ABSTRACT
When is a major sports event a successful sports event? No longer can success be judged solely on the showpiece that is the sporting competition. Just as athletes prepare through dedicated months and years of training, equally sports event managers spend considerable time on feasibility studies, bid preparation and if successful planning a major event. Similarly, long after the last action within the sporting arena has finished, these event managers continue to work on post event and legacy management. This elongated period provides an indication of the complexity of sports event management, often operating in circumstances where stakeholders hold competing sporting, social, environmental and economic agendas. The Olympic Games is one of the most famous events in the world and will be used throughout this chapter as a practical reference, used to demonstrate the expectation within sport event management to balance impact and efficiency within an environment where benefits can be difficult to plan and measure.
