Sports and City Marketing in European Cities

Leo van den Berg, Erik Braun, Alexander H.J. Otgaar

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9781351898454
• Subtopic: Geography
• Index: Geography

In our increasingly global and commercial world, where once sport would only have been seen by a few thousand on the terraces it is now watched by many millions via satellite. This mass global audience is invited not only to watch the sporting event, but also to visit the city where it takes place. Such events may help promote the host city as a tourist destination and business location. City governors are becoming increasingly aware of the possibilities of using sport as an instrument of reaching objectives of urban management. This engaging book investigates the state of the art of sports and city marketing in five European cities: Rotterdam, Barcelona, Helsinki, Manchester and Turin. In each of these cities, the book examines how sports (accommodations, clubs and events) have been made an instrument of city marketing and how the cities have attempted to maximize their potential through sports and city marketing policies. A comparison of the findings highlights the merits or disadvantages of sports clusters and strategic co-operation in sports and city marketing.

Chapter One

Sports and City Marketing: An Introduction

Introduction

From 10 June to 2 July, the EURO 2000 football championships took place in Belgium and the Netherlands. The city of Rotterdam had the pleasure of hosting five matches, including the finals. Football supporters from all over Europe visited the city and television viewers all over the world watched these games. The event thus helped to promote the city as a tourist destination and business location. In other words, it was an instrument of city marketing.

This book takes a closer look at the ‘state of the art’ or sports and city marketing in five European cities, including Rotterdam. The research is meant to increase insight into the role of sports in city marketing and to provide guidelines for an integrated sports and city marketing policy. In other words, to find out how sports (accommodations, clubs and events) can be made an instrument of city marketing and how cities can maximise their potential through a sports and city marketing policy.

The first chapter presents the research framework. In the next section, we will discuss some of the major trends in urban Europe that are inducing European cities to be more competitive and entrepreneurial. Thereafter, we focus on the principles of city marketing as an instrument of urban management, followed by a discussion of the social, economic and cultural values of sports. The next step is to bring sports and city marketing together and assess the potential role of sports in city marketing. The confrontation between sports and city marketing results in a schematic overview of the research framework, which has functioned as a guideline for the case studies. The chapter ends with a short summary of the research approach.

The five subsequent chapters correspond to the five case studies: Barcelona, Helsinki, Manchester, Rotterdam and Turin. These cities can be characterised as sport-minded. Barcelona used the 1992 Olympic Games as a catalyst for the regeneration of its city centre; FC Barcelona is one of the world’s most famous football clubs. Helsinki organised the Summer Olympics in 1952 and has run for the Winter Olympics of 2006; the city has a good reputation for organising sports events. Manchester will host the Commonwealth Games in 2002; the city is, of course, known all over the world as the home of Manchester United (although the stadium is in Trafford). Rotterdam was the host for the finals of EURO 2000. Finally, Turin will be the host city of the Winter Olympics in 2006 (the city defeated Helsinki, among others) and the home city of Juventus.

The last chapter presents the most important conclusions related to the research framework to be introduced in the following sections.

Urban Dynamics in Europe

Before we discuss sports and city marketing, it is necessary to put it in the wider perspective of urban development in general. Research (Van den Berg and others, 1982; Hall and Hay, 1980; Van den Berg, 1987) has revealed that European towns and cities tend to develop through several stages of urban development. Fundamental changes in the economy, technology, demography and politics are reshaping the environment for towns and cities in Europe. The phenomenon of globalisation and the rise of the information era have induced and intensified competition among towns and cities on the regional, national and sometimes international scales. The mega trends have also effected the development of so-called polycentric urban regions. What are the main features of these developments and what are the implications for urban management?

The Information Era

By the 1980s it had already become clear that the rise of what was then called the ‘information sector’ would have a great impact on the functioning of cities and regions. Castells (1989; 1996) concludes that we have entered the informational age or era. The implications of the information era both in general and for cities can be analysed in different ways. The information era symbolises a whole set of changes that induce a transition to a new stage of urban development in Europe. What is the implication of the informational age for the functioning of cities? What trends will shape the urban economy in this era? The transition process is unfolding at full speed, changing the environment of cities rapidly.

