Master's Degree Thesis

Master’s degree thesis EVM950 Event Management Comparison of Czech and Norwegian Sports Event Hosting Policies Stine Marie Fjeldstad Jonstad, Eva Umancová Number of pages including this page: 107 Molde, May, 2012 Mandatory statement Each student is responsible for complying with rules and regulations that relate to examinations and to academic work in general. The purpose of the mandatory statement is to make students aware of their responsibility and the consequences of cheating. Failure to complete the statement does not excuse students from their responsibility. Please complete the mandatory statement by placing a mark in each box for statements 1-6 below. 1. I/we hereby declare that my/our paper/assignment is my/our own work, and that I/we have not used other sources or received other help than is mentioned in the paper/assignment. 2. I/we herby declare that this paper Mark each 1. Has not been used in any other exam at another box: department/university/university college 1. 2. Is not referring to the work of others without acknowledgement 2. 3. Is not referring to my/our previous work without acknowledgement 3. 4. Has acknowledged all sources of literature in the text and in the list of references 4. 5. Is not a copy, duplicate or transcript of other work 5. I am/we are aware that any breach of the above will be considered as cheating, and may result in annulment of the 3. examination and exclusion from all universities and university colleges in Norway for up to one year, according to the Act relating to Norwegian Universities and University Colleges, section 4-7 and 4-8 and Examination regulations section 14 and 15. 4. I am/we are aware that all papers/assignments may be checked for plagiarism by a software assisted plagiarism check 5. I am/we are aware that Molde University college will handle all cases of suspected cheating according to prevailing guidelines. 6. I/we are aware of the University College`s rules and regulation for using sources Publication agreement ECTS credits: 30 Supervisor: Hallgeir Gammelsæter Agreement on electronic publication of master thesis Author(s) have copyright to the thesis, including the exclusive right to publish the document (The Copyright Act §2). All theses fulfilling the requirements will be registered and published in Brage HiM, with the approval of the author(s). Theses with a confidentiality agreement will not be published. I/we hereby give Molde University College the right to, free of charge, make the thesis available for electronic publication: yes no Is there an agreement of confidentiality? yes no (A supplementary confidentiality agreement must be filled in) - If yes: Can the thesis be online published when the period of confidentiality is expired? yes no Date: May, 2012 Preface This thesis is a part of master education at Molde University College, study program MSc in Event Management. We have to admit that research on sports event topic was time demanding and exhausting and support of family, our beloved ones, friends and many other people who contributed to our personal development was crucial, and we are highly grateful for this perfect background. We thank all of you. Besides interesting findings, we also feel that cross-culture cooperation that brought different point of views on the topic was a unique experience and gave a great reward. Thereby, we are thankful to those who are behind international program of Event Management at Molde University College, all our professors who we met during our studies, and last but not least our mater thesis supervisor, Hallgeir Gammelsæter. Stine-Marie Jonstad, Eva Umancová Summary Major sports events belong to fast-paced event industry and require involvement of different stakeholders, for instance sport’s governing body and athletes, event organizers and volunteers, sponsors, and last but not least authorities of public sector. Global image of major sports events, when the TV-viewer sometimes hardly recognize in which country the event takes place is certainly an interesting topic from project management point of view. One can assumes that such activity involves many standardized processes. However, how does it work on public sector level? As long as the engagement of public authorities is not only political patronage but includes allocation of public resources it is more than important for the society as a whole to understand these principles. Mainly because of the economic loss that an event can cause also in public sector, consequential disillusion and future economic barriers for tourism development. This thesis under the name Comparison of Czech and Norwegian Sports Events Hosting Policies introduces the topic of event hosting policies in both countries and on top of that traces differences and similarities in both concepts and also sports environment. Moreover, relation of both policies to current global sports event industry and its trends is mentioned. Reason for comparing these two countries is given by nationality of authors and their interest, and also by the assumption that none of the countries have implemented legal strategic framework for hosting the events yet. This assumption was proved as correct later on and therefore it tempted to explore this topic more and learn about forces that affect the current situation and future. The thesis focus was on the development of sports movement and sports events in both countries, summarized important major sports events based on media coverage, number of spectators and international athletes participation both in the Czech Republic and Norway. Furthermore, national sports events hosting policies were identified including important actors. Finally, both historical development of major sports events and national hosting policies were compared. What are main findings of the thesis? Surprisingly, evolution of modern sport was quite similar in both countries. The main sport’s governing bodies were established in the almost 5 same year and also some sports are popular into same extent in both countries (e.g. football, skiing, and athletics). Despite of central sport’s governing bodies’ effort, some events were hosted independently of them, for instance Grand Football Match in Bergen or Ice Hockey World Championships in Czechoslovakia. Although, sport is strongly attached to politics, Czechoslovakia/the Czech Republic case shows that sports events have been popular and taken place despite of political regime and economic conditions. However, regarding politics influence, both hosting policies are affected by lobbyism and corporatism and as such, different paradigm has evolved and different dynamics of public support is presented. While current active participation of almost all Norwegian sports clubs brings challenge in strategic events coordination on national level, Czech hosting policy is vague enough and opens the space for lobbyism and prioritizing some sports events over others based on unclear rules. Perhaps, based on paradigm that have been identified in Norwegian case, as hosting more of major sports events and mega event such as Olympic Games again, a new concept in this area is now emerging and time shows how successful it will be. Suggested hosting policy follows current trends in sports event industry but it is difficult to predict how efficient it will be – it depends on involvement of all addressed stakeholder and mainly the main sport’s governing body (NIF) position. On contrary, an official governmental/national reason why the Czech Republic host the events have not been identified, and overall situation is too complex and unclear on sports event field right now which makes it difficult to predict the extent of state participation on events field in the future. Both countries are facing the change in sports event environment right now and as such, recommendations were introduced. Authors believe that an implementation of strategic sports event hosting policy is essential to eliminate potential negative outcomes (e.g. economic loss of the region/municipality) and leveraging potential benefits (e.g. empowerment of social interactions, assurance of sustainable development). Thereby, determinants and barriers of implementation phase for a new strategic hosting policy have been identified. Keywords: sports event, hosting policy, tourism. 6 Contents 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 12 1.1 Background and motivation ....................................................................................... 12 1.2 Research Question ..................................................................................................... 12 2. Literature Overview ..................................................................................................... 13 2.1 Event definition .......................................................................................................... 13 2.2 Events and public support .......................................................................................... 16 2.3 Sports policy and Contemporary sports events policy ............................................... 19 2.4 An example of sports event policy ............................................................................ 25 3. Methodology ................................................................................................................ 27 3.1 Research design ........................................................................................................

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