AESOP-ACSP Joint Congress  15-19 July 2013  Dublin

The role of size (of events, cities and stadia) and soccer in urban regeneration

Alex Deffner

Associate Professor, Department of Planning and Regional Development, University of

Thessaly, Pedion Areos, 38334, Volos, Greece, adeffner@prd.uth.gr

Keywords: urban regeneration, mega sport events, stadia, soccer, city marketing/branding

ABSTRACT

The main objective of this study is to examine the importance of sport in urban regeneration.
Some of the determining factors relate to the multi-dimensional contribution of mega events
(and their marketing) in economic development, the growth of urban tourism, the enhanced
image of the community, the stimulation of additional development and the benefits in the
collective morale of residents ('psychic income', according to John Crompton). Regarding the
economic and/or social impacts of mega sport events, there are both positive evaluations
and critical analyses (the latter also involves the application of an analysis of the economic
impacts).

The central theme refers to the role of size (of events, cities and stadia) in the relationship
between sports (especially soccer) and urban regeneration. Large stadia certainly help in
bidding to host mega events, but perhaps the most effective interpretation of the impacts of
mega events does not lie in economic factors. Generally this is also one of the reasons why
the efforts to resolve the current socio-economic crisis should not start with numbers.

Globalisation has intensified competition among cities for power and market differentiation,
as well as the attraction of investment, visitors, qualified personnel and mega events. Cities
are competing in order to become developed, but should both cities and stadia necessarily
be large? In this context, city marketing and branding has become a strategic tool in order to
promote the competitive advantages of a city. The most common marketing strategies are
the adoption of a brand (it may be a soccer team), the innovative construction of buildings
(and stadia) and the organisation of mega events.

The starting point for an alternative interpretation is the book Soccernomics by Simon Kuper
and Stefan Szymanski (2009/2012), which constitutes an illustrative example of a series of
interesting 'pop' studies characterising many disciplines. The answer to the rationale for
bidding for host mega events (mostly from 'smaller' countries and cities) may mainly lie, not
in the prospect of economic and spatial development as a result of planning, but in the new
politics of happiness. In connection with this approach, there is an evaluation of the impact of
the 2004 Athens Olympics.

1 INTRODUCTION

In the good 1989 movie Field of Dreams directed by Phil Alden Robinson, Kevin Costner
hears a voice: 'if you build it, he will come' (in other words, the construction of a stadium is
considered as 'doing good') (Kuper and Szymanski, 2009: 236). However, as Rosentraub et
al (1994) question: if you build it, will jobs come, in other words if a stadium is built will this
create jobs?

The existence of large stadia is considered as an asset to claiming mega events. However,
the effective interpretation of the impact of major events seems to not rely on the economic
factor. This is also one of the reasons why efforts to resolve the current socio-economic crisis

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 AESOP-ACSP Joint Congress  15-19 July 2013  Dublin

should not start with numbers. Thus, maybe the explanation for the main reasons for
claiming mega events (mainly from 'smaller' countries and cities) lies in factors other than
economic and spatial development.

With regard to the more general question of the role of sport in urban regeneration, there are
both positive assessments and critical analyses (the latter also include the application of the
analysis of economic impacts). In this process, a basic question arises about the role of the
size of cities. Globalisation has intensified competition among cities for influence, distinction
in the market, and attraction of investment, visitors and skilled personnel, as well as mega
events. Of course, cities are competing to be developed. However, must they necessarily be
large?

In this context, city marketing and branding has become a strategic tool for promoting the
competitive advantages of a city. The most common marketing strategies are the adoption of
a brand, innovative constructions and the organisation of mega events (Liouris and Deffner,
2012). Stadia are also examples of innovative constructions, while a team can also constitute
the brand of a city.

