News:
Major international sporting events have an extraordinary(特殊） capacity（容量） to generate emotionally powerful and shared experiences. Events like the Olympic Games, the Football World Cup, and other major sporting events reveal（揭示） both the appeal（呼吁）and elusiveness（难以捉摸） of sport. In the age of global television, the capacity of major sports events to shape and project images of the host, both domestically and globally, make them highly attractive for political and economic elites（精英）.
The pursuit(追求) of hosting major
(or ‘mega’) sports events has become
increasingly popular among governments,
corporations, and civic ‘boosters’ worldwide.
They argue that major economic,
developmental, political, and
socio-cultural benefits will flow
from them, easily justifying(辩解） the costs
and risks involved. Numerous studies fuel
the popular belief that sport is a generator
of national as well as local economic
and social development. Economically
it has been viewed as an industry
around which cities can devise(设备) urban(城市）
regeneration strategies. Socially it has
been viewed as a tool for the development
of urban communities and the
reduction of social exclusion and crime.
Most of these studies, however, have
been conducted in advance of the events
on behalf of interested parties without
adequate measurement of final and
intermediate outputs as well as inputs.
Critical post-event studies point to their
uneven impacts. Research shows that
costs have usually been underestimated
while beneficial impacts have been overestimated.
