Soccer World Cup in the United States - Research Paper Example

Soccer World Cup in the United States Introduction Historians believe that it was during the 1870s when soccer received a formal acknowledgement of presence with immigrants bringing this game to the country through Ellis Island. However, historians also believe a sport of similar nature, named as “pasuckuakohowog” (Goldblatt, 2008) played between the Native Americans and its literal translation dictates its meaning as “kicking ball sport” (Goldblatt, 2008). Since then soccer has been moving with a crawling to gain the popularity and attention as compared to other sports in the United States (Goldblatt, 2008). This paper is an attempt to explore the economic, social, and environmental impacts of any American city holding a soccer world cup. Furthermore, the paper will also go on to explore the various research methodologies employed by the researchers and the best fit considering the nature and dynamics of this specific research. Discussion Without any doubts, countries and cities seek the rights for hosting the world cup because of its impact on the economy. Any huge event in any part of the world creates an upward spiral of growth for the country and the region. Even before the world cup actually starts, even the announcement of the same attracts great deal of investors in that region. Construction of buildings, roads, transportation systems and other facilities that would be required by the visitors, spectators and the players creates jobs for the local people (Jozsa, 2009). Moreover, it is highly likely that the demand for labour will exceed the supply for labour thus forcing the wage level to increase, which will means that not only would the people earn but also they would earn more than usual would (Dobson & Goddard, 2011). More importantly, events like World Cup for which fans come from all around the world, they bring precious foreign exchange for the country. As these people during the world cup, they spend generously boosting the incomes and sales of the local businesses. They sell more, they earn more, and they produce more, thus creating an upwards spiral of growth (Washington & Karen, 2010). Consider the example of South Africa whose GDP boosted by more than 2.2 percent solely due to the world cup which had a gross economic impact of over 12 billion US dollars. Furthermore, the preparation and the tournament itself created more than 0.3 million, boosting the total employment by 2.7 percent. Another example in this regard is of France. In 1998 when the French economy was suffering badly due to the ongoing recession and others factors, the World Cup allowed the French economy to come back on track. It is also important to note that the economic impact of any World Cup is not only short term but also long term (Markovits & Rensmann, 2010). The skills that the people learn during that economic boom last with them for a long period. At the same, the fixed investments made in terms of infrastructure and others remains to generate returns for the locals. Furthermore, the publicity that the city or region receives from the coverage continues to attract the tourists in the future as well (Dobson & Goddard, 2011). Although, there are many, direct and indirect, short term and long term, quantifiable and unquantifiable social impacts of having such an event in any American city but following are the few of the most prominent and visible. First, as mentioned earlier that despite its growing popularity in the United States, soccer is still far away from gaining the type of popularity that it holds in many other countries (Jozsa, 2009). Football, Hockey, Baseball and Basketball are amongst the top four sports played in the United States. With a soccer world cup in United States, the local children would be inspired to associate themselves with this sport. The children and youth who want to be a part of this sport would put in more effort after watching their stars and heroes from so close and it will definitely inspire other people to take this sport seriously. Second, sports, no matter which ones, are always important and crucial for the health of the society and keeping the children and adolescents from engaging in potentially harmful activities. When children and adolescents are deciding about where to spend their leisure time, they decide between healthy and unhealthy activities (Goldblatt, 2008). Healthy activities include studying, community work, helping parents, sports and others. Unhealthy activities include partying, drugs, watching TV, internet browsing and others. A world cup in the neighborhood would provide the children and other people from the community would get a healthy activity. More importantly, it is highly likely that it will increase the cohesiveness of the people from that city or society as they will collectively see themselves as hosts and will have a huge topic to engage in conservations about (Washington & Karen, 2010). The environmental impact of having this event would entirely depend upon the planning and vision of the administration and the local community. Under usual conditions, any event, which will bring such a huge crowd to the city, is highly likely to have a negative impact on the environment. With such huge construction projects and so many people living the area, the waste management systems may lapse, in the absence of proper planning since it would be way out of the normal capacity of those systems. Furthermore, may be the community cut its trees and interferes with the natural systems in order to create stadiums and facilities to accommodate the world cup. Nevertheless, even the tourists