Do sports mega-events boost public funding in sports programs? The case of Brazil (2004–2015)

Abstract

This article explores public expenditure in Brazilian sport from 2004 to 2015 and aims to understand if hosting sport mega-events has influenced investments in different types of sport (elite sport and educational/participation sport). Data were collected through governmental records and examined through descriptive statistics. Positive and negative variations of spending were reported, regarding both the overall budget allocated to sport and among the different types of sport. This study concluded that sport mega-events have influenced the funding of sports programs to some extent, but other aspects of public funding are likely to be more significant influencers on the observed variations. The study also argues that further research on different host countries is necessary to understand the impact of sport mega-events on public sport funding.

Diseño de proyectos de investigación en ciencias de la actividad física y el deporte [Design of Research Projects in Physical Activity and Sport Sciences]

“…Even though this matches the overall disinterest that the Spanish government is showing in its investment in research policy in general (Santamaría, Díaz & Valladares, 2013), it is totally contradictory with the investment that the vast majority of countries are making in research into physical activity and sport sciences, as can be seen countries like Australia, the USA, France, Italy and the United Kingdom (Grix & Carmichael, 2012;Gratton & Taylor, 2005), as well as Latin American countries like Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, etc. (Forbes, 2014; Schausteck de Almeida, Barboza Eiras de Castro, Mezzadri & Lange de Souza, 2016). This lack of interest in investing in physical activity and sport sciences can once again be seen in the regional calls for applications, such that researchers in this field are barely taken into consideration.…”

Sports and leisure coverage in Brazil: an analysis of the last 20 years

“…The Brazilian Senate developed the SIGA Brasil web-based platform ( 14 ), aiming to investigate, supervise, and promote transparency of federal spending ( 16 ). We searched the platform using functions, subfunctions, and actions related to sports and leisure (based on the functional-programmatic classification).…”