2 OPPORTUNITIES AND DILEMMAS IN THE ORGANISATION OF MEGA EVENTS

The opportunities of organising mega events can be summarised in five factors:

a) the creation of a new landmark in the urban space, as well as buildings for the hosting and
servicing connected with the event (Essex and Chalkley, 1998);
b) access to new markets and new resources, for example funding through grants and
various forms of public-private partnerships, and marketing of goods and souvenirs related to
the event (Zhang Li and Zhao Simon Xiaobin, 2009);
c) the redefinition of the position of the host city in relation to the global urban hierarchy,
through the improvement of international relations, the strengthening of economic and social
position and the acceleration of urban development (Derudder et al, 2003);
d) the creation, promotion and consolidation of the identity of a city through media coverage,
tourist visits, public participation and support from the local community (Gold and Gold,
2008); and
e) the strategic use of events as elements of public policy, especially focusing on urban
regeneration (Smith, 2012).

In the context of mega-events, there exists a plurality of dilemmas relating to cultural

planning, especially in combination with time planning: competition and sustainability,
flagship as opposed to small scale concerns, long-term/short-term effects, tourist/resident
considerations, uniqueness as opposed to the routinisation of everyday life, the
event/process issues, planning considerations regarding isolated/integrated planning, and
the sense of place set against the failure to construct a cultural identity and to increase civic
pride (Deffner and Labrianidis, 2005: 256).

3 LARGE CITIES

The main source of this section is the excellent 2009 book Soccernomics by Simon Kuper
(journalist and writer) and Stefan Szymanski (Professor of Economics), which constitutes a
good example of successful 'pop' studies which characterise many disciplines, including
urban studies (Deffner, 2011). There are many 'provincial' cities (mainly industrial) whose
teams have won the European Cup: Hamburg, Dortmund, Glasgow (Celtic & Rangers),
Birmingham (Aston Villa), Nottingham, Marseille, Eindhoven, Rotterdam (Feyenoord), Porto
(Kuper and Szymanski, 2009: 134).

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In contrast, teams of seven major metropolitan areas have never won a European Cup:
Istanbul, Paris, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Berlin, Athens (Kuper and Szymanski, 2009: 134).
London after 1971 has done it again as late as 2012 with Chelsea. Other capitals with teams
without European Cup victories are: Rome and Lisbon (since 1962 with Benfica). A special
case is Amsterdam, since Ajax has won the European Champions Cup four times (Kuper
and Szymanski, 2009: 135, 136).

For the UK, two observations need to be made: a) the declaration of ‘National Cities of
Sport’, for example, Glasgow, Birmingham, Sheffield (Gratton et al, 2001: 39), and b) the
specificity of the coastal cities, for example Southampton as a sailing centre in the UK has an
impact, mainly due to the special events, on sea tourism (Anderson and Edwards, 2001:
149).

The main reasons why industrial cities become soccer cities are: a) population growth in the
late 19th century contributed to the increase of wealth and the creation of teams, b) post-war
economic growth: examples are the cities Milan, Turin, Barcelona 1 , Munich, Ruhr area
(region), Manchester, Newcastle (usually they just have one strong team in a given season),
and c) the abrupt end of industrialisation led to the need for increase civic pride through
soccer: the situation is- different in university towns such as Oxford (Kuper and Szymanski,
2009: 139-144).

Between 1970 and 1981 there has been a rise of teams in 'small' cities. Typical examples of
cities whose teams played in the final are: Mönchengladbach (260,000 inhabitants), St.
Etienne (175,000), Malmö (240,000), Bruges (115,000). The main causes of the fall in the
teams from 'small' cities after 1981 are: a) the difficulty of securing television contracts
compared with teams of larger cities that have larger audiences, b) opening the teams
(mostly in Italy) to foreign players, c) the ‘Bosman ruling’ of 1995, which allowed free
movement for professional players within EU countries after the end of their contract, and d)
the possibility of renovating buildings by teams or by wealthy owners or by a large number of
fans (Kuper and Szymanski, 2009: 144-147).

