TABLE OF CONTENTS After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
understand the origins of sports events and the sports event industry.
determine the international importance of sports events.
identify the importance of scale in planning and managing sports events.
identify the different structures and formats of sports events.
identify the range of roles of the personnel at sports events.
Putting today s sophisticated sports events industry intohistorical perspective is important if an understanding of how modern day sports events aregoverned and structured is to be achieved. The importance of organized sport in early Greek,Chinese and Egyptian cultures has ultimately led to what exists today, an industry that consists ofa multi-levelled range of events, varying in scale from the locally to the globally significant.This chapter briefly considers an historical perspective and moves on to dissect the industry intovarious components by considering the importance of the industry at large, not simply from aneconomic viewpoint, but also its social, political and technological impact. Then the differentscales of event, event ownership and governance and event formats, including competitionstructures, are discussed. It is people that are at the heart of all industries, and so finally therole of the event manager is considered.
The study of the history of sport is a considerable academic area and the question of achronological order for the development of sport is a fascinating focus for these studies. When andhow sports events were first and then subsequently organized throughout history is important for anunderstanding of how current events...