One of the driving forces of the informational age is the rapid and continuous development of information and telecommunications technology (ICT), which in turn is bringing about a fundamental change of society. The wide acceptance of mobile telecommunication, the Internet and other new media will have a profound effect on the economy. High speed data transmission (HSDT) and videoconferencing make long-distance exchange of information possible. What are the implications of these technological developments for the use of space; that is, the spatial behaviour of people, firms and other organisations? Will the physical location remain important? Clearly, these technological developments are especially vital to economic activities that rely heavily on information and knowledge. Information and tele-communications technology has boosted the informational economy and the exchange of information, but other trends have reinforced the importance of the (exchange and production of) information as well. Information-sensitive activities prevail and will set the course for the future.

Globalisation

Technological progress seems to have ‘opened up the globe’ as a potential location for economic activities. An example can be found in the banking sector, which has moved its back office activities to cheap-labour countries. ICT enables such firms to follow a more cost-efficient location strategy and move activities for which physical proximity to other business units is not of the essence to cheaper locations. Globalisation is not only an economic phenomenon, for the political, social and cultural exchange across the globe has also increased tremendously.

Globalisation versus Localisation

There is another side to the ‘globalisation story’, however. Information exchange is not exclusively reserved to ICT channels. Personal, face-to-face exchange of information has also gained importance. The unprogrammed exchange of information in particular appears to be essential for what some (among others, Hall, 1995) have called high-touch activities (fashion, design, printing, etc.). Urban areas set the trends in high-touch sectors. A major implication is that firms are inclined to develop close relationships with their customers and to monitor new developments and trends closely. Urban areas comprise large concentrations of people and businesses. New developments very often emerge in an urban environment. Cities are the potential nerve centres of the so-called ‘new economy’ because, historically, cities have always been the places where information, knowledge and educational institutions such as universities and other research institutes locate.

The Rise of Polycentric Regions

Another feature of the information era is the rise of polycentric urban regions. The concept of the city is being recharged physically, functionally and also emotionally. Suburban communities have developed from mere dormitory towns to cities in their own right, with their own citizenship, employment and services. These communities have become new economic centres with their own labour market stretching far beyond the limits of the original agglomeration. The monocentric town is developing through the suburbanisation of commercial activities into a polycentric city region (Hall, 1995). The extreme examples are the ‘edge cities’ in the United States where the concentration of jobs and facilities outweighs the residential function.

In the polycentric region, the core city is the trademark or flagship of an urban network, often consisting of several commercial centres, with the city centre as one of the pivots. The relations among the centres in such polycentric regions are both competitive and complementary.

Competition and Attractiveness

The mega trends described above bear the stamp of urban competition. Increasingly, cities and towns behave in a logic of competition in a highly dynamic and complex environment (Bramezza, 1996). In such a competitive environment the old ‘certainties’ no longer exist: although the geographical situation is still relevant – cities in the centre have an easier time than cities in the periphery – it is no longer as dominant as it used to be. Qualitative location factors have come to be very important. This provokes cities to invest in their own attractiveness. But it is not enough for a town to be more attractive than its competitors as a location for enterprise. The inhabitants, the businesses, investors and visitors determine whether a city is attractive or not. These (potential) customers of cities put high demands on the quality of the business, living and visiting environment. Factors such as the level of the cultural services and access to knowledge are prominent in such an environment.

City Marketing

The developments presented above have major consequences for urban management. Urban management makes for better communication between local government(s) as suppliers of a whole range of services, and market parties as demanders for these services. To stand up to heavy competition and to satisfy the needs of the city’s customers, marketing can be an important instrument in urban management; by adopting marketing principles, the municipal organisation may become more customer-oriented, ready to give service to, and mind the interests of, the city’s customers.

