MAJOR EVENTS THE LIFEBLOOD OF THE SPORTS BUSINESS Major events are critical to the sports business. So why is there so little recognition of the role of event management? Events are the lifeblood of the multi-billion dollar global sports business. Without them there would be nothing‌. no tickets sold, no massive TV rights deals, no huge sponsorships to report. Events provide the stage on which sporting heroics are performed and the dramas, triumphs and tragedies of top level sport are played out in front of live audiences and millions more watching on televisions,. Major sports events grip the public imagination like little else. At the very top end of the scale, the world more or less stops during the Olympic Games and FIFA World Cup as we bask in an extended celebration of sport at its best. Elsewhere the impact is inevitably more polarised and localised but the fact remains that sports
events have become one of the few remaining truly shared experiences in an increasingly fragmented world. Over the years the scale and complexity of sports events has changed significantly. Today’s major events have become massive projects which demand levels of leadership, management, creativity and innovation normally associated with running a world-leading corporation. It should, therefore, come as no surprise that planning and management techniques previously used in commerce and industry are increasingly being employed in event management. The reasons are plain to see. Sports events have become so much more than the events themselves.
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