This volume provides an overview of the changing relationship between cities and the Olympic Games, starting from the year 1896. Blending critical conceptual insight with grounded case studies, this book, divided into three parts, explores the historical experience of staging the Olympics from the point of view of the host city.

Drawing upon historical, cultural, economic and socio-demographic perspectives, this book examines the role of London's hosting the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games as a means to promote urban regeneration and social renewal in East London and the Thames

The first edition of Olympic Cities, published in 2007, provided a pioneering overview of the changing relationship between cities and the modern Olympic Games. This substantially revised and much enlarged fourth edition builds on the success of its predecessors. The first of its three parts provides overviews of the urban legacy of the four component Olympic festivals: the Summer Games; Winter Games; Cultural Olympiads; and the Paralympics. The second part comprises systematic surveys of six key aspects of activity involved in staging the Olympics and Paralympics: finance; sustainability; the creation of Olympic Villages; security; urban regeneration; and tourism. The final part consists of ten chronologically arranged portraits of host cities from 1960 to 2032, with complete coverage of the Summer Games of the twenty-first century. As controversy over the growing size and expense of the Olympics, with associated issues of democratic accountability and legacy, continues unabated, this book’s incisive and timely assessment of the Games’ development and the complex agendas that host cities attach to the event will be essential reading for a wide audience. This will include not just urban and sports historians, urban geographers, event managers, and city planners, but also anyone with an interest in the staging of mega-events and concerned with building a better understanding of the relationship between cities, sport, and culture.

This book examines the changing nature of opposition to bidding for and hosting the Olympic Games in contemporary American cities. It explores and critiques the process by which cities bid for the Olympics in the current context of the International Olympic Committee’s changing bid requirements and from the social justice perspectives of Olympics opponents. Using detailed case studies of the Olympic bids in Chicago, Boston, and Los Angeles, it shows how opposition to bidding for and hosting the Olympics has changed dramatically in American cities.

Often seen as the host nation's largest ever logistical undertaking, accommodating the Olympics and its attendant security infrastructure brings seismic changes to both the physical and social geography of its destination. Since 1976, the defence of the spectacle has become the central feature of its planning, one that has assumed even greater prominence following the bombing of the 1996 Atlanta Games and, most importantly, 9/11. Indeed, the quintupled cost of securing the first post-9/11 summer Games in Athens demonstrates the considerable scale and complexity currently implicated in these operations. Such costs are not only fiscal. The Games stimulate a tidal wave of redevelopment ushering in new gentrified urban settings and an associated investment that may or may not soak through to the incumbent community. Given the unusual step of developing London's Olympic Park in the heart of an existing urban milieu and the stated commitments to 'community development' and 'legacy', these constitute particularly acute issues for the 2012 Games. In addition to sealing the Olympic Park from perceived threats, 2012 security operations have also harnessed the administrative criminological staples of community safety and crime reduction to generate an ordered space in the surrounding areas. Of central importance here are the issues of citizenship, engagement and access in urban spaces redeveloped upon the themes of security and commerce. Through analyzing the social and community impact of the 2012 Games and its security operation on East London, this book concludes by considering the key debates as to whether utopian visions of legacy can be sustained given the demands of providing a global securitized event of the magnitude of the modern Olympics.

