Sports mega-events and their wider social importance through public relations activities

Abstract

An amazing development of sport business has been present in the past decades. This trend started in the mid-twentieth century. One of the basic reasons for this state is the marketing, media and PR conversion of major sports events into spectacles with properties of a short-term global phenomenon. Benefits of such a global expansion of sports mega-events are not purely financial, although the financial benefit is the most obvious one. The positive effect of PR of sports mega-events is generating the positive attitude of sport and sport practice. Trend of actively spending one's leisure time is derived from a general interest in sport activities today (though this is not necessarily followed by practicing sport activities). Therefore, there is an emphasized need for further development of Public Relations and Communication strategies, knowledge and understanding of the communication management of sports events. The coordinated implementation of PR activities and communication methods in sports reduces potential negative social impacts and any financial losses on the one hand, but it more commonly increases the benefits of the aforementioned elements. Analyses and research in this field are rare and therefore this paper represents initial theoretical contribution. The paper analyzes the special event-sporting spectacle as an instrument of PR communication in the broader social context.

Keywords

• special event
• sports event
• public relations
• mega event