alone will generate such more waste, which if not treated properly, may have aversive impact on the environment (Markovits & Rensmann, 2010). The literature dictates that when it comes to research methodologies, there are two main divisions in this regard which are qualitative and quantitative. The proponents of both these research methods have gone to take extreme positions. For example, Donald Campbell said, “All research ultimately has a qualitative grounding”. Whereas, a vocal supporter of quantitative research has gone onto say, “There's no such thing as qualitative data. Everything is either 1 or 0” (Hesse-Biber, 2010). Qualitative data is more likely to come under usage when the research is exploratory in nature. When the researchers are unaware of the outcomes and research dimensions, when they are more likely to follow the inductive research approach, qualitative research methodology dominates the scene. Proponents of qualitative research are more likely to be the supporters of interpretivism or subjectivism as well (Fizel, 2006). Interpretivists believe that uncovering the true knowledge or hidden truth is impossible since all the knowledge is corrupted and contaminated due to perceptions, biases, presumptions, and presuppositions of the people that have acquired and passed that knowledge to other people. We do not know things as they are but we know them, as we want to know them. Our knowledge is, in reality, the product of our own perceptions, environmental influences and others and there exists nothing even close to objective reality. Therefore, the focus on every research should be coming up with “how” and “why” questions. Qualitative data allows the researchers to dig deep down into the backgrounds, cultures, ethnicities, presumptions, perceptions and others of the stakeholders in order to research the topic. With the help of interviews, open-ended questionnaires, email surveys, observations and others, the qualitative researchers aim to collect their data (Creswell, 2009). On the other hand, quantitative research methodology if more close to the positivist approach to research which believes that objective and correct data could be available if the researchers use the appropriate scientific tools and logical inquiry. In order to uncover the truth, the researcher has to find out the cause and effect relationship (Creswell, 2009). Furthermore, quantitative research methodology is more likely to be used when the researchers have the knowledge of what they are looking for beforehand, and then the data is expressed in numbers in order to avoid any subjective opinions. The process of measurement becomes the most important part of the entire process (Hesse-Biber, 2010). Between these two extremes, there is another research methodology, which is known as mixed research methodology (Creswell, 2009). As the names suggests, the methodology makes an attempt at finding at middle ground between the qualitative and quantitative research methodology, which combining the elements of both of them in such a matter that they complement each other. The gaps and shortcomings of one method are tried to overcome with the other method (Creswell, 2009). It appears that for this particular research, a multi-methodology or mixed methods research would be the most appropriate. The research would attempt to explore the impacts of soccer world cup in any American City. Important here to understand is the fact that influences could be social, ethical, economic, environmental, legal, and cultural and so on (Creswell, 2009). The point here is that since the impacts are so board, it becomes imperative to have wider and holistic perspective of the research. A mix of qualitative and quantitative research would allow the researcher to use numbers and figures to explain the economic and mathematical changes and the explanations for other qualitative changes. A mixed methods research would allow the researcher to present the changes in GDP, employment, investment, ratings and others in numbers but at the same time, explain it to the world that what these numbers really mean (Hesse-Biber, 2010; Fizel, 2006). Conclusion Towards the end, it is understandable enough to conclude that the social and economic impact of having a soccer world cup in any American City would be extremely encouraging, both in the short term and in the long term. However, the administration and the authorities will have to ensure that environmental impacts are positive as well but the same would require great deal of planning, proactiveness, and capacity. Furthermore, in order to carry out such a research, the mixed methods research approach appears to be the best fit. Considering the broadness of the topic, it would be imperative to approach the topic from various backgrounds, perspectives, and dimensions and mixed methods research would do the same (Fizel, 2006). References Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage Publications. Dobson, S., & Goddard, J. (2011). The Economics of Football. Cambridge University Press. Fizel, J. (2006). Handbook of sports economics research. M.E. Sharpe. Goldblatt, D. (2008). The ball is round: a global history of soccer. Riverhead Books. Hesse-Biber, S. N. (2010). Mixed Methods Research: Merging Theory with Practice. New York, Guilford Press. Jozsa, F. P. (2009). Global sports: cultures, markets, and organizations. World Scientific. Markovits, A. S, & Rensmann, L. (2010). Gaming the world: how sports are reshaping global politics and culture. Princeton University Press. Washington, R. E., & Karen, D. (2010). Sport, power, and society: institutions and practices: a reader. Westview Press. Read More