In the contemporary era, there is an ongoing debate surrounding whether hosting international sporting events is beneficial or detrimental. From my viewpoint, I lean toward the latter, and this essay will elaborate further on both sides of this argument.
One perspective favoring organizing international sporting events is oriented towards the expansion of culture and tradition on a global scale. To clarify, such events attract a large number of people desiring to watch their nation’s athletes in action, which is seized by modes of media for increasing viewership. Thus, via indirect forms of advertisement such as social media and TV shows, hosting countries’ colorful cultural and traditional images can be conveyed to residents from other countries effortlessly, which, in turn, enhances the effectiveness in spreading out their culture and tradition. For example, this year, thanks to the constant stream of information from social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and X, France has benefitted from the dissemination of its culture and tradition from the Olympic Games 2024.
Conversely, I believe that hosting international sporting events has negative impacts. One of those is national budget degradation. Specifically, such large-scale events appeal to a wide range of people, including both candidates and spectators. Although this can make some services like restaurants, hotels, and travel temporarily profitable, it is obvious that that amount of money cannot compensate for the large amount of funds diverted into infrastructure for organization. Furthermore, due to the immediate host, the governments have to invest budget in constructing buildings to timely cater to tourists’ demand with the concerns about profit they can make. A case in point is Qatar, where the government had to grapple with the capital loss in investing funds in constructing the stadium for the World Cup.
To recapitulate, while some argue that organizing international sporting events hold its own merits like the dissemination of culture and tradition, I am convinced that this adversely impacts national economic growth.The case of Qatar and the World Cup serves as a stark reminder that while the benefits of these events may be visible, they often come at a considerable social and economic cost.