Sport and Economic Regeneration in Cities

TLDR

In recent decades, UK cities have invested heavily in sporting venues to attract tourists, stimulate inward investment, and rebrand themselves, exemplified by Sheffield’s £147 million World Student Games upgrade and Manchester’s £200 million Commonwealth Games spend, driven by a need to replace declining industrial economies with new employment and a modern image. This article evaluates the rationale behind such sports‑based regeneration and examines evidence of its effectiveness.

Abstract

Investment in sporting infrastructure in cities over the past 20 years was not primarily aimed at getting the local community involved in sport, but was instead aimed at attracting tourists, encouraging inward investment and changing the image of the city. The first example of this new strategy was seen in Sheffield with the investment of £147 million in sporting facilities to host the World Student Games of 1991. More recently, Manchester spent over £200 million on sporting venues in order to host the 2002 Commonwealth Games, with a further £470 million expenditure on other non-sport infrastructure investment in Sportcity in east Manchester. In the British context, most of the cities following this strategy of using sport for economic regeneration have been industrial cities, not normally known as major tourist destinations. The drivers of such policies were the need for a new image and new employment opportunities caused by the loss of their conventional industrial base. This article analyses the justification for such investments in sport in cities and assesses the evidence for the success of such strategies.