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City branding has become a very popular activity all over the globe. In this paper the authors aim to show the importance of sports events in city re‐branding strategies, and how businesses take advantage of such opportunities to increase their incomes.

A new framework is presented that is based on four different alternatives for city re‐branding strategies based on sport events. These four re‐branding strategies are derived from two main dimensions: the locus of the sports event (local vs international) and the longevity of the sports event (one‐off vs continual).

Prospective hosts of mega or international sports events must ensure that people all over the world see their city as a leisure, tourism and consumption center and not just a sports arena. Conversely, when hosting medium or minor sports events, planners must aim for these sport events to increase residents' civic pride.

This conceptual paper demonstrates how city planners and decision makers can leverage their city image and its business sector's potential to earn from this event directly and indirectly, based on the aforesaid four re‐branding strategies: Mega sports events, International sports events, Medium sport events, and Minor sport events.

This article deals with four types of sports event strategies at the same time, whereas other investigations tend to deal with only a single type.

Some sport event stakeholders now look beyond “impact” to achieving longer‐term, sustainable outcomes. This move away from an ex post, outcomes orientation towards an ex ante, strategic approach refers to the phenomenon of event leveraging. This paper aims to introduce readers to the concept, and poses practical exercises to challenge current thinking on sport event impacts.

This paper provides an introduction to the literature on the strategic leveraging of sport events and presents three theoretical models depicting various aspects of event leverage. The paper includes training exercises on the subject of sport event leverage along with possible answers.

Building on prior work, this paper proposes a new model for social leverage. The model and the related discussion highlight potential synergies between economic and social leverage.

As the proposed model for social leverage is essentially exploratory, it remains empirically untested. This represents an obvious challenge for further research.

This paper recognizes that, particularly in the last decade, a paradigm shift has taken place in parts of the international events community, and provides a challenge and potential direction for event practitioners to continue the path towards achieving the triple bottom line of economic, social and environmental benefits for host communities.

The social leverage model breaks new ground in the (sport) events field, as does the push towards sustainability and a more triple bottom line approach to event outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of image congruence between sport events and their hosts as perceived by sport tourists on future visits to the destination, respectively the sport event.

In order to measure image congruence an indirect, multi‐attributive measure was chosen – using a self‐administered questionnaire distributed to sport tourists at six different sport events in Germany – so as to be able to investigate the two images first separately and second to construct an independent fit measure using the absolute differences of corresponding items. Logistic regression analyses evaluated dependencies between image congruence, location components and socio‐demographic aspects on behavioural intentions.

The results show that the overall models are significant and that certain elements such as the affinity of atmosphere do play a central role in predicting future visits.

A research limitation could arise due to the sample because almost all sport tourists were German. A more international sample might have shown different results. Future research should analyse samples of different sports concluding whether the sport performed influences behaviour, too.

Some practical implications with respect to the kind of appeal towards sport tourists are given.

This paper shows that not only separated images affect future behaviour but that the perceived fit between two actually distinct images influences behaviour as well.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the interrelationships among the dimensions of sport event experience, event satisfaction and event behavioral intentions.

The sample was comprised of 186 individuals who actively participated in a mass participation sport event. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to test the relationships among the latent constructs.

The results indicated that the dimensions of sport event experience predicted 55% of the variance of event satisfaction and 63% of the variance of event behavioral intentions was predicted by sport event experience dimensions and event satisfaction. Specifically, the sensory, affective and relational dimensions of experience sought to have a statistically significant and positive association with event satisfaction, while event satisfaction and the relational dimension of experience were found to have a statistically significant and positive correlation with event behavioral intentions. In addition, event satisfaction was found to mediate the relationships between sensory, affective and relational experiences and event behavioral intentions.

The present study is one of the first that explores the relationships among sport event experience’s dimensions, event satisfaction and positive behavioral intentions in the context of sport event participation.

It is not possible for every fan of a sport to watch matches at stadiums because of the capacity and location constraints. Furthermore, although sport fans could not physically attend sporting events during the COVID-19 pandemic, corporations still showed interest in sponsoring such events. To better understand this phenomenon, this study examined the effects of fans' event involvement on event reputation, event commercialization, corporate brand credibility, corporate brand image and purchase intentions of the corporate sponsor brand.

A total of 646 responses were collected from fans of Indian Premier League teams. Confirmatory factor analysis and covariance-based structural equation modelling analyses were conducted on the collected data.

Results showed that fans' involvement in televised sporting events had a positive influence on the events' reputation, which, in turn, had a significant impact on their corporate brand credibility and image. Furthermore, the corporate brand credibility and image had a positive impact on the fans' purchasing decisions.

This study provides valuable implications for marketing managers aiming to enhance their understanding of the impact of event sponsorship on corporate brands. In addition, the findings provide insight into how to support the development of effective sponsorship strategies in the future. The results suggest that sponsoring companies should consider maintaining the credibility and image of their brands to achieve the desired outcomes from sponsoring such sporting events.