The fall of the teams in medium-sized cities is usually associated with the bankruptcy of the
owners, for example: Fiorentina, Parma, Leeds, Deportivo La Coruna, Valencia. However,
there are teams from other medium-sized cities that saw the fall with less disruption: Celtic,
Ajax, Nottingham Forest. The dominance of powerful teams from 'provincial' cities began in
1982. The population of cities is significant, as shown by the examples of the agglomerations
of Marseille (1.4 million), Porto (1.3 million), Liverpool (820,000), Eindhoven (750,000) and
the City of Dortmund (600,000). The construction of new stadiums is mainly driven by
popular teams. The new dominant teams from agglomerations of between 2 and 4 million
residents: Milan, Manchester, Munich, Madrid (the only capital). Maybe the fact that a team is
located in a large capital city has become a strategic asset that can be interpreted according
to Zipf’s law 2 and can be combined with financial wealth (the owners are mostly foreigners)
and, usually, new stadium: Paris (Paris St Germain), London (Arsenal, Chelsea). [Kuper and
Szymanski, 2009: 149-155].

1
Barcelona is a special case, since the city also hosted the 1992 Olympics, something that initiated a
programme of a variety of urban interventions leading to the claim of a “Barcelona model” (Marshall,
2000· Garcia-Ramon, 2000· Balibrea, 2001).
2
Zipf’s law has been called possibly ‘the most accurate regularity in economics’. An example is US
cities: ‘if you rank every American city by the size of its population, the difference in population
between two consecutive cities is simply the ratio of their ranks’, e.g. city 2 has half the population of
city 1, city 3 has two-thirds the population of city 2 and city 100 has 99/100ths the population of city 99
(Kuper and Szymanski, 2009: 150-151).

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2012 was the year of the teams of two capitals (Chelsea-London, Atletico Madrid). 2013 is
also the year of a non-capital as far as the Champions League is concerned (Munich), but
also the year of a capital (again Chelsea) as far as the Europa League is concerned.

4 LARGE STADIA

There exist a variety of issues in the development of stadia as multi-purpose facilities (with
particular reference to the UK): the trend towards commercialisation, the under-utilisation of
facilities in connection with the commercial limitations, the exclusion of stakeholders, the
growth in community focus, the use of the stadium for wider social purposes, the ‘multiplier
effect’ in connection with urban regeneration, the ‘consensus or confrontation’ approach in
stadia management (Holtt and Shailer, 2003: 144-149).

The American idea that stadia will bring development has expanded to Europe (Kuper and
Szymanski, 2009: 236). This does not happen to the same extent as the franchise in sports,
namely the fact that the owners are willing to carry the team in any city offers them the best
deal. According to Euchner (1993), in the competition between a company (a team) and a
city, 'the city is like the boxer with his shoes nailed to the floor’.

In the U.S. in 1997 there were 113 professional franchise teams of the major leagues (rugby,
baseball, hockey, basketball). Approximately 70 new stadiums of the major leagues were
constructed between 1989 and 2009. The total cost of $20 million was covered by about 50%
of taxpayers. The people interested to persuade the public to finance a stadium in the U.S.
usually assign to economists the preparation of an economic impact study. Almost all these
studies argue that the stadium would make the taxpayers wealthy (Kuper and Szymanski,
2009: 236-238).

According to Zirin (2008), the construction of publicly-funded stadia became a substitute for
anything resembling urban policy. The central claim of Baade, one of the most important
experts of the study of the impacts of stadia on economic development, is that public
investment in stadia does not provide a good return for taxpayers (1996• Baade and Rye,
1988a• 1988b• 1990).

Ultimately, a mall or a cineplex would bring more revenue to the local community. In a game
most guests get a hot dog and a beer, watch the game and leave (Kuper and Szymanski,
2009: 240). Stadia symbolise civic health. The question is if stadia development constitutes a
solution for the cities, then what should have been the problem (Schimmel, 2001: 260-1)?

