festivals on the regional progress, %

It was the personal competitive and valuable socialising (contesting, gaming, national meals cooking etc.) experience and the opportunity to buy folk garments and souvenirs etc. that were reported among the key motivators for the local people to participate in traditional games, ethnic festivals, entertainment, dances etc.: see Table 2.

Table 2. Key motivators for participation in traditional games and ethnic festivals, %

It should be noted that the key motivators for traditional sport games and folk festivals are closely associated with the amount the people are willing to pay for fun. It was the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Region and Tyva Republic that leaded in the people’s willingness to pay (above RUB1500 on average) for participation in the events, with the amount being twice as high as that of the nearest rival, Khabarovsk Territory, and three times as high as the Russian average. It is noteworthy that the Moscow residents are willing to pay only RUB400 on average that is close to the bottom level.

If we now multiply the average amount per capita on the total population of the region, it gives the total amount potentially payable by the host region population to support the ethnic parks development projects. A similar calculation procedure was used to obtain the potential average revenue per match-day: see Table 3.

Table 3. Region-specific willingness to pay (WTP) for traditional games and ethnic festivals

Having analysed the outcome data of the survey, we categorised the regions into the following five WTP (willingness to pay) categories: see Table 4.

Table 4. Traditional games and ethnic sports: Russian regions ranked by the interest and willingness-to-pay

Most promising regions for the ethnic sports are Moscow, Tyva Republic and Khabarovsk Territory; going next are the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Region and Saint Petersburg; and they are closely followed by the Omsk Region and Irkutsk Region; whilst all the other regions were found still little interested in such events.

It was found that the structure of revenues generated by the mass sport events is much different from the typical match-day one. The match-day revenues are normally dominated by the daily income from the ticket sales, public catering services, sales of souvenirs and incomes from other services offered by the organisers (Gureyeva, 2016). The key difference is that tickets are not sold in the mass sport events whereas this is the key revenue element of a match-day. The mass folk festivals mostly yield incomes from sales of souvenirs, items of folk arts, national foods, folk garments, masks etc. When these revenues are high enough, they may partially offset the costs of the events.

Conclusion. Based on the study data and analysis, we would recommend the following measures to increase benefits of the mass sport and folk events: improve cooperation of the sport stakeholders at the Federal and regional levels; stimulate the purchase capacity of the local population by establishing facilitating conditions in the regions and in the country on the whole; popularise ethnic sports and mass sport events; efficiently mobilise and employ the available resource in every region for success of mass sport and folk events; and provide special financing to the regions where interest in the events is still relatively low.

References

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Corresponding author: eagureeva@gmail.com

Abstract

In the context of the modern economic and political challenges, and the increasing numbers of study reports exploring the ways to improve the efficiency of mass sport events on the whole and ethnic events in particular a top priority is being given to the issues of economic benefits of mass sport events. Objective of the study was to analyse the importance of mass sport events for host communities and their willingness to finance the events from the communal or individual funds. The study was based on the data of the Russian survey initiated and sponsored by the Federation of Traditional Festivals and Ethnic Sports of Russia, a Russian Non-governmental Organisation with a research support provided by G.V. Plekhanov Russian University of Economics. Subject to a representative sample under the study were 23 regions of the RF. The study data was indicative of the mass sport events being beneficial as verified by a variety of criteria including the host region’s image improvement; protection of the cultural and historic traditions; and the growing attractiveness of the host region for tourists. It was the personal competitive and valuable socialising experience that was found the key motivator for participation of the local communities in the traditional games and festivals. Having analysed the outcome data of the survey, we categorised the regions into five WTP (willingness to pay) categories. Furthermore, the study produced a classified account of the average income generated by the mass sport events versus the average revenues from the traditional match-days. The study findings gave the grounds for the authors to highlight the most promising avenues for the mass sport events hosting projects.