Mass participation sport events, such as running events, have the potential to foster social capital among event participants. The purpose of this study is to investigate the interrelationships among sport event participation, social capital and various (behavioral, psychological, informational and negative) outcomes.

Following Putnam's social capital approach, a research model was developed and tested using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling, based on survey data from 301 runners with varied running histories and event experiences.

Results showed a limited impact of sport event participation on participants' social capital, indicating that the temporary interactions within the event timeframe were insufficient to generate sustainable social capital among event participants. Nevertheless, significant relationships were found between social capital and behavioral, psychological and informational outcomes of social capital, suggesting that social capital can be converted to a range of benefits for participants and the event community.

Event marketers and sponsors should take strategic actions to enhance participants' social experience and cultivate social capital, which may help them gain support from the event community irrespective of past experiences with participation.

This study extends Putnam's social capital framework into mass participation sport event context. As an initial effort to quantitatively test the linkage among event participation, social capital and various outcomes, this study offers empirical insights into the role of sport event participation in generating long-term social benefits for event participants.

This research conceptualises the hallmark event, Melbourne Cup in Australia, as a major sporting brand experience. While numerous studies have explored consumer engagement and experiences in major sporting events, few research studies highlight the negative issues, such as alcoholism, gambling and violence, that may affect consumer engagement and experience. This article addresses the challenges and opportunities of providing immersive and transformative experiences through transformative service research (TSR) approaches when such negative issues are swirling around.

The paper is conceptual. It uses the example of Melbourne Cup to illuminate aspects of the conceptual framework.

The article unpacks a myriad of positive and negative immersive brand experiences and contributes a conceptual framework to understand the sporting brand experience phenomenon and shows how authentically responsible marketing approaches can improve the sport spectator experience.

Insights from the extended TSR framework presents implications for various organisations that are involved with strategic destination marketing approaches. It guides key stakeholders to engage in dialogue and collaborate in order to improve the attendee transformative experience. Inviting collaborators will facilitate the exchange of ideas that will improve event organisation. Consistent approaches among hospitality service providers would improve alcohol service and create a safe environment for attendees. The TSR framework guides players of the experience to engage in meaningful dialogue with a common goal to improve consumer wellbeing. Education and training therefore are key elements in the consumer sporting brand experience.

The adapted TSR framework offers insights to destination marketers such as sporting agencies, tour operators and sporting organisations/clubs. Marketers may promote bigger sporting events and organise tours via travel agencies and ignore key elements that may influence attendee decision. Destination marketing organisations (DMOs) can use the framework to promote effective planning and the key initiatives that the iconic event is involved with. The framework can be used as a guide to manage similar international events. Events of major or mega size and international reputation need specific frameworks that address crowd behaviours of similar sizes.

An extended transformative service approach is being conceptualised for major sporting brand experiences. Practical implications are also highlighted for DMOs when raising the profile of city brands.

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize sport event innovation and propose a fruitful future research agenda for scholars.

Following Gilson and Goldberg's (2015) criterion of a good conceptual paper, the authors (a) provide a review of the central tenets of innovation and sport innovation literature and link them together within a new definition of sport event innovation, (b) expand the field by suggesting several theoretical perspectives for studying this area and (c) visually represent the links between each aspect of our conceptualization in a figure. Based on our definition, the authors also highlight illustrative examples of sport event innovation.

This paper provides an initial working definition of sport event innovation and offers avenues of sport event innovation research underpinned by various research perspectives (i.e. process of innovation, institutional theory, stakeholder theory, interorganizational relationships and knowledge-based view) likely to prove useful for the advancement of scholarship in sport event management. Additionally, a general recognition of the potential practical implication related to this paper is discussed.

This conceptual paper bridges the knowledge gap between sport event and innovation research by merging the independent literature and conceptualizing sport event innovation. In doing so, the authors provide an advantageous starting point for future research on innovation in the sport event context with a view towards advancing both theory and practice in this area.

Event sponsorship has been recognised as an effective means through which companies can communicate with target markets and attendees of sports events. This study investigates the interrelationship between satisfaction with event sponsors, goodwill and fan identification and their influence on purchase intentions at a state sports festival held in Lakeland, Florida. Results indicate that satisfaction with event sponsors mediated goodwill and purchase intentions while controlling for the effects of fan identification. In addition, results differed between competitors and spectators of the event.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between image congruence, tourist satisfaction and intention to revisit in marathon tourism. The results show that both affective image congruence (AIC) and cognitive image congruence (CIC) have a positive influence on tourist satisfaction and intention to revisit in the context of marathon tourism. The results also reveal that demographic and behavioural characteristics have a significant impact on revisiting intentions; and past experience of marathon tourism controls the relationship between image congruence and tourist satisfaction.