Soccer World Cup in the US Research Paper

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asses the advantages and disadvantages of bringing the Soccer World Cup to a city in the United States, this includes the economic, environmental and social impact. Soccer is a major sport around the world but it has yet to gain the top priority in sports among common Americans. It is widely regarded as the most watched game in different continents such as South America, Europe, Asia and Africa. There are many different club level competitions which take place in the United States but bringing the World Cup would definitely raise the overall level of the game.

Economic Perspective

There are great economic prospects for any nation which is chosen to host the Soccer World Cup, firstly it is considered to be a great image booster for the host city as well as the nation itself. Let's have a more corporate view of the World Cup, its sponsorships have steadily risen from about two billion U.S. dollars from early 1980's to more than twenty billion U.S. dollars in 2006. This is a huge tournament which attracts more than half of the population of the world towards watching it, i.e. more than 3.5 billion viewers were known to have viewed the tournament in 2010. Some of the major sponsors of this tournament include Adidas, Coca-Cola and McDonalds.

When the World Cup was hosted in United States back in 1994 some two thirds (65%) of the overall money spent at sponsorships was in sports. This figure is relatively similar to 63% in Germany which was the host in 2006 and 80% in South Africa which was host in 2010.

As we can see the value of sport sponsorship in these countries, it is obviously evident that the "World Cup hosting will definitely bring a huge boost to the local as well as the global economy." (Rich, 2000). In the case of U.S., hosting the World Cup will bring different job opportunities for the common citizens, there are always reports of a huge construction boom in the cities where the matches took place and this requires the infrastructure to be renovated or built completely from the start. "The Stadiums, roads, restaurants, hotels and other public places should be made more attractive and useful to the visiting tourists." (Taylor, 2000).

Tourism is also a factor which can greatly benefit from such an event, in many countries of the world like South Africa, a significant portion of their economy depends on this industry. Therefore it is times like these that make the tourism business flourish like never before.

In the case of United States, this will bring huge job opportunities for the locals, since the unemployment overall is more than nine percent, this sort of event can help the local firms do more business by selling more World Cup related merchandise. This also in turn can help reduce some unemployment. Since many tourists and locals visit different bars and restaurants in different cities during the matches, this may also bring more opportunity for the small American business owners to rapidly expand and profit from this venture.

Many souvenirs related to the sporting event can be exported by the different industries to earn more revenue, examples such as Vuvuzelas from South Africa in the 2010 World Cup. The American industries can use their resources to sell a similar outfit to the world.

Although there are many great economic prospects as just mentioned above there are some disadvantages as well when such an event is organized, this should be properly dealt by the government in order to reduce any sort of losses.

Firstly the security should be extra vigilant during these sorts of events, there are many cases of theft, accidents or hooliganism which are reported in these types of major events. The organizers should give their absolute maximum to restrain these types of activities as much as possible. There are many cases where the fans of the loosing team went on to ransack or destroy public property out of frustration. "The organizers should try to impose appropriate penalties towards any individual who attempts to take law in its own hands or try to break it." (Watt, 2003). All of this can have dire consequences on the host nation's economy as well as its image if something goes terribly wrong here.

Here in this category, the United States and its cities rank much better than any other developing nation like South Africa. So if any security problem does even happen then the authorities have all the tools and expertise to tackle the situation appropriately in order to avoid any sort of economical or social loss.

Beside the above mentioned point, there is also the issue of properly investing in the tournament.

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There are many cases where the event went on to cost a lot much then was actually anticipated, back in 1994 the World Cup in U.S. was estimated to cost the government more than five billion dollars. This was excessive than what was previously planned, therefore the governments should try to monitor the finances more closely and assure the investors that the event will be organized through the modest amount of capital.

Hosting the World Cup can also result in the Gross Domestic (GDP) Growth of the United States, it was reported that the overall GDP of South Africa increased some two percent in 2010 mainly because of the World Cup, it was also observed that more than three hundred thousand new jobs were created because of this event. In the case of United States, it can greatly benefit from this event not only in the short-term but in the long-term as well. The American economy is based on the consumers, the organizers can use the media in order to pursue the general public to buy more of their goods and equipments related to the tournament, helping not only the firms who sell this equipment but the American economy as whole.

This event can be a huge source of attracting investment from foreign investors by giving them a clear idea on how successfully the event occurred and the returns individuals and firms got during it.

Here, government should look out for any sort of construction delays or labor disputes which often go on to hurt the overall economics of the event and the nation itself. Now, let's focus on the social aspects of hosting the World Cup.

Social Perspective

We have seen previously that sports can be utilized to bring nations close to each other especially those which have any ongoing political or military conflict amongst them. There are great examples in this perspective to be seen such as in 2002 when South Korea and Japan were co-hosting the World Cup, although these two nations have proper diplomatic channels of contact among them but their public still had an unfavorable view of each other mainly because of the pre-World War atrocities and related issues between them.

"The World Cup was a perfect occasion to bring these two nations closer to each other on a more public level." (Gratton, 2001). This type of cooperation is very essential for the healthy growth of the economies of not only these two nations but the region as whole.

In the case of United States, organizing such a huge and famous tournament can bring a common ground of interest among individuals belonging with different nationalities with the local citizens. Since all of them share the same passion of Soccer, this can be a used as a way to meet different individuals with the same sporting interest.

Events like World Cup can also be used to bring the common American's interest more towards Soccer whose preferences lies in various different sports like Baseball or Basketball. Top European Soccer clubs can use this opportunity to expand in the U.S. And get to understand more about what the American consumer wants.

Host cities are often required to lower their overall crime rate in order to give the visiting tourists more confidence of their safety. Here, trafficking of different objects such as drugs should be restricted. The overall gun related crimes should also be brought under as much as possible in order to bring proper law and order at the streets, homes and at different other places throughout the cities.

"The emergency services should stay on high alert during all of the matches" (Levermore, 2004), it is often seen that accidents happen during any large crowd gathering which can result in fatalities, here the public ought to be told to stay vigilant all the time and look out for others as well.

Environmental Perspective

Hosting the Soccer World Cup may bring lots of opportunities but it also brings some challenges to the organizers, one of them is how to conduct a tournament which is environment friendly with the minimum possible carbon footprint. In this sense, Soccer's main governing body FIFA is completely dedicated in taking its responsibility towards the environment seriously. Different issues such as the global warming phenomena, environmental conservation as well as….....

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