ABSTRACT
ILLUSTRATIVE CASE: HOW MANY PEOPLE DOES IT TAKE TO HOST A MAJOR SPORTS EVENT?
Most major sports events are predominantly executed by volunteers; however, paid professionals are critical in developing the plans and assisting in the Games delivery. The following gives you an idea of different major sports events’ workforce sizes:
1 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games: 20,000 paid employees and 50,000 volunteers (McDonald, 1991);
2 2000 Sydney Olympic Games: 142,748 accredited workforce members, including 2,972 paid staff and 46,967 volunteers (International Olympic Committee, 2009d; Parmenter, 2000; Sloman, 2000);
3 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Winter Games: 51,200 accredited workforce members including 1,500 regular employees and 22,000 volunteers (International Olympic Committee, 2009c; SLOC, 2002);
4 2008 Beijing Olympic Games: over 266,000 accredited workforce members, including 16,337 paid employees and 74,202 volunteers (BOCOG, 2008; International Olympic Committee, 2009b);
5 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games: 93,650 accredited workforce members, including 9,384 staff and 20,704 volunteers (VANOC, 2010);
6 2010 Singapore Youth Olympic Games: 50,688 accredited workforce members, including 2,601 staff and 20,000 volunteers (International Olympic Committee, 2010c; Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games, 2010);
OBJECTIVES
7 2011 New Zealand Rugby World Cup: upwards of 500 paid staff and 5,500 volunteers (Joel Fitzpatrick, personal communication, 31 October 2011; Rugby New Zealand 2011 Ltd., 2011);
8 2012 Innsbruck Winter Youth Olympic Games: approximately 100 paid staff and 1,440 volunteers (Martin Schnitzer, personal communication, 9 March 2012; Innsbruck 2012, 2011).
