The 91st International Olympic Committee (IOC) session held in Lausanne on 17 October 1986 assigned the organisation of the 1992 Summer Olympic Games to the city of Barcelona from a choice of six candidates. The 1992 Summer Olympic Games, the Games of the 25th Olympiad of the Modern Age, were held in Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia, from 25 July to 9 August 1992. These were the first Olympic Games to be held in Spain.
On 13 September 2017, the 131st IOC session in Lima simultaneously awarded the organisation of the 2024 and 2028 Summer Olympic Games to the cities of Paris and Los Angeles respectively. These two cities were the only candidates for the 2024 Games. According to the IOC, this was a historic decision âpaving the way for a âwin-win-winâ situation for the Olympic Movement, Los Angeles and Parisâ. The IOC also referred to âexceptional circumstancesâ and recognised âthe unique opportunities presented by the Los Angeles and Paris bids for the 2024 Olympic Gamesâ. A gradual decrease in the number of candidate cities had led to these âexceptional circumstancesâ. Indeed, there were six candidates for the 1996 Games, five for those of 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012, four in 2016 and finally three for the 2020 Games.
The cities of Hamburg, Rome, Boston and Budapest have withdrawn their bids to host the 2024 Olympic Games. Among the reasons was, in particular, âthe concern of public opinion and political leaders about an organisational cost that amounts to billions of dollars and systematically exceeds forecastsâ. Academic literature (Molloy and Chetty 2015; Andreff 2012) has pointed out that the IOC has difficulty motivating applications because of a lack of enthusiasm due to the cost of hosting the Games, as well as the fact that the provisional budget has been exceeded. Indeed, the organisation of the worldâs largest sporting event alone does not justify the colossal investment of the various resources (financial, human, infrastructure, technological, etc.), and the question of heritage has become a very important issue for the IOC and candidate cities. This fact is stressed by Scheu and Preuss (2017: 1): âcities that bid for the Olympic Games need to have positive legacies to justify the hosting of the Gamesâ.
The IOC introduced the term legacy into the Olympic Charter in 2004. Indeed, rule 2.14 stipulates: âto promote a positive legacy from the Olympic Games to the host cities and host countriesâ (IOC 2004: 12). Ten years later, the IOC introduced the issue of sustainability into the Olympic Agenda 2020. The fourth recommendation states that sustainability must be included in all aspects of the Olympic Games. The third point of this recommendation is concerned specifically with the legacy of the Games. It states: âThe IOC is to ensure post-Games monitoring of the Games legacy with the support of the NOC and external organisations such as the World Union of Olympic Cites (UMVO)â (IOC 2014: 12). In this context, the IOC Sustainability and Legacy Commission proposed a new strategic approach to legacy in October 2017. It integrates its planning during the bidding and preparation of the Games to help host cities create value for decades to come. This planning must be synchronised with the long-term urban development objectives of the host city.
1.1 What Is Legacy?
The term legacy was first used in 1956 in the bidding file for the Melbourne Olympic Games. According to the IOC (2017: 13):
Olympic legacy is the result of a vision. It encompasses all the tangible and intangible long-term benefits initiated or accelerated by the hosting of the Olympic Games/sport events for people, cities/territories and the Olympic Movement. The Olympic legacy is directly linked to the highly social goal of the Olympic Movement. Indeed, the goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of humankind, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.
This goal is combined with the one of a city or a territory.
At the academic level, Kassens-Noor et al. (2015: 3) point out that âthe term mega-event legacy has acquired different meanings in different fields to different peopleâ. Two definitions are taken up in the literature. Firstly, there is Preussâs definition (2007: 211): âirrespective of time of production and space, legacy is all planned and unplanned, positive and negative, tangible and intangible structures created for and by a sport event that remain longer than the event itselfâ. As well as that of Chappelet (2012: 76), who defines legacy in a stakeholder perspective âas positive or negative, tangible or intangible, territorial or personal, intentional or unintentional, global or local, short- or long-term, sport- or non-sport-related, and can also be seen from the various event stakeholdersâ perspectivesâ. Referring to the assessment of the legacy of the 2012 Olympic Games, the Royal Economic Society defines legacy in simple terms:
So what is Games legacy? It is defined here simply as: any net impact arising from the Games. The term âimpactâ refers to any change or transformation, for better or for worse, that has taken place, and which can be attributed to the Gamesâin other words the linkage, direct or indirect, to the Games needs to be understood. However, the key term in the definition is ânetâ, that is, the impact that has occurred over and above what would have happened without the Games. Hosting something like the Olympic Games is rarely context-free or designed on a tabula rasa; it is superimposed on existing trajectories of historical development. Establishing a plausible counterfactual to measure net impact is therefore critical to knowing what the true legacy of the Games is.
