Benefits of the Olympic Games to the Businesses and the Economy of the Host Country - Case Study Example

Name Institution Title: English Skills Pоrtfоliо Course Code Date Are major sporting events like the Olympic Games or the FIFA World Cup really beneficial for businesses and the economy as a whole to the host country? Discuss Part 1: Introduction Major sporting events are usually beneficial to the economies of the local, regional as well as national countries. According to BookRags (2012), these events usually present much larger benefits than just the single match that is ongoing. The host country is usually on the main receiving end of the benefits that come with these events. While the events may happen for just a few weeks, the preparations for the events usually start as early as a decade before the real event. These preparations usually involve extensive investment expenditures which could have long term significance on the economy. This paper will discuss the benefits of these sporting events to the businesses and the economy of the host country. Benefits Hosting the World Cup or the Olympics usually comes with considerable costs but it has the potential to bring very large benefits to the host nation. BookRags (2012) proposed that the impacts on the economy of the host nation can be divided into three phases, viz: pre-games impact, games impact and the post-games impact. The pre-games impact is seen in terms of the cost incurred on investment. The country has to first meet the requirements for the capacity of stadiums and the number of stadiums. For instance, Matheson and Baade (2003) purported that for a nation to hoist the World Cup, FIFA requires that the nation should have 8 to 10 modern stadia with capacities of between 40,000 to 60, 000 onlookers. A country that does not have these facilities will have to invest on building the infrastructure. For instance, the 2002 World Cup that was hosted by Japan and South Korea saw South Korea spend $2 billion in building 10 stadia while Japan is said to have spent approximately more than $5.6 billion. The costs incurred in preparing for Olympics are no different since proper infrastructure is required. This initial phase of impacts also has its many benefits to the nation. For instance, tourists flock into the country in time to try and familiarize with the environment, a reconnaissance-like trip, while. This generates revenue to the host nation. The airline companies in the country also benefit from the coming of tourists since they could be the ones transporting those tourists (Goldman Sachs, 2012). During the games, the host nation has to incur some costs as well. These costs are in terms of operational costs. Security has to be heavily boosted in the country. For instance, the 2002 winter Olympics saw the Salt Lake City splurge over $300 million on security plus $1.7 billion in operational costs. On the positive, the events are a forum for the host nation to reap some revenue from the spectators. During the events, revenue is collected on ticketing. In addition, the hotel industry benefits greatly from the hospitality services that it offers to the visiting funs as well as the local funds. Besides the hotel industry, tourism still comes in to the benefiting end at this level of the events. The tourists will take this opportunity to know more about the nation. Other beneficiaries include the transport industry in terms of cabs. Besides this, job opportunities will be created in terms of the tour guides. It is also worth noting that the communication industry in the nation as well as other nations will benefit from the developments that will result from the technologies that will be used in mass communication, more especially the satellite television. Revenue collected from television will increase greatly (Horne, 2007). This can be evidenced in the way the number of media representatives usually outnumbers even the number of athletes. For instance, the Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City had 8,730 reporters who were covering the performances of 2,399 athletes (Malfas et al., 2004: p. 211). In addition, other commercial products can be sold within the country and this makes the business to benefit from the events. Another business sector that would greatly benefit from these events is the sports and gears industry. Clift (2010) purports that events like the World Cup help the country’s manufacturers of sportswear gain substantial revenue in terms of the balls sold and the wears bought for use by the various teams. However, this benefit only comes to the nation if it has the sports manufacturing industry. If not, the countries that have the industry will be the ones to benefit. According to Zimbalist (2010), there are other indirect benefits like those that come from advertisement. This benefits the nation with the adverts that are made on the sports events together with the adverts made to attracts tourists. The host nation also gains some appreciable pride as well as a sense of community by hosting the event. Further, the host nation gets an exposure to foreign organizations that might be interested in sponsoring the nation in a number of ways. On the downside of hosting the mega events, countries are likely to incur heavy debts after the events. Burton (2003) states that Montreal suffered a $2.8 million debt in the 1976 Olympic games. This debt would take the nation three decades to pay it off. In 1992, the Barcelona Olympics left the government of Spain with a debt of $4 billion to settle. These debts usually arise from poor estimation of the expenses that are required and the expected revenues. The host nation will mostly take up a loan while expecting to pay it off with the revenues from the event. At such times, the revenues generated are not up to the expectation and this leads to the large deficits, exposing the country to debts. Part 