Quantitative analysis of sport development event legacy: an examination of the Australian Surf Life Saving Championships

Abstract

Research question: This study explores whether the conduct of an unleveraged major event, the Australian Surf Life Saving Championships, leaves a legacy in terms of making a contribution towards the ongoing sport development of surf life-saving. This is an area of event legacy research that has received little empirical research. Research methods: Secondary data sources from the event host organisation were used as indicators of sport development. Regression analysis, adjusting for changes in the outcome variable outside of the host location (Perth, Western Australia), was used to identify if hosting the event was associated with changes in indicators of attracting, retention and nurturing of sport members in the host location. Results and findings: The only significant adjusted results were a decrease in membership for the host club and an increase in competitor numbers for Western Australia and the Perth metropolitan area, suggesting hosting the event offered some retention and nurturing opportunities for sport development. Implications: This study contributes to sport event legacy literature through examining a non-mega, single sport event and its effects on sport development and suggests that hosting the event only had a limited effect on indicators of sport development. The study uses a regression analysis method that could be used to examine legacy from other events.

Social and charitable impacts of a charity-affiliated sport event: A mixed methods study

“…Fourth, as we focused on residents' perceptions in defining and measuring the event's impacts, it is desirable to supplement the current findings with more objective evidence. For example, in relation to the theme of sport, health, and well-being, Hodgetts and Duncan (2015) assessed the Australian Surf Life Saving Championships' impact on local sport participation by analyzing secondary data on membership and competitor numbers. One challenge of adopting designs similar to Hodgetts and Duncan's study is to gather comprehensive secondary data sources that capture various impacts identified in the current research.…”

Sport Participation Legacy and the Olympic Games: The Case of Sydney 2000, London 2012, and Rio 2016

“…Notwithstanding its prevalence in policy and political discourse, a large amount of the literature supporting the trickle-down effect is based on anecdotal evidence with very few studies examining population-level data (Brown & Massey, 2001;Murphy & Bauman, 2007;Weed et al, 2009). The quantitative studies that have been completed have provided little evidence of sustained sport participation increases as a result of the trickle-down effect (Hanstad & Skille, 2010;Hodgetts & Duncan, 2015;Murphy & Bauman, 2007;Veal & Frawley, 2009;Weed et al, 2015;Wicker & Sotiriadou, 2013), with only a few examples of a positive association (Potwarka, 2015;Potwarka & Leatherdale, 2016).…”

Sport Events for Sport Participation: A Scoping Review

“…Small and medium spectator events show mixed results as to whether or not the event had stimulated sport participation, as two studies concluded that the event under investigation had positively impacted sport participation (i.e., Ramchandani and Coleman, 2012 ; Ramchandani et al, 2015 ), while three studies concluded that the event had no impact on sport participation (i.e., Taks et al, 2014 ; Hodgetts and Duncan, 2015 ; Misener et al, 2015b ). Interestingly, six of the studies found mixed results in that there was not enough evidence to support a claim of increased participation or there was increased participation among certain populations and no changes in participation among others (i.e., Taks et al, 2013 , 2015 , 2018 ; Derom and VanWynsberghe, 2015 ; Misener, 2015 ; Hoskyn et al, 2018 ).…”