Logistical Challenges in Planning Sporting Mega-Events - Term Paper Example

EVENT PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT Student’s name Code & Course Professor’s Name University City Date Contents 1.0 Introduction 3 2.0 Facilities and Resources Challenges 4 2.1 Security Challenges 6 2.2 Number of Participants 7 3.0 Conclusion 9 Reference List 10 Logistical Challenges in Planning Sporting Mega-Events 1.0 Introduction Event planning is typified by a number of challenges given its planning dynamics, notably in the course of a mega project. More often than not such events involve the inclusion of a large number of participants. Making the event, successful entails lots of early preparations and strategic planning in order to ensure that no stone is left unturned. Most importantly, the preparations strategically involve dealing with a set of challenges that may arise in the preparation stages of the event or during the actual event (Parent & Chappelet 2015). These challenges may vary in complexities depending on the areas of responsibility. One major challenge, however, in the organization of major events, is the challenge of planning and coordination of logistics. As such, this retrospect paper seeks to analyze the challenges experienced in organizing such events. Logistical challenges are common phenomena in event planning, whether for big major events or small events (Fleischmann, Meyr & Wagner 2015). Usually, most event planners and organizers will always prioritize on getting this challenges solved before the actual event. In order to effectively manage these challenges, the planners design the entire strategic plan in an attempt to coordinate effectively and solve complexities involving numbers of people, facilities needed versus facilities available and the supplies. In most cases, event planners rely on reliable logistical speculations or projections in making up crucial decisions in the planning of logistics. In this regard, planners invest in a series of research regarding the events in order to establish numbers estimations including various participants’ expectations and trends in such event (Gems & Pfister 2014). Globally, a series of events have called for strategic and intense planning, including the speculation of various challenges and management of the anticipated challenges. These challenges have always been noticeable in the main sporting events in the world. As such, this paper uses an assessment of various examples from major sporting events in the world (from the year 2000) to examine and discuss various logistical challenges encountered in sports event planning. 2.0 Facilities and Resources Challenges In the planning for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa the organizing committee’s CEO, Danny Jordaan, admitted to challenges witnessed while exiting the brick-and-motor phase to the reality of planning (Swart, Bob & Allen 2015). Being the world’s biggest sporting event, the planning committee anticipated mass migration of fans. However, the country faced multiple challenges in logistics. In the planning for accommodations, for example, Jordaan agreed to having adequate accommodation avenues, which were not well suited in favor of the event’s location (Kassen-Noor 2015). In some host cities, for example, where a large number of fans was anticipated, fans were in most cases accommodated at the city’s outskirts. During the planning phase, it was observed that the accommodation facilities were not adequate considering the large fan turnaround. Durban, for example, which is thought to having sufficiently furnished hotel rooms had failed to accommodate adequately a traveling army of 40,000 fans during the Lions Tour (Swart, Bob & Allen 2015). On the other hand, England only was expected to produce 50,000-100,000 fans for this World Cup event. This was projected to present the biggest challenge to the organizers in providing accommodation for its fans. Additionally, the unpredictable but expected number of fans who would opt to travel independently for the event. Besides, the increased number of fans compelled the need for substantial refurbishment, renovations including full construction of stadiums in Polokwane, Port Elizabeth, Nelspruit, Durban and Cape Town to cater for the number of travelling fans (Swart, Bob & Allen 2015). Organizing for the stadium’s adjustments and construction experienced touring costs that led to massive complaints among the tax payers, subsequently leading to strikes (Swart, Bob & Allen 2015). It is evident that meeting facility demands for mega-such as the world cup event -can prove cumbersome, if not, a challenging event. This is because of the numerous numbers of participants and fans in these sporting events who need adequate facilities to cater for their various needs. Accommodations and transport concerns by the visitors, for instance, call for significant attention from the planners. Unfortunately, in most circumstances, the facilities available are always limited in relation to the numerous numbers expected (Fleischmann, Meyr & Wagner 2015). As such, facility challenges are usually prominent in the organization of sports mega-events. In planning for events facilities management and organization and resource allocation and prioritization, are tantamount (Chappelet & Parent 2015). As such, there is a crucial need for addressing logistical challenges regarding facilities and resources during the planning stages way before the actual event. To counter logistical challenges for such events, the organizers make efforts to kick of preparations earlier in order to set up effective and sufficient facility and resources structures to cater for the high number of participants in the events (Giulianotti et al 2015). 