In the U.S. it is generally considered that local governments should do something about the
general social problems (violence, crime, unemployment) along with local problems whose
underlying nature is not local (financial management, infrastructure), but the reaction is
usually new construction with the appropriate 'handling' of land uses. This constitutes,
according to Molotch (1993), the main peculiarity of the urban problems in the U.S.

Regarding the location of a new stadium, three main scenarios have been observed: a) the
centre of the city (Cardiff Millenium), b) the edge of the city (Amsterdam ArenA), and c) a
neighbourhood with problems (Stade de France, Arsenal Emirates). In the third case, the
stadium may function as a catalyst for a broader policy (Manchester, Sydney Homebush
Bay) [Thornley, 2002: 815]. One of the most common criticisms of stadia development is that
they are differentiated from the local community. In the case of Wembley, the local council
commissioned a Master Plan, while it also constitutes, like the Stade de France, an example
of public-private partnership (Thornley, 2002: 816).

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5 THE IMPORTANCE OF CITY MARKETING / BRANDING

Marketing cities is one of the key aspects through which the policies and planning impacts of
mega events in urban regeneration can be examined. In this process, it is important to
examine factors such as the size of the site, the number of visitors, investments, population,
interest groups, the objectives and methods (Van Vrijaldenhoven, 2007).

In the Netherlands, a country with considerable experience in city marketing, the two largest
cities (Amsterdam, Rotterdam) invested considerable resources in the stadia of their soccer
teams (Thornley, 2002: 814). The opportunity of stadia to be developed as tourist attractions
during the whole year began in the U.S., but was extended in Europe (Smith, 2001: 129).
This occurs either due to design value, for example the Olympic Stadium in Munich
(constructed between 1968 and 1972 by Günther Behnisch and Frei Otto) and, more
recently, the Allianz Arena (constructed between 2002 and 2005 by Herzog and de Meuron),
also in Munich, or because of the reputation of the team e.g. the Barcelona’s Nou Camp
(Thornley, 2002: 814).

In UK cities like Manchester, Birmingham and Sheffield, they implemented initiatives related
to sport in order to present an attractive image to the potential urban tourists (Smith, 2001:
129). In particular, the image of Manchester as a vibrant and successful city received
substantial assistance from Manchester United (Thornley, 2002: 814).

One problem is that often the efforts towards city marketing are disproportionately geared to
the promotion of the general image of the city compared to targeting specific groups of
visitors (Smith, 2001: 144). An important factor that keeps the few current top 'provincial'
teams (Manchester United, Bayern, Barcelona) is their pre-established powerful brand
(Kuper and Szymanski, 2009: 155). Of course, for these specific groups, 2012 has not been
a successful year, something that has changed in 2013 (except for the performance of
Manchester United and Barcelona at the European level).

City marketing constitutes the main link between events, cities and stadia (not necessarily
large). There are two important issues: a) the transition from the single event in a continuous
profitable activity. For example, the City of Manchester (Etihad) stadium after hosting the
Commonwealth Games in 2002 became the home of Manchester City in 2003, and b) the
reaction of the local community in the construction of large stadia. Usually the public has a
positive attitude if the stadium is part of claiming a mega event. In the case of the Amsterdam
ArenA, public attitude changed when the venue from being part of to claim for the Olympic
Games became the home of Ajax (Thornley, 2002: 814-815). In the case of the Allianz
Arena, a NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) type behaviour has been observed, i.e. in the 2001
referendum, the neighbouring residents voted against the construction of the stadium
(Ahlfeldt and Maennig, 2012).

6 ATHENS 2004 OLYMPICS

In Greece, the great opportunity for urban landscape transformation through the hosting of a
mega event came up for Athens, by hosting the 2004 Olympic Games. At the same time, the
hosting of the Games was considered a good chance to diffuse their expected positive
impacts to the rest of the country. Thus, the cities of Thessaloniki, Patras, Iraklion and Volos,
who all hosted part of the Olympic soccer tournament, were also named ‘Olympic Cities’.
Volos specifically hosted two women’s preliminary games, five men’s preliminary games and
one women’s semi-final, between the 11th and 20th of August, 2004 (Liouris and Deffner,
2012).

