Economic Analysis of Small vs Large Events
In the recent past, there has been an increasing debate over the relative worth of both small and large events. This essay presents an economic analysis of the article “A theoretical comparison of the economic impact of large and small events’ by Nola Agha. The essay argues that small events have more economic benefits than large events.
The value of smaller-sized events in host communities
Events of various sizes have various benefits to the communities. The valuable outcomes of hosting small events rely on the capacity of the connectedness of the local community hosting the event, a sense of ownership, proper networks. In this article, two strategies are used to combine analysis of demand and supply, which includes event resource demand (ERD) and city resource supply (CRS) (Agha, & Taks, 2015). In determining the size of an event, the resources needed to host it, and the resources for hosting the event-related attendees are considered. Events require financial resources such as investments, human resources like employees and volunteers that organize the event human, and physical resources from the community that hosts them like the venues, food, accommodation, and transportation (Agha, & Taks, 2015). Large events require more resources because they attract business and government support and more visitors due to the high outline they bear. Contrary, small events have fewer visitors and hence require fewer resources.
The concept of Event Resource Demand (ERD) is used to assess the total resources required for an event. The strategy of ERD explains why a multi-sport participatory event may not require public funding, and a single sport international championship will need public funding (Agha, & Taks, 2015). Cities provide a basis for resources for holding events due to a large supply of labor, investments, and capital infrastructures such as roads, airports, and stadiums used for organizing events (Agha, & Taks, 2015). In this regard, the concept of City Resource Supply (CRS) is used to assess the resources supplied by a city to host an event. A populated small town rich in tourism features will have proper hospitality services and skilled labor force than a largely populated city without tourism attractions. In this regard, the low-populated city has higher CRS to host an event than a high-populated one.
The article uses ten economic impact drivers (EID) to compare events of different sizes. In this categorization, five benefit drivers, which increase economic impact and five cost drivers that decrease economic impact, are introduced. In assessing the economic impact of different events, a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) approach is used (Agha, & Taks, 2015). Some events can have the required resources available locally (ERD) while others have not. Other events have the cities provide more than enough resources, which will prompt high tax revenues and job creation. In other cases, the ERD is not ultimately locally available, which deprives the events the opportunity to collect tax revenues and job creation (Agha & Taks, 201. When large events are held in large cities, the economic benefits are more because businesses benefit from the availability of a ready market than when in small cities with few resources.
Generally, small events have more economic benefits than large events because they required fewer resources. The article demonstrates the impact of both event-sizes using the concept of CRS and ERD. An optimum effect is explained by the point where an event has utilized all the local resources without incurring costs. Therefore, numerous small events can be held in many more cities and hence generate more economic benefits to the host communities than one large-scale event.
References
Agha, N., & Taks, M. (2015). A theoretical comparison of the economic impact of large and small events. International Journal of Sport Finance, 10(3), 199-216.