Marketing is Instrumental to Urban Management

To entrepreneurs marketing is a useful instrument; looking at their business and their propositions through the ‘eyes of the customer’ helps them to reach the company’s objectives (profit, market share, etc.). For urban management, we need to emphasise that marketing is instrumental to the general mission of urban management; that is, to accomplish sustainable urban development. It is important to realise that one cannot with impunity promote prosperity in terms of income and employment without giving heed to the quality of the urban living environment and living conditions of underprivileged groups in the community. But that does not exclude the use of marketing principles to attain those objectives.

Van den Berg, Klaassen and Van der Meer (1990) describe urban marketing as the set of activities intended to optimise the tuning of supply of urban functions to the demand for them from inhabitants, companies, tourists and other visitors. City marketing is both a managerial principle and a toolbox with applicable insights and techniques.

City marketing starts with the customers: the city’s target groups. To the inhabitants, the city is a place to live, work and relax in, and a supplier of a wide range of facilities such as education and health care; to commuters the city is a work place; to companies it is a place to locate, do business and recruit employees; to tourists and other visitors it offers a combination of culture, education and entertainment. In other words, cities supply different functions to their variety of customers. This supply of urban functions does not stop at administrative boundaries; each function has its own functional urban region.

How do cities satisfy the needs of these target groups? In other words: what do we have in mind as the city’s products? In fact there are many and manifold urban products eligible for marketing. It could be office space, harbour facilities, industrial estate or a shopping centre, but it could also be a museum, an arts festival and, of course, sports accommodation and sports events. One could draw up a long list of urban products. In general, urban products are characterised by longevity and lack of flexibility. Moreover, these products can rarely be isolated from their environment. With respect to urban tourism, Van den Berg, Van der Borg and Van der Meer (1995) make a distinction between the primary tourist product (tourist attractions) and the secondary products (for instance, accessibility).

The fact is that a city provides a ‘line of products’ that are difficult to isolate completely from their environment and are, moreover, highly interdependent. Although the city as such is not a clearly defined product, the various target groups base their decisions to locate in or visit a city on their own conception of a city; the city is then a ‘brand name’, so to speak.

It is difficult to say whether a city itself is a product, but the customers’ associations create the city’s image. There is a clear parallel with the notion of brand marketing that is, for instance, common for the global players in the consumer goods markets. ‘Brands exists in the stakeholders’ heads and hearts, not just on the sides of packages’ (Duncan and Moriarty, 1997, p. 9). This notion is closely related to identity and image-building. As the spatial scope of functional urban regions widens, the relevant spatial scale is no longer only the central city but the entire agglomeration.

Organising Capacity

Kotler and others (1993) assert that increasingly the authority and responsibility for marketing and public control are delegated to private organisations, mentioning also the possibility of a community-development corporation, as a partnership between business, government, foundations and local organisations. Increasingly, metropolitan regions need to organise themselves better to improve their competitive position. City marketing makes high demands on what we call organising capacity, which is the ability to enlist all actors involved, and with their help generage new ideas and develop and implement a policy designed to respond to fundamental development (Van den Berg, Braun and Van der Meer, 1997). The performance of ‘organising capacity’ depends on vision and strategy, public-private networks, leadership, political and societal support, and spatial-economic conditions, as depicted in Figure 1.1.

By formulating a vision and a strategy, cities choose a direction in which they want to develop. The desired profile of a city implies strategic choices for specific sectors or clusters. Political and societal support and cooperation among public and private actors are needed to create the desired profile. Spatial-economic conditions, such as a common opportunity or threat, can stimulate the cooperativeness of the various actors.

Figure 1.1 The elements of organising capacity

Source: Metropolitan Organising Capacity; Experiences with Organising Major Projects in European Cities (Van den Berg, Braun and Van der Meer, 1997).

The organisational comp...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Preface
• 1 Sports and City Marketing: An Introduction
• 2 Barcelona
• 3 Helsinki
• 4 Manchester
• 5 Rotterdam
• 6 Turin
• 7 Synthesis
• References
• Appendix: Discussion Partners
• Index