Identifying motives for engagement in major sport events

• Published in: International Journal of Event and Festival Management
• Main Author: Tjønndal, Anne
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Emerald 2018
• Subjects: barents region; sami; Tundra
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ijefm-09-2017-0052; https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJEFM-09-2017-0052/full/xml; https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJEFM-09-2017-0052/full/html

Purpose Major sport events are facing increasing demands. These events are no longer “just” about sport, but are now expected to be sustainable, multicultural, democratic and convey specific political values such as “unity,” “identity” and “peace.” The increasing demands on major sport events place local hosts in a difficult situation, accommodating both the organization of the sport competitions and the ideologies connected to these events. The purpose of this paper is to identify motives for engagement among stakeholders of the 2017 Barents Summer Games. Furthermore, it investigates how and in what ways these motives are conflicting, and what the consequences of conflicting motives of engagement can be for the development of innovation in major sport events. Design/methodology/approach The empirical data in this study are derived from one year of ethnographic fieldwork, focusing on participant observations of the planning and execution of the 2017 Barents Summer Games. Findings The analysis identifies key economic, socio-cultural, political and athletic motives for engagement among six different stakeholders involved in the games. Additionally, the results indicate how there are both conflicting economic, socio-cultural and political motives for engagement among the stakeholders. Finally, the analysis illustrates how conflicting motives for engagement constitutes an innovation barrier for major sport events. Research limitations/implications The study is based on ethnographic fieldwork of the planning and execution of the 2017 Barents Summer Games, a major sport event in the Barents region. The Barents region is characterized by its unique nature and vulnerable environment, with wide tundra areas in the north and extensive boreal forests zones in the south. The region represents an area as large as Poland, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, France (mainland) and Spain (mainland) together, totaling 1.75m km 2 . Several indigenous peoples and minority groups live in the region, such as the Sami and the Komi. Hence, ...