The Environmental Impacts of Euro - Essay Example

Introduction to and description of EURO 2016

An event is difficult to define as a term but is in simple terms it is considered as something that happens or to which significant meaning has been attached (Getz, 2012). As the world changes and time passes, humanity lives in a world defined by events, mundane and important, defining as well as demarcate people’s lives. Simply put, an event is occurs within a given place and time. In particular, sporting events are some of the phenomena that characterize the modern society, as evident from the organized games, athletics (Preuss, 2013). One of such, as the focus of this discussion, is the European Football Championship (Euro). The event qualifies to be a large sporting event because it is not carried out on an annual basis since Getz (2012) states that mega events have unique one-time characteristic related to the particular region where it is taking place. For instance, the Euro competition is currently taking place in France. Therefore, Euro event is chosen for this discussion because (Parent and Smith-Swan (2013) suggest that a major event should have a large profile whereby it attracts worldwide attention and so does the Euro event that has gotten the attention of the entire world. On the other hand, the event has socio-economic and environmental effects since the Euro has had profound implications to France, especially in Major cities of Lille where the event has been concentrated.

The Euro, established in 1960, is a large sporting event for men’s national teams and members taking part have to be part of the Union of European Football Association (Groll, 2013). The event is always held every four years. Through history, the number of teams participating in the tournament has been increased to allow 24 teams to participate in the sporting event, and the winning team gets the Henri Delaunay Trophy. The sporting event, currently underway in France, almost in the final stage, has been attracting a large number of fans of the national teams, besides the attention that it has gained from worldwide football fans. However, although the event focuses much on the soccer aspect, it has some implications on the environment and the residents of France as evident from the littered streets, fans running around, throwing beer bottles, cans, and other plastic materials that could be posing serious environmental and health concerns to the people.

Using classification framework, the scoring scheme, the European Football Championship or Euro classifies as a mega-event and as such, can be described from four dimensions including mediated reach (availability through mass media), attractiveness, transformative impacts and costs (Müller, 2015). According to the scoring scheme, an event has to fit the three dimensions of major events, mega-events, and giga-events. Therefore, the Euro qualifies as a mega-event given the large numbers of the fans, from 24 countries, who attend the tournament. The number of tickets requested for before the tournament indicates how the event is a mega in nature, because around 11 Million ticket requests were sent to the EURO2016.com platform (Uefa.com. 2016).

Event typologies and motivations

Gender is one of the demographic characteristics to consider with soccer events like the Euro 2016 because such events attract more males than females as an implication that it is a male-dominated event. On the other hand, a demographic characteristic to consider is the age of the fan-base (Getz, 2012) because on average, the fans are around 35 years of age with a considerate number of older adults who are on their pension and have time to spend in the soccer event, running for one month. However, since the event is being held in summer holidays, a larger number of college students are also attending the event. Based on their socio-economic status, an average person earning impressive income has the surplus to spend during summer on the sporting event as an indication that the it attracts people with average income because the tickets are not so expensive and as such, affordable to the middle class. Ethnicity is a major demographic characteristic consider, but the Euro has been white dominated although the event attracts minority races like blacks, Hispanics, Arabs, and Asians.

Psychographic characteristics can also be used to explain the motivation behind engaging attending Euro 2016 (Müller, 2015). Some of the attendees are old alumni association of the Euro, having played in the previous events and would like to relive the experience. On the other hand, there are the super jocks or the young, mainly male group with considerately high average income who are highly social as well as active thereby identifying themselves as the outdoor enthusiasts (Getz, 2012). Another category is the fitness edge, more so a group of females who have much interest in physical activities and having an average income.

The motivation behind sporting events can be described from the typology approach to classifying events. According to Müller (2015), events are classified based on different components including sports, arts, cultural, private, entertainment, and social. For this case, the major motivation behind Euro 2016 is to enjoy the sporting activity, soccer to be precise. However, not all visitors are motivated by sports because some have gone to France as tourists, enjoying the rich French culture especially arts. Therefore, it can be argued that for the visitors, a major motivator towards visiting France is enjoying football, but they are also open to enjoying the tourist attraction sites like the Notre Dame and other major landmarks in France. In this case, a major benefit from the event is the enjoyment and good passage of leisure time, especially those who want to relax during the summer holiday, besides the pleasure gotten from the game as it offers so much fun to the football enthusiasts.

Nonetheless, the motivation behind sporting events derived from the perspective of Durkheim’s theory suggesting that events denote a particular focus, euphoria, or spiritual thinking and as such, designed to result in specific outcomes (Halfpenny, 2014). In this case, the motivation behind Euro 2016 is people to interact as some go there just to socialize with others, make new friends. Therefore, overall, the primary objective of the sporting event is to increase social capital as people from all walks of life interact in one social or commonplace.

Impacts and consequences

The environmental impacts of Euro 2016 are many, and these are not restricted to such impacts as increase in waste, especially from the fans throwing litters, including plastics and glass bottles (Groll et al., 2013). The emissions from motor vehicle combustion are set to increase, thus more fossil fuel by-products, especially carbon dioxide, being emitted into the environment. Air pollution is also a major concern with the increased activity from the transport department. As such, most French cities will have a major problem dealing with solid wastes left after each game, especially from the loitering fans and street parties. On the other hand, the increased quantity of solid wastes in the environment will bring problems with municipal waste management and if care is not taken, may compromise the air quality for the residents. Each city has a municipality with an environmental management department whose work should be to ensure that wastes are collected on a daily basis.

There are profound impacts from of the Euro 2016 to France’s economic sector. Overall, the event is set to bring about a boost to the country’s economy, especially with major sectors like tourism (Groll et al., 2013). As the visitors continue spending, so is the growth in the country's economy because, within one month, a lot of income shall have been accrued. However, there are bound to be some significant social impacts and one of such, as witnessed with the fan violence, is the disruption of the daily business in the major cities especially the fans fighting their opponents. Unruly behaviours are also part of the impacts because violence and crime are the order of the day with such major events (Groll et al., 2013). On a positive note, the interaction between fans is set to improve the social capital and for a good course, the country is set to gain a good image or reputation of handling and managing the entire event. For the social problems, the French police have a duty to ensure that there is order and that anyone compromising peace has been apprehended.

Summary

In summary, the discussion has focused on Euro 2016 as a major sporting event that has attracted the attention of the world, including the participating countries whereby their fans flocked the tournament in large numbers to cheer their teams. Based on typology classification, the event is described as a sporting activity, majorly a soccer tournament. On the other hand, the classification has been done based on scoring scheme model, categorising events as major, mega and giga in nature. From the number of tickets sold, around 11 Million, the Euro 2016 has been classified as a mega-event as it attracted a larger number of fans from not only Europe but the entire world. The fans have been described to be of varied characteristics based on their age, gender, income, socio-economic background, and psychographic characteristics revealing how most of the most the fans are middle aged and college students spending their summer holidays. They are motivated by fun, interest in travel and for the love of soccer game. The event is set to bring profound effects and consequences including increased waste in the streets, social issues like fan violence due to intoxication from alcohol, and economic boost to France through tourism spending.