Valuing elite sport success using the contingent valuation method: A transnational study

Abstract

This study presents an application of the contingent valuation method for valuing medal winning success on a transnational basis to test whether more medals won equates to more utility. To achieve this aim, a research project was set up in five countries: Belgium, Finland, Japan, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Respondents were asked to state their willingness to pay (WTP) to avoid a hypothetical scenario in which a large-scale reduction in government funding for elite sport was implemented after the Rio 2016 Olympics resulting in a 50% reduction in medals won at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Our empirical results show that WTP for avoiding reduced medal winning performance differs significantly between countries with the more successful countries reporting higher WTP values than the relatively less successful countries. This finding indicates that more medals won appears to be linked with more utility. The validity tests on the regression models were generally consistent with the theoretical expectations.Implications are discussed in terms of how governments can promote elite sport development while being conscious of the public's acceptability of such investment.

Sustainable Financing of Elite Athlete Development: An Empirical Analysis of Winter Sports in Austria

“…Most closely related to this study are the latter studies, examining the WTP of the population for elite sport development in Japan [24], for the 'Own the Podium' program in Canada [26], and for long-term athlete development in alpine skiing [23]. Moreover, in a comparative study of five countries, Funahashi et al [25] analyzed the population's WTP for elite sport in the light of reduced government funding in the UK, Japan, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Finland. In addition to this previous study, only a few comparative studies exist in CVM sport research.…”

“…Hence, predictions regarding the nature of the impact of these factors are difficult. This is different for income, where the literature agrees that income is positively associated with WTP (e.g., [19,[24][25][26]).…”

“…Orlowski and Wicker [14] recently provided a review of monetary valuation studies in sport. In the context of elite sport beyond professional football leagues in Europe and the North American Major Leagues, the previous research applied CVM in order to estimate the monetary value of the hosting of sport events [17][18][19][20][21], sporting success (e.g., [4,22]) live broadcasts on TV [23], as well as elite sport policies and athlete support (e.g., [23][24][25][26]).…”

“…Likewise, previous research is inconsistent regarding the association between age and WTP. Some studies documented a negative age effect (e.g., [19,21]), others a u-shaped [3] or inverse u-shaped effect [22,25]. Hence, predictions regarding the nature of the impact of these factors are difficult.…”

Orienteering from Cradle to Grave—How a Sport Could Offer Lifelong Participation

“…Naturally, most sports want to offer themselves as an activity that can be conducted throughout life. Even though most funding bodies have primally focused on performance sport, the importance of health and wellbeing have also gained increased attention (Funahashi et al 2020). Many sports are characterized by activity patterns that are hard to maintain throughout life (e.g., gymnastics), while other sports are more suitable to offer this opportunity and adaptations to current physical and mental capacity are possible (e.g., long-distance running and cycling) (Russel et al 2018;Tracey and Elcombe 2004).…”