Inhaltsangabe:Introduction: The more you know about the Olympics, the less it is about sport . (Bob Perry, Design director of Olympic Projects at Scott Carver Pty. Ltd, http://www.infolink.com.au). The Olympic Games as a mega sports event attracts millions of people from all over the world. New records, fascinating performances, scandals or gigantic celebrations are just some of the attractions provided by this event. One attraction for urban planners is the fact that the Games imply opportunities to promote urban development. From an urban planning perspective, the Olympic Summer Games in Barcelona 1992 set a new standard in defining success of an event of this scale. The city used the Games to promote urban development and planning strategies, profiting from the event in a long-term perspective. Furthermore, the city took another opportunity to find again a place on the global map through the Olympic Games. The case of Barcelona is one of the mostly cited successful urban development initiatives connected with a mega sports event. Olympic Cities have taken the opportunity to promote urban development with the event very differently in the history of the Olympics. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the event-owner sets some requirements giving only a few cities the right to stage the event. These requirements are checked in the bidding process ending with the decision which city succeeds in getting the right of staging the event. Integrating the success of an Olympic City in terms of urban development and in terms of the bidding process, the main question from an urban planning perspective is: What is the relevance of Urban Development in the Bidding Process for Olympic Games? To answer the definition of the city s success in terms of urban development and the Olympic Games bidding process, it is helpful to investigate the role of Olympic Infrastructure with a view towards urban sustainability. As such, it is believed that respecting specific planning principles in the bidding process can help to (1) ensure sustainable urban development and (2) enhance the quality of the bid. - The first aspect is relevant for the success of the city in terms of urban development to benefit from the Games in a long time perspective. - The second aspect is relevant for the city s success in the bidding process to acquire the right for staging the Games. The aim of this thesis is to examine how the quality of the bid may respond to principles [...]

As the World’s greatest sporting event, the Olympic Games has always commanded intrigue, analysis and comment in equal measure. This book looks to celebrate the significance of the Olympics, their historical impact, controversies that presently surround them and their possible future direction. It begins with a detailed, if controversial, analysis of the scale of the modern Summer Olympics and considers whether in fact the Games have simply become too big? Thereafter considerable coverage is afforded the often contentious bidding process, required of successful host cities wishing to attract the Games, and asks why some cities are successful and others are not. This book also reflects on the growing security measures that surround the Olympics and considers their full impact on the civil liberties of those impacted by them. For scholars of the Olympic movement this book represents essential reading to understand further the Olympic Games, their significance and effect, as the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro draw ever closer. This book was published as a special issue of Sport in Society.

Marketing at the Olympics, the attraction and the rewards Essential reading in preparation for the 2012 London Olympics, the newly revised and fully updated second edition of The Olympic Games Effect offers fascinating sports marketing and branding insights into the promotion of the Games themselves, and their unique attraction for corporations in particular. The important lessons of past Olympics will be used to show a hundred year-plus tradition based on a several thousand year old testament to the love of sports and competition, revealing how, in recent years, this has evolved into a seductively attractive vehicle for a wide range of audiences, from consumers to corporations. Loaded with historical information on the Olympics, the book traces the history of the Olympics back to 776 BC. This legacy is vital to the ongoing success of the Olympics, and is at the heart of why brands care so much Packed with illustrations that illustrate how the Games have become arguably the world's most successful sports event and the marketing opportunities this has led to Includes relevant business strategies and recommendations to help companies understand how to make more effective sports sponsorship decisions This timely new edition of The Olympic Games Effect shows the value contributed by sponsoring the world's premier sporting event, and explains how, by extension, other global sports events have the potential to generate similarly impressive results for their sponsors.

The Olympic Games are the world's most complex and challenging sport mega-event to organize. Managing the Olympics is the first ever attempt to bring together the world's leading Olympic management researchers in one book and draws on the latest research into the management challenges faced by the organizers and key stakeholders of the Games.

As London sought to use the Olympics to achieve an ambitious programme of urban renewal in the relatively socially deprived East London it attracted global attention and sparked debate. This book provides an in-depth study of the transformation of East London as a result of the 2012 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games. Government and event organisers use legacies of urban renewal to justify hosting the world’s leading sports mega-event, this book examines and evaluates those legacies. The London Olympics and Urban Development: the mega-event city is composed of new research, conducted by academics and policy makers. It combines case study analysis with conceptual insight into the role of a sports mega-events in transforming the city. It critically assesses the narrative of legacy as a framework for legitimizing urban changes and examines the use of this framework as a means of evaluating the outcomes achieved. This book is about that process of renewal, with a focus on the period following the 2012 Games and the diverse social, political and cultural implications of London’s use of the narrative of legacy.