Dr.Hab., Professor L.A. Rapoport¹
PhD, Associate Professor A.E. Terentyev¹
E.V. Kharitonova^1
1Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin, Yekaterinburg

Keywords: major sport events, intangible heritage of major sport events, regional physical culture and sports development projects.

Background. Major sport events are always considered the landmark chances opening up unique opportunities for local economies. Global interests and contributions, high financial costs, fixed deadlines and highest motivations for success are combined forming a driving force for the progress as they release powerful forces in every social domain including national politics world, business interests, non-governmental organizations and local governments. Such major sport events may bring multiple – tangible and intangible, expected and unexpected benefits – as well as other positive and negative outcomes that often come together [1, 3].

In real practice the goals pursued by the host city are often attained only to some degree for the reason that the relevant municipal institutional and infrastructural projects are always limited by the local scope and resource. This is the reason why the local government officers and managers are often literally steamrolled by the scope of the hosted event and soon find that their limited resources are exhausted. Huge investments, a wide range of associating provisions and initiatives, fixed deadlines at every stage of the process associated with high desire to succeed, unusual global attention and scrutiny and long-term planning and preparation process that may take up to ten years in some cases – all that may result in the high hopes being non-justified at the end.

Objective of the study was to determine the ways to take full advantage of the benefits of major sport events for the regional physical culture and sports promotion agenda.

Methods and structure of the study

Political/ communication dimension. A top priority within this dimension shall be given to the potential initiatives of the host cities to consolidate their local administrative resource for success of the upcoming major sport event and maximize its benefits. Then we shall assess the resources accessible for the host country for the long-term image-building project including the efforts to fully employ benefits of the major sport event for the purposes of sustainable development.

Economic dimension. Acting within this dimension, we shall assess the potential economic benefits of the major sport event versus its costs under the worst-case scenario i.e. on the assumption that the sport event may not bring the expected economic benefits. Indirect benefits (e.g. generated by the tourist sector boom in the area) shall be also taken into account for they may also be important for the regional economy.

Infrastructural dimension. Here we shall analyse the contributions of the major sport event to the regional long-term development process including the large-scale infrastructure development initiatives. A special emphasis in this dimension shall be made on the new infrastructure operation strategies upon completion of the event.

Social dimension. Effects of the major sport event on the local educational, social, informational, communal integration and public activation and engagement initiatives shall be assessed.

Environmental dimension. The following two aspects within this dimension shall be considered: (1) direct effects of the major sport event (for instance, the so-called ‘carbon trace’); and (2) encouragement effects of the major sport event for the sustainable environmental protection agenda with the relevant benefits upon completion of the event.

Since Yekaterinburg has been listed among the eleven major Russian cities to host matches of the 2018 World Football Championship, we would analyse the key benefits and other outcomes of the 2018 World Football Championship for the city and Sverdlovsk region on the whole.

Study results and discussion

Political/ communication dimension. Nomination of the Sverdlovsk region to host the major sport event gives an excellent chance to promote the brand name of the region on the whole and Yekaterinburg in particular as a host city for major sport tournaments with its excellent human resource and well-developed infrastructure that ranks it third after Moscow and Saint Petersburg cities. The city and region have made good progress lately and now are recognized highly attractive for investment projects and widely known the world over as verified by the city ranked on top of the million-plus-populated cities of the country by the amounts of investments lured to the local capital assets.

Economic dimension. The Sverdlovsk Regional Government has made assessments of the expected total costs and benefits of the major sport events for the period of 2010-18, with account of the relevant contributions to the Gross Regional Product (GRP) [2]. The conservative assessments of the Sverdlovsk Regional Government made prior to the notable changes in the national economic situation in 2014-15 showed that the project is expected to add up 0.43% to the GRP in the average annual terms for the period of 2010-18 [4].

The tax payments to the regional budget are expected to grow by RUR 5.5 billion, with the consolidated income to the national budget estimated at RUR 13.3 billion. Furthermore, the Sverdlovsk Region is expected to generate the extra social and economic benefits from the new jobs for 56.2 thousand people, i.e. 6.2 thousand jobs per year in the period of 2010-18 [4].

Infrastructural dimension. Hotel and tourist services and infrastructure are ranked among the priority elements of the potential economic benefits. Presently the hosting capacity of the Sverdlovsk Regional hotels amounts to 11 thousand accommodations; and with the local hostels up to 13 thousand guests may be received. This hosting capacity appears sufficient in terms of the total space albeit due efforts still need to be taken to upgrade and certify the accommodations and services. Around 200 hosting facilities still need to be categorized and certified for the visitors. For doing that, the relevant certification agencies need to be commissioned; advanced training courses shall be offered to the hotel personnel; and the hotel management and owners shall be duly motivated for the certification program. There are good reasons to expect that the local hotel businesses are duly motivated for the upgrade and certification project provided they are confident in the long-term benefits of the project with the inflow of tourist and visitors to the Region forecasted to grow up to 4 million per year till the year of 2020 [4].

