PROF MALCOLM FOLEY / DANIEL TURNERMAKING THE CASE FOR EVENTS

The Politics of Sanctioning Events

Context and history

Important to understand not just the decision to bid but also the decision to award peripatetic events.

Move from low impact to high impact events (Essex and Chalkley, 1998)

Increasing instrumentality underpinning the bidding/awarding of peripatetic events.

Olympics: From St Louis 1904 to London 2012 European Capital of Culture: From Florence/Paris to

Glasgow/Liverpool

From sport and culture to social change in 100 years.

Increasing desires of the sanctioning body as to what the event should deliver…

The new rules of engagement….

Peripatetic events must deliver…. The spectacle!

“The Best Games Ever” “the power of corporate hype linked with

global television is a marvellous machine for promoting sports” (The Economist 1996)

The new rules of engagement…

Peripatetic events must deliver…. Community involvement!

“If one had to say one thing that swung it for Liverpool, it would have to be there was a greater sense there that the whole city is involved in the bid and behind the bid.” – Tessa Jowell

Portugal Euro 2004 Application ‘mascot’

No room for dissenting voices.

The new rules of engagement…

Peripatetic events must deliver…. Urban transformation!

The growing importance of legacy.Physical infrastructure as a lasting reminder

of the event.

The new rules of engagement…

Peripatetic events must deliver…. World peace!

Increasingly events given to cities and nation states with a transnational agenda Japan / Korea 2002, Euro 2008, Commonwealth

Games = The Friendly Games

Sport and Culture used to bring the world together in a ‘non-political’ space.

The new rules of engagement…

Peripatetic events must deliver… all things to all people!

Responses to contemporary global issues.The ‘eco-friendly’ eventThe ‘secure’ event

Sport with Culture, Culture with Sport and Education for all! (e.g cultural legacy of Games)

Underlying reasons for sanctioning decisions?

Emerging commercial markets Commercial partners pressurising the development of key

market places around the globe Beijing 2008, USA 1994

Increase the value of the currency Event ‘rotation’ ensures a bidding frenzy as ‘it’s our last

chance til until the next rotation’ See FIFA World Cup, European Capital of Culture

A safe event for self-interests Security from ambush marketing Security from problematic message (Free Tibet)

Sanctioning for the future…

‘The compulsive and obsessive, continuous, unstoppable, forever incomplete modernisation, the overwhelming and ineradicable, unquenchable thirst… for doing more of the same in the future’ (Bauman, 2000:28) – The juggernaught of the peripatetic mega-event.

Legitimation of the self / profession (Foucault)The over-riding purpose of the event is to

legitimate the sanctioning of future events by the awarding body.