Sport Events and Adult Sport Participation

This chapter explores the relationship between sport events and adult sport participation. We address specific frameworks to highlight instructive conceptual and theoretical insights and share various empirical findings on the demonstration effect as it relates to spectator sport events. We provide a focused case study of the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games to show how the games were used ostensibly to inspire more people to play more sport. We report on the original legacy aspirations of the games and the actual outputs, as well as detailing the key problems and reasons for the differences between outputs and aspirations. We conclude the chapter by setting out recommendations to strengthen the relationship between sport events and adult sport participation outcomes.