Social dimension. In assessing the benefits of a major international sport event for any region and for the Sverdlovsk Region in the case, the local sport statistics needs to be taken into account including the total sporting population engaged in the habitual physical trainings and sports; breakdown of the local sports into the mass, amateur and professional categories; and the regional sport infrastructure. It should be mentioned that the Yekaterinburg nomination to host the 2018 WFC gave an immediate boost to the local mass sports with the local adult football playing population reported to grow from 47,215 to 58,040 in the period of 2010-16. The children’s population trained in the local football groups was reported to grow up to 10,412 as of 2016. According to his and other local sport statistics, the major sport event provides a huge impetus for the local physical culture and sports sector on the whole and the hosted sport discipline in particular.

Environmental dimension. The ongoing preparations for the 2018 World Football Championship in the Sverdlovsk Region are designed and managed with due account of the carbon trace growth potential so as to secure the sustainable environmental protection in the area and meet the relevant requirements of the FIFA-sponsored “Green Goals” Program.

Conclusion. The study data give the grounds to conclude that the reasonably integrated and prudent regional projects to host and serve the major sport events shall be geared to: employ, in the best possible manner, the regional tangible and intangible assets; facilitate the socio-economic development projects in the region, particularly in the physical culture, sports and tourism sectors; and cut down the potential negative costs of the major sport events by the risk mitigation/ prevention actions.

References

1. Doklad rabochey gruppy «O razvitii futbola v Rossiyskoy Federatsii, obespechennosti sportivnoy infrastrukturoy s uchetom podgotovki k chempionatu mira po futbolu FIFA 2018 goda» [Report of the working group "On development of football in the Russian Federation, provision of sports infrastructure in view of the preparations for the FIFA 2018 World Cup"]. Council under the President of the Russian Federation for the Development of Physical Culture and Sports. Samara, 2015, P. 41.
2. Kotlyarov M.A., Rapoport L.A. Sotsialno-ekonomicheskaya effektivnost provedeniya krupnomasshtabnogo mezhdunarodnogo sportivnogo meropriyatiya dlya razvitiya regiona (na primere Sverdlovskoy oblasti) [Socio-economic efficiency of large-scale international sporting event for regional development (case study of Sverdlovsk region)]. Regionalnaya ekonomika: teoriya i praktika, 2017, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 222–236.
3. Kotlyarov M.A. Megasportivnye meropriyatiya i razvitie territoriy (raboty zarubezhnykh avtorov) [Mega-sports events and development of territories (foreign research)]. Transl. Engl. Yekaterinburg: AMB, 2015, Part 1, 130 p.
4. Postanovlenie pravitelstva Sverdlovskoy oblasti ot 22.03.2016 no. 184 «O vnesenii izmeneniy v kompleksnuyu programmu Sverdlovskoy oblasti «Programma podgotovki k provedeniyu v 2018 godu Chempionata mira po futbolu», utverzhdennuyu postanovleniem Pravitelstva Sverdlovskoy oblasti ot 27.12.2013 no. 1683-PP» (prinyato Pravitelstvom Sverdlovskoy oblasti 22 marta 2016 g.) [Resolution of the Government of the Sverdlovsk Region dated March 22, 2016 no. 184 "On Amendments to the Comprehensive Program of the Sverdlovsk Region "World Cup 2018 preparation program", approved by the Government of the Sverdlovsk Region Decree of 27.12.2013 no. 1683-PP "(adopted by the Government of the Sverdlovsk region on March 22, 2016)]. Available at: http://docs.cntd.ru/document/429036529  (Date of access:5.09.2017).

Corresponding author: rla66@mail.ru

Abstract

The study analyses the ways to take full advantage of benefits of major sport events for the regional physical culture and sports promotion agenda, with the Sverdlovsk region taken for the case study. Subject to analysis under the study were the major sports events hosted by the region; potential impacts of the 2018 Football Championship on the Russian economy and infrastructure; effects of the major sport events on the social and education development initiatives in the region; and the potential benefits of the major sports events for the physical culture and sports sector of the Sverdlovsk region. The study data give the grounds to conclude that the reasonably integrated and prudent regional projects to host and serve the major sport events shall be geared to: employ, in the best possible manner, the regional tangible and intangible assets; facilitate the socio-economic development projects in the region, particularly in the physical culture, sports and tourism sectors; and cut down the potential negative costs of the major sport events by the risk mitigation/ prevention actions.