2: Critical commentary The impacts of hosting such events are both positive and negative to the host countries (Rose and Spiegel, 2010). In this paper, the benefits have been considered from the two perspectives, the positive impacts and the negative impacts to the host nation. For instance, the costs that the nation incurs in preparation for the event had not been mentioned. Besides, countries have suffered huge debts crisis after hosting the events. The examples of such countries have been mentioned. This paper had to consider both the positive and negative impacts of hosting mega sports events to the host nation because the whole idea of hosting can be attractive but care has to be taken in planning for the events to avoid any negative eventualities. It is because of poor estimation of required funds that the nations which suffered debt crises after hosting major sporting events were found in a debt crisis. In addition, the paper expounded the economic benefits that result from hosting mega sporting events. The details on the actual economic benefits that result from hosting the events were given. This was made possible by the realization that while some countries fight to be hosts to such events, other countries are not interested. However, the paper was not able to find exact details on the costs incurred by nations that have hosted the events and this called for estimation from the research carried out (Matheson and Baade, 2003). Part 3: Notes on a chapter from the book: Queen Bees and mommy tracking: How’s an academic woman supposed to get ahead? Women face a lot of challenges in trying to get a balance between work, relationship and taking care of their children. The challenges include structural barriers as well as barriers that are set by the women themselves on their fellow women. This brings up the concept of mommy tracking, where women are forced to choose their families instead of their jobs. This can be evidenced in the way academic women with dependents do not easily get promoted. In addition, there is the concept of ‘’queen bee’’. This is where women in higher positions prevent other women from rising up the ladder. But the highlight remains to be the setting of the workplace where people are required to work fulltime from the time they are in their early adulthood all through for forty years. This greatly disadvantages women. In addition, institutional housework gets women away from their work since it requires that they be with their children and their families. Women who perform well do not even get appreciated. The theoretical constructs of social capital, human capital and boundary theory demonstrate why women are disadvantaged. Human capital requires that time is given on the job; while social capital dictates that human relations provide better chances in the work place. Further, boundary theory states that the home arena is a barrier to work life (Cummins). Part 4: Summary made from lecture Taking a cruise holiday has become a popular adventure. The past one year saw 1.25 million people partake the holiday. But this has a darker side to it; the disappearance of passengers. According to congressman Christopher Sheikh, passengers onboard have either disappeared (30 people reported missing) or they have been sexually assaulted. The individuals are assaulted and no investigations are done. Besides, their families are not notified of their missing ones. Congressman Christopher believes that this is because there is no clear definition on whose jurisdiction the task of investigation is and he purports that everyone should be involved. The director of passenger ship association, Andrew Mohn, states that a crew should take the responsibility of reporting the incident of missing persons. The jurisdiction is still questionable since it depends on the type of crime, the flag of the ship, the territorial waters that the ship is in and this means that several jurisdictions are involved. Some of the measures that should be taken to curb this include having policemen onboard. In addition, the incidence should be reported as soon as they occur. It is proposed that all ships should have security. Andrew proposed that policemen should be paid to offer security to the ship but the policemen belong to the national police forces and they cannot be tasked with security in the ship. People should also be informed of the security status so that they become vigilant. The session reported that people believe that their country is in charge of their security. Bibliography BookRags, 2012, The Benefits of Major Sporting Events on Local, Regional and National Economies Essay, retrieved on December 11th from . Burton Rick, 2003, “Olympic Games Host City Marketing: An Exploration of Expectations and Outcomes,” Sport Marketing Quarterly, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 37–47. Clift Jeremy, 2010, Prize or Penalty: When Sports help economies Score, Finance & Development, a Quarterly Publication of the International Monetary Fund, Volume 47, No.1, USA. Cummins A. Helene, Queen Bees and mommy tracking: How’s an academic woman supposed to get ahead? London. Goldman Sachs, 2012, The Olympics and Economics 2012, UK. Horne John, 2007, The Four ‘Knowns’ of Sports Mega-Events, Leisure Studies, Vol. 26, No. 1, 81–96, UK. Malfas et al, 2004, Impacts of the Olympic Games as mega-events, Municipal Engineer 157(ME3), pp. 209–220. Matheson A. Victor and Baade A. Robert, 2003, Mega-Sporting Events in Developing Nations: Playing the Way to Prosperity? USA. Rose K. Andrew and Spiegel M. Mark, 2010, The Olympic trade Effect: Countries that Bid for the Olympics are sending a Signal that they are Ready to open up Trade, An article in Finance and Development, pp 14, USA. Zimbalist Andrew (2010), Is it worth it? Finance & Development, a Quarterly Publication of the International Monetary Fund, Volume 47, No.1, USA. Read More