Despite the points of convergence between these definitions, the conceptualisation of the term legacy remains an issue.
1.2 A Key Issue but There Are Very Few Ex-post Studies Concerning Legacy
Scheu and Preuss (2017: ii) conducted a systematic review of the academic literature on the legacy of the Olympic Games from 1896 to 2016. They noted that âVery few studies succeed in really measuring legacy. ⌠The evaluation framework for the London 2012 Games (DCMS 2009) offers a promising approach, but the framework was not applied for most of the evaluation of the London legacies. However, some general recommendations could be retrieved from this framework.â
These two authors highlighted the challenges and methodological issues related to the measurement of the mega-event legacy:
Measuring mega-event legacies is challenging for several reasons: 1) legacy as a retrospective concept, 2) measuring intangible legacies, 3) the same legacy affects different stakeholders differently, 4) distinguishing the net vs. the gross legacy, 5) difficulty of isolating an event legacy from non-event-related city development, 6) evaluating the legacy effect over time, 7) measuring something relatively small in terms of the overall economy. (Scheu and Preuss 2017: 83)
Another difficulty is related to the funding of these studies. Baade (2006: 181) underlines that âEx-post studies (on real data) are rare because few organisations, whether supporters or opponents, are prepared to finance them, especially after the event. Most ex-ante (and ex-post) studies have been marred by important biases, not to mention numerous methodological errors.â Finally, the measurement of the legacy considers long-term effects, while the Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (OCOG) is dissolved within two years after the event. This raises the question of which organisation should take responsibility for this review.
1.3 The Legacy of the Barcelona Olympic Games Is Often Highlighted as Good Example Despite the Fact That There Is Little Data to Support This Statement
The legacy of the Barcelona Games is often cited as an example by the IOC and the city and regional elected representatives.1 Thomas Bach,2 President of the IOC, at the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the hosting of the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, stated that
The magic of the Olympic Games brought the world to Barcelonaâand the Olympic Games brought a new Barcelona to the world. The Olympic Games transformed Barcelona. Until the Olympic Games, Barcelona was living with its back turned to the beautiful Mediterranean. The Olympic Games allowed Barcelona to turn around and truly embrace the sea. It also brought many other improvements that the citizens of Barcelona still enjoy today.
King Felipe VI of Spain pointed out that the Games were âan extraordinary set of events, which hold a special place in our countryâs memory, as a precious milestone in our most recent historyâ. The cityâs mayor, Ada Colau, speaking in February 2018 at an event to kick off the 25th anniversary celebrations, said that the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games had left an indelible legacy of which the city could be proud. She stressed the fact that Barcelona has opened up to the world and to its inhabitants, thus creating a collective project that is receptive both to the inside and the outside world. Addressing the members of the IOC Olympic Solidarity Commission during the celebrations, Carles Puigdemont, President of the Generalitat of Catalonia, recalled how Barcelona had been modernised in 1992. The Olympic Games made the city known around the world and enabled a major urban transformation, while leaving sports facilities that are still in use today. According to him, âThe Games were a boost to the internationalisation and the opening of Barcelona and Catalonia to the world.â The Catalan Secretary General of Sport, Gerard Figueras, during the opening session of the Olympic Solidarity Commission meeting, explained that twenty-five years later, Barcelona was still benefiting from the tremendous legacy left by the Games:
Not only were the Barcelona Olympic Games a great example of sustainability thanks to infrastructures that are still fully functional today, but they also had a big impact on the place of sport in Catalonia. Today, 50 per cent of Catalans practise physical activi...