ABSTRACT
How are we to understand the ‘legacies’ of the Olympics, and indeed of other mega-events (Roche 2000) like them, such as the FIFA World Cup in Brazil which ended just as this book was going to press. Are these legacies to be understood as the main justification of these events, because of the long-term difference they make to the cities and nations in which they are staged, compared with the ephemeral life of even the grandest festivals of sport? Or are ‘legacies’ mere window-dressing, gestures to obscure the fact that immense resources have been consumed while giving rise to relatively little public benefit?