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The main methodology applied in researching the impact on tourism in the city of Volos and
the regional unity (ex-prefecture) of Magnesia is the study of primary data, and particularly
the arrivals of tourists in the area, between the years 2003-2009, as well as the number of
flights and passengers served by the airport of Nea Anchialos, between the years 2004-
2008. An additional question is if a more satisfactory interpretation of the impacts of mega
events should not be mainly based on economic factors (Liouris and Deffner, 2012).

The Athens 2004 Olympics seem, at least as things stand today (although the cycle of the
decade is not yet completed), to be yet another missed opportunity like Thessaloniki as the
European Capital of Culture in 1997 (Deffner and Labrianides, 2005). Without organised
exploitation of the Games and no organised marketing plan (especially in the direction of
place branding), the construction of new stadia in the Olympic Cities (Patras, Volos,
Heraklion) has not led, up till now, to the expected development of their region. Also, there
has not been a noticeable positive impact in the development of tourism in Greece as a
whole. However, this does not seem to be the case for Magnesia and Volos, especially if this
factor is connected with the development of the local airport of Nea Anchialos (Liouris and
Deffner, 2012).

7 CONCLUSIONS

The role of sport in regenerating cities is multi-faceted: the marketing of mega events
contributes to economic development, mega events have significant economic and/or social
impacts, a growth of urban tourism is observed, as wells as an increased visibility of the
community, and an enriched image of the community, an additional development is caused
(Gratton and Henry, 2001), while there exist benefits for the collective morale of residents, or,
according to John Crompton (2001: 31), for their 'psychic income'.

Other factors can also be important in certain aspects relating to sports, but these cannot be
generalised, e.g. the 2003 book by Michael Lewis (and subsequent film directed by Bennett
Miller in 2011) Moneyball, constitutes an isolated example of how unexpected factors such
as science, especially statistics, applied by an amateur could possibly be the most important
factor in winning several baseball games, but not necessarily a championship.

There is an alternative or complementary approach emphasised by Kuper and Szymanski

(2009: 245): the answer to the reasons for claiming mega events (especially in connection to
'smaller' countries and cities) is mainly found in the new politics of happiness (or self-reported
life satisfaction, as recorded in the Eurobarometer).

However, data from the Olympic Games, World Cup and Euro for 12 countries show that the
‘feel good’ factor is significant, but the impact of the sporting success of a nation on its
overall happiness is statistically insignificant (Kavetsos and Szymanski, 2008). According to
Layard (2005), the so-called 'happiness tsar' in British politics, the paradox is that although
many people (in the U.S., UK and Japan) are seeking to become richer, this does not mean
that they are happier.

It is very important to consider what happens in society in general. The time has come for
politics, starting at the local level, to prioritise quality of life issues, thus including happiness,
as compared to 'pure' economic factors (Kuper and Szymanski, 2009: 245, 249). Mega
events contribute to economic and spatial development, but now, in various cases, significant
impacts on issues of civic pride and happiness can also be seen. This also seems to apply in
the case of London Olympics in 2012.

The size of cities has been playing, up till now, an important role in securing mega events,
but not in the success of the teams. Perhaps now it is the turn for the teams of large cities.

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So far large teams do not appear to play a key role in development issues, and their
significance is more symbolic. The key connecting link between these factors is city
marketing/branding. However, there may be adverse effects, e.g. in the case of the Munich
1972 Olympics the resulting image was negative due to security issues, and in the case of
the South Africa 2010 World Cup the resulting image was again negative, this time due to
issues relating to poverty, corruption, disease and crime (Kuper and Szymanski, 2009: 245).

Perhaps the most positive impact of the Olympic Games on Greek society as a whole was
the increase civic pride, a factor which contributes to the residents’ 'happiness'. But in what
condition is this pride in today, in the light of the current socio-economic crisis?

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