2.1 Security Challenges Security planning is essential in planning for mega sports events (Holt & Ruta 2015). In the organization of the events, the organizers strive to ensure that the participants are assured of security. This is done by the strategic distribution of security units across the venues of the events. However, in addressing security concerns, there are challenges of convincing the participants and the involved committees of adequate security measure (Masterman 2014). This challenge is most prominent in hosts with poor security track records. In the World Cup of 2010, there were security fears since South Africa had disturbing crime records including a reported murder rate of 18,000 people in a year (Giampiccoli, Lee & Nauright 2015). This questions the ability of the nation to host the World Cup effectively due to security concerns. As a result, logistics planning had to involve strict consideration of security distribution and attention during the event period. As a strategy, over 41,000 police were deployed to different hosting cities to take care of security during the event (Kim, Kang & Kim 2014). Additionally, the London Olympics, 2012, had similar headaches in the logistical planning of security. Days before, the commencement of the Olympics, CNN reported that the G4S group, a private security firm contracted to offer security would not be able to effectively deliver (Jones 2014). Following this news, the levels of organization for the event was put to question, prompting Sebastian Coe, the chairman of the Organizing group in London to make statements of security assurance (Young, Bennet & Seguin 2014). The government of Britain was also forced to deploy over 10,000 military troops to cater for the security short fall and assure participants of security. Evidently, security challenges are unavoidable in event planning (Masterman 2014). As such, event organizers enforce measures to guarantee security in order to achieve success and escape security criticisms. 2.2 Number of Participants While the number of participants in an event is usually a critical factor in the analysis of the success of the event, these numbers present a huge headache in the organization of logistics (Andersson & Armbrecht 2014). In most cases, challenges presented by the number of participants, include wrong number estimations leading to planning errors. Overestimating and underestimating the number of participants in an event would significantly contribute to making various logistical planning blunders (Brown et al. 2015). However, determining numbers precisely always proves to be a critical challenge for most event planners. There are some ways through which event planners determine the number of participants for an event. One such way is by monitoring the statistics of previous events of the same kind and cross checking the trends in numbers over the years the event has taken place (Middleditch & Bradbury 2014). Using either an observation of rising or falling trends, the planners can predict either a rise in the number of participants of a fall in the number of participants in the event. For example, the World Masters Games which is considered the biggest multi-sports event in the world has observed an increase in the number of participating competitors from the 1st edition in 1985, Toronto Canada which had 22 sports, 61 participating countries and 8,304 competitors (Holt & Ruta 2015).This number has significantly increased over the years, with the most recent edition involving 30 sports, 99 participating countries and 15, 394 competitors. Using these records, the planners for the anticipated 2017 event are able to plan logistics for the event within an estimated margin of the number of participants. Secondly, seasons and other factors such as security and political statuses could influence number changes thus challenging logistical planning (Jones 2014). For example, the summer events of the World Masters Game attracted a high number of participants as compared to the Winter Games (See table 1 and table 2 below). Edition Year Host Sports Countries Competitors Motto 1st 1985 Toronto,  Canada 22 61 8,305 The Year of the Masters 2nd 1989 Aalborg, Aarhus, and Herning,  Denmark 37 76 5,500 Sport for life 3rd 1994 Brisbane,  Australia 30 74 24,500 The challenge never ends 4th 1998 Portland, Oregon,  United States 28 102 11,400 The global celebration of sport for life 5th 2002 Melbourne,  Australia 26 98 24,886 The biggest multi-sport festival on Earth 6th 2005 Edmonton,  Canada 25 89 21,600 A festival of sport in the city of festivals 7th 2009 Sydney,  Australia 28 95 28,676 Fit, fun and forever young 8th 2013 Turin,  Italy 30 99 15,394 Sport for life, Sport for all 9th 2017 Auckland,  New Zealand 28 - - For the Love of Sport 10th 2021 Kansai,  Japan - - - Table 1 World Masters Games: Summer Games Edition Year Host Sports Countries Competitors Motto 1st 2010 Bled, Slovenia 7 42 3,000 The Games for you 2nd 2015 Quebec City, Canada 9 20 1,600 Table 2: World Masters Games: Winter Games Using the tables, despite the significant rise in the number of events and participating countries over the years since the first edition, there has been a fluctuating number of participants each year. This makes it difficult to plan effectively logistics. The trend in statistics is irregular thus virtually impossible to make accurate projections about the next event. This issue with the number of participants in the World Masters Games has made the organizers agree on the difficulties in making logistical plans (Gems & Pfister 2014). However, the event planners are always keen to take precautionary measures before the actual event. Their policy has always been to ensure adequacy such that whether the numbers are less or massive, the facilities and resources are adequate (Parent & Chappelet 2015). In such a case, it is better to plan logistically to satisfy the numbers present rather than risk potential inconveniences that are injurious to events’ reputation (Masterman 2014). 3.0 Conclusion In conclusion, various logistical challenges feature in event planning. These challenges range from facilities and resources challenges, security challenges and problems of effectively planning for a unpredictable number of participants. These set of challenges call for strategic measures in planning in order to avoid inconveniences and potential embarrassments that are unhealthy to reputations. Planning for mega sports events, therefore, require adequate planning and early preparations to counter effectively or minimize logistical challenges. Reference List Andersson, T., & Armbrecht, J. (2014). Factors explaining the use-value of sport event experiences. International Journal of Event and Festival Management, 5(3), 235-246. Brown, S., Getz, D., Pettersson, R., & Wallstam, M. (2015). Event evaluation: definitions, concepts and a state of the art review. International Journal of Event and Festival Management, 6(2). Chappelet, J. L., & Parent, M. M. (2015). THE (WIDE) WORLD OF SPORTS EVENTS. Routledge Handbook of Sports Event Management, 1. 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In Routledge Handbook of Sport and Legacy: Meeting the Challenge of Major Sports Events. Routledge. Young, B. W., Bennett, A., & Séguin, B. (2014). Masters sport perspectives. Routledge handbook of sports event management: A stakeholder approach, 48. Read More