Sports Commerce and Peace: The Special Case of the Special Olympics

Abstract

Today’s sports commerce not only expands the number of international mega-sports events but also increases their value in effecting social change and promoting world peace. As athletes and spectators come together in ever-larger numbers, governments must collaborate with non-governmental, private, and non-profit sectors to develop and implement the business of sports commerce benefiting host nations and local communities. This research identifies the relationship between sports commerce and peace as worthy of greater study. This article examines the role of international sporting events in contributing to social change in host countries and how these competitions may be able to create greater understanding among athletes and related individuals and increase knowledge exchange on a larger scale. The research analyzes several mega-sports events, including the Olympics and the role of the Special Olympics (SO) – the largest amateur sports organization in the world – dedicated to bringing sports experiences to intellectually disabled athletes. This article highlights the transformative power of SO worldwide competitions and finds peace through commerce principles in SO innovative policies and programs. Over four decades, the SO, and particularly its World Games, have led to global initiatives for increasing self-confidence, self-esteem, social acceptance, health and general well-being among intellectually disabled persons. This research offers insights into the ways in which other mega-sporting events could adopt what is unique to SO. An Appendix outlines mega-sports events for future research on sports commerce and peace.

Appendix

Mega-sports and future research on peace through commerce

A number of international mega-sports events – old timers and new – offer future researchers unique public policy and international relations laboratories in which to study emerging dialogue for peace through the commerce of sports. These include the 2007 Cricket World Cup, the 2008–2009 regular season US National Basketball Association and US National Football League games in London, the 2009 World Baseball Classic held in destinations throughout the world, and the upcoming 2010 World Cup in South Africa, 2012 Summer Olympics in London, and 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil. These past and future events offer opportunities to address past challenges to dialogue for peace using new collaboration strategies developed through the commerce of sports.

Continued legacy of cricket

The game of cricket is wildly popular almost everywhere outside of the US, with a huge fan base in the Caribbean, Europe, India, Southern Africa, and the Middle East. Lack of inclusion of cricket in this article is a function of research domain and scope. The 2007 Cricket World Cup, attended by hundreds of thousands of spectators, was held at venues on the Caribbean Islands of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago. The 2007 Cricket World Cup matches were broadcast by television to over 2 billion homes. As one of the most dominant sports worldwide, cricket represents a critical focus area for further research on the topic of mega-sports and dialogue for peace.

2009 World Baseball Classic: multiple global destinations

The first-ever World Baseball Classic was held in 2006 in an effort to promote baseball internationally. According to Nielsen Research, over 1,736,000 viewers in the USA alone tuned in. This was the third most-watched non-division series game in ESPN2 history. Though the majority of the players participating in the event are from Major League Baseball organizations around the world, a select number of amateur players are selected to play as well. Players from China, Japan, Korea, Canada, Mexico, South Africa, the USA, Cuba, Netherlands, Panama, Puerto Rico, Australia, the Dominican Republic, Italy, and Venezuela were present in 2006, and players from even more countries participated in the 2009 tournament. The 2009 tournament was held in Tokyo, Mexico City, Toronto, San Juan, San Diego, Miami, and Los Angeles, with exciting finals matches between Japan and South Korea watched worldwide, and ending in victory for South Korea.

US International Basketball and Football Leagues

The USA’s National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Football League (NFL) are making attempts to spread the popularity of American basketball and football around the world and to develop new international leagues. In 2008, the NBA and NFL played regular season games in London, England, to sold-out crowds of over 90,000 people per game. Both the NBA and NFL have established European leagues.

2010 World Cup Soccer, South Africa

Among the most popular international sporting events is the World Cup Soccer Tournament. In 2010, the tournament will be held in South Africa. The Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) has stated that one of its missions is to bring attention to Africa and encourage development and social responsibility within the continent. The globally televised 2006 event held in Germany was witnessed by over 26 million viewers. Analysts expect viewership to exceed 30 million fans during the 2010 tournament. Future research resides in increasing US involvement with World Cup Soccer. Opportunities are opening to examine the face of the commerce of sports and determine its entry points into the international arena. For example, how is sports commerce becoming a “player” in economic, sociocultural, and environmental issues inherent in the North–South divide? How and why is dialogue for peace and the commerce of sports not a US issue, not a British issue…not a Western issue, per se? World Cup Soccer has always provided an avenue for promoting international dialogue of all kinds. One research question for consideration might include the question of why American sports have not “caught on” in other regions of the world in light of the globalization of soccer or cricket.

2012 London Summer Olympics

The Special Olympics is modeled after the longest running international sporting event in history – the summer Olympic Games. The economic, social, and environmental impacts of the Olympic Games are tremendous, and for the 2012 Olympic Games, London, Paris, New York, Madrid, Moscow, Rio de Janeiro, Istanbul, Leipzig, and Havana fiercely competed to host this event. London was awarded the honor. The 2012 London Summer Olympics Games will be a follow up to the 2008 Games in Beijing. Six hundred eighty million television viewers in China alone watched the Beijing Olympic Games. Planning and development for the 2012 Games are already underway in London business schools, where incorporating Olympic preparations into their curricula is expected to spur classroom discussion and illustrate important principles in areas such as tourism and marketing (Gardiner, 2008) and allay protests by Olympic opponents (Lydersen, 2009).

2014 Brazil FIFA World Cup

Brazil is hard at work preparing to meet the FIFA rules and requirements for hosting the 2014 World Cup Games. Lacking sophisticated land and air transport organizations and infrastructure, Brazil plans to feature its urban and rural destination cities in innovative and unique ways in the hope of using the Games to introduce Brazil to the world as a tourism destination. From the ministry of tourism in Brasilia and leaders of the Central Bank in Sao Paolo to the Rio de Janeiro Hotel Association, headed by the general manager of the Copacabana Palace Hotel, and administration of FIFA in Rio, all believe that despite seemingly insurmountable challenges, Brazil will be ready by 2014. Following in China’s footsteps, this research suggests that hosting a Special Olympics 2013 World Games in Brazil may be one way to invite local, national, and world acceptance and accord.

2016 Brazil Summer Olympics Games

Brazil’s recent and prestigious award by the IOC as host nation to the 2016 Summer Olympic Games is a unique opportunity for further research on the relationship of sports commerce and peace. Were Special Olympics World Games negotiated to precede World Cup 2014 and/or the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics as part of a planned prior mega-event, what might be the anticipated results, given the beneficial social change and knowledge exchange outcome from other Special Olympics World Games?

Potential questions for future research

• Can sports commerce promote peaceful interaction for the long term – beyond individual mega-events – by assisting in development of small business enterprises characterized by tourism economic development?

• Can resulting sports commerce measurably contribute to reduced political instability?

• Can business ethics involving acceptance, inclusion, fairness, equity, appreciation of diversity in leadership, among other considerations, be measured in sports commerce contexts?

• Can sports commerce assist regions dealing with unrest, conflict, terrorism, and war? EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner states that multilateralism is the only effective way to deal with a host of global challenges, such as climate change, health pandemics, international terrorism, and financial crises. “But there is something we can do – both to address today’s problems and to prevent them [from] occurring again in the future. International cooperation is the key,” she says. “[F]or multilateralism to work we need a new form of global governance, with institutions equipped to manage today’s challenges…. [this includes] voice and representation” (EU NewsBrief, 2009).

• Can mega-sports commerce support a framework